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Thanks Alan,

In reference to the photo of your Nymph...what is the height of the skeg where it meets the transom?

Doug, are you thinking about adding a skeg on your Brick? I had one on my tortoise but removed if for some reason.

Skeg installed:



Final build...no skag!

Hi Bill,

I just took a quick look at the "Build the New Instant Boats" that I built from. It looks like the skeg is 3.5" (1 x 4) at the transom, and tapers to a feather edge around 2' 1"...

Alan

That daggerboard is tickling my fancy...... I like that mount. The wheels are pretty cool as well. Everybody I guess has seen Shorty's 175lb punt with the coaster wheels.

Made more sketches today, have got to take some pics of them and get them thangs up here. .....

Have ideas on which way to proceed with daggerboard, rudder, mast, sprit, sail, seats, etc,etc.

Hadn't really contemplated a skeg on this one. This one is really to be a buffet for bbq and a rowing punt to fish ponds from. If I can get a small sail on it, that's a bonus. Sometimes you could luck out and save a mile or two of rowing depending on feng shuei.

The ten foot by four foot brick I am contemplating might well have some sort of cutwater and or skeg on it.......

Thanks Alan!

Well, I let the bottom panel sit clamped for a week to take the bend. It's finally glued and screwed on. Wednesday gunwales go on, after that - we are "off the map" as far as the instructions in the latest book go. Dynamite wrote that this design does not require filleted and taped seams. Dynamite has never seen me try to build a boat.


If we took the hull in it's current state to Mr. Payson and asked him to row her around the harbor, he would re-write that part of said book. Had to fill one seam with epoxy because seeing daylight made me think it was not watertight. I guess I get to find out how well you can seal these babies up with various products. Three of the transom to hull seams look very seaworthy, one on the bow was an exception.


We pray to Bondo, who is our high priest, and St. Elmer's, patron saint of things that need to be sealed up and such.

Not sure a whole week was needed, but the bottom did seem to go into place rather easily after having some bend set in. Being a piece of wood, it still has some spring back, but I have to believe that the pulling away from the sides and transoms is greatly reduced by getting that bend going before trying to secure it.

It did seem to go a whole lot quicker than the photo in the book would have indicated. Time will tell if this method has any merit. I am hoping it does as it was much easier than trying to bend the panel and attach it at the same time.

So far this has been a great learning experience, the glassing and sealing of seams scares me a bit. Going to cut a leeboard and glass it and a rudder blade for practice. There is nothing wrong with the hull so far that looks like it can't be made gorgeous. Given my level of inexperience that's a testament to the collective genius of PCB and Dynamite.

Hi Doug,

Thoughts...

* As for the seams... I'd say go ahead and epoxy/glass if you want. Just be sure to jam pack any gaps with that good old thickened epoxy and let that cure first. The trick with epoxy lies in three areas.
- First, wood (including plywood) likes to soak up epoxy like a sponge. If you try to tape bare wood, you'll end up with a starved application. So always pre-wet with un-thickened epoxy until the wood is saturated. Then lay down the glass and saturate it with epoxy. (BTW... When gluing with thickened epoxy, the identical "Pre-Saturate Rule" still applies.) But always beware of drips, droops, air bubbles, and runs.
- Epoxy/glass doesn't like sharp corners... A 1/4" radius is minimal.
- Practice is critical!
* Speaking strictly for myself, I'm not a huge fan of glues like Elmer's. Give me epoxy any day... but that's just me.

Glad to hear the following...



You'll be fine. And glad that you're learning... It's a blast isn't it?

Alan

Hey Alan,

This is indeed a blast. I have the money order sitting here for another set of plans and another book from Dynamite. Thinking about Rueben's Nymph next. My short term goal ( one to three years) is to get enough competence to make the Big Catfish and the 15' Clamskiff.

After the Nymph, a winter project might be the model of the cartopper with the real thing in the spring.

Hope to have the Yacht built in twelve years.

I might use a can of Bondo short glass fiber compound that was left behind by the guy I bought my shack from. I may use that on the seams, understanding that it won't sand down flat. Elmer's fiberglass resin is what we have at Lowes and epoxy resin puts this one out of reach for the budget.

In "Instant Boat Building...." Dynamite writes of a boat in his yard that has been outdoors for forty plus years and is still sound that was covered with polyester resin and glass cloth.

While the glue on the bottom is drying, I think I will make some "crash test dummies" for the Bondo as well as try using the Elmer's system on the leeboard and rudder.

I am thinking with the humid weather that the gorrilla glue should get a decent 48 hours undisturbed and weighted down, the bottle says at least two hours, but I had a transom chine fall off that was clamped for two hours......

Promise to get some pics of the good bad and ugly up tonight!

Doug, some builders of small boats have had good results using tubes of PL Poyurethane Concrete Crack & Masonry Sealer to seal the inside boat seams. I have two tubes that I am going to use on my boat project DB.

Not very costly a tube, and it is available at Lowe's.

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures! We love Pictures!!

Hi Doug,

Thoughts...

* Cool that you're having fun... I've often thought about building these boats basically for cost. I could never make a living at it, but it would make for a great "beer money" hobby.

* What's your next book? I've got most, and they're all good.

* Ruben's looks like a real winner... Good capacity.

* The Cartopper has fantastic lines! I built the model below and was stunned. Great sheer, full beam. Just a pretty boat. (BTW... Dynamite is a trillion percent right about building models.)

*

* When you build the Nymph, there will be some ply bending... No prob... You're familiar with that.

* As for experience. You'll be fine. You build two or three small boats and a few models, read as much as you can, ask questions here, use the "moaning chair" for non-destructive goof recovery, and it will all come together.

* What will be the final "Yacht"?

* Elmer's polyester is perfectly good. I just use epoxy because I'm a wood butcher. (Alright, so I'm a wood butcher extraordinaire...)

* Concerning the time period for glue/resin drying... I always take the manufacturer's instructions with a bolder of salt. Example... I like to let epoxy cure for a week.

Alan

Hi Alan,

That sounds like a cool hobby job. I actually called Dynamite and discussed the limits of my skills and aspirations of boat building. He thought the next best book would be "Build the New Instant Boats". Whether that's because of my situation and desires or because the publisher sent him an extra pallet of those suckers makes no difference to me. It will be the next one, as I intend to get all of his and PCB's that I can.

I will have to build a few and spend some more time on the water to know what the final yacht will be. The wind is free, and that makes a big ole sharpie attractive. Still the Illinois is sheer genius and then are about several hundred Bolger designs I don't even know about yet. I am sure that you have seen the post concerning CC01 - a doubled Wyoming with a flight deck and a biplane. Would be Canada's only aircraft carrier and the world's first civilian carrier if it ever gets built.



That SuperBrick I saw reminds me of the houseboats docked at Buzzard Point, a nice little collection of shanty boats housing writers, artists, actors on the potomac near D.C. in the sixties.

Thirty some years ago, I was hot stuff on a sunfish and/or sailfish. After you have ridden the Nimitz and heard her creak and groan, it gives you a profound respect for the sea. I really feel like some classes , a few builds, and lots of sea time on boats smaller then the Nimitz are needed to really figure out what boat I want to sail off into the sunset on.

If I buy the plans for Rueben's I will do a model first. I actually did a little cardboard "thing" before attacking the brick after seeing one of your posts. It just makes sense. Would love to do a cartopper model this winter and attack the real one next spring, we shall see.

What I really want is a 13x6.4 brick/tortoise with three spudguns mounted on each side for firing broadsides at skippers who can't read "No Wake" signs in the ridiculous little ponds we fish on hereabouts. Dang GUVmint regalashuns wont let me.

So I reckon building a Nymph model and full size pram will have to trip whatever trigger it will, until I can seize the legislature and sneak in my bill for the privately owned "NO WAKE ENFORCEMENT SPUD GUNNER".

( can you spot a kayaker who has been hit by one too many wakes from Bass Pro wannabes? ) Yet I Digress at the risk of hijacking my own thread... hmmmm...

I promised pics and here they are. Spy photos of the DougBoat 9000 under development. Note the 24kg kettle bell being used to hold the bottom down, and train the builder/skipper for lifting the ship onto the car carrier rack.

The Good: It is starting to resemble a big tortoise, the bad and the ugly.... well it weren't hard to find. A few gaps and such that need filling up, a chine that popped off the transom, proud screws that want to feel the sting of my dremel tool, the list goes on...



Yup starting to look like the brick....




This is the seam between the side hull and port bow transom. My helper didn't read your post about working bone sober ( you try telling your hyperactive 70 year old surrogate dad that he can't have a beer on sunday afternoon, I ain't gonna do it) And I didn't realize this had pulled out until the glue was good and hard, decided to fill it with epoxy ( gorrilla glue), then sand it down and proceed from there.

Here's the chine from the bow transom that just mysteriously launched itself across the yard... the clutter in the pic is everything getting ready to get covered with a tarp or two before the evening dew sets in. Usually it all goes into toolboxes and other containers, this evening I got good and lazy.

The dream for tomorrow is to get those gunwales on, then man the sureform and sander to start cleaning her lines up. That's the dream anywho.

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the photos.

Looks like you are making real progress! I wouldn't worry a few gaps here and there. Most wooden boats made by us amateur boat builders have such gaps...most builders just won't tell you about then!!

Keep up the good work!

Hi Doug,

Looking great!

Thoughts...

* Thanks for the heads up on the Illinois and Wyoming... I looked at those long ago, but they're a little too much for me. (I'm dangerous in a 12' Teal... Give me a 63' boat and I'd be banned from all human contact.)

* Nope, I've never heard of the CC-01... (Had to look it up.) I think it would be "do-able" though. I'd go with an autogyro and then devise a landing deck consisting of light, modular staging like they use in rock concerts. (After all... the first aircraft carriers were nothing more than conventional ships with landing decks plunked on top of them.) The staging could be broken down for storage and "quickly" setup for aviation. Using the Illinois as an example, the flight deck could be 70' by 12'. Something like the Ela R-115 gyro could live with that. (I'd never set foot in the thing, but in concept, it probably could be done.)

* Dynamite's "Build the New Instant Boats" is a "must have" in my book.

* For sailing off into the sunset... take a look at the Bolger AS-29 and AS-39. I've got plans for the former, and it's pretty impressive.

* As for the idiots who don't obey the "no wake" rules (especially around kayakers)... Wakes don't just threaten people and property, they also cause erosion and scare wildlife. Cameras are wonderful things. And Hades hath no fury like an Environmental Police officer with proof in hand.

* Great pics... And you call that a gap? Ha! I've got holes in my socks bigger than that, and they're referred to as quaint wardrobe malfunctions... Kidding aside, epoxy will take care of those, no prob. The build is looking real, real good.

Alan

Hey Bill and Alan,

Thanks for the encouragement! I agree with you on the auto gyro. I saw an Ultra Light stall and do a controlled crash/landing on what looked like a large Island Trader sloop from a bus window going down the highway to Key West once. When you want to land a fixed wing aircraft, U.S. NIMITZ, accept no substitutes......

The goal today is to get some pics of scratch drawings posted, seating arrangements and a tenative sail design. My bronze oarlocks and holder thingies arrived, jury is still out on oars. They will prolly be store bought. also putting a gunwale on starboard and taking all those bricks and my kettlebell off the bottom.

I wish we had some environmental officers around here. There are six game wardens in the whole state. You can send them video if you want, I have. Someday Delaware might become civilized. Thankfully, my inflatable kayak would almost require a direct hit from a fast moving boat to upset it. It's very tubby and handles like poo but it's just as stable and even big wakes are mere amusements. Something over six or seven feet would be required to cause real exitement.

I like the AS39 from what I seen posted here and there. Isn't that the one they call the "Loose Moose"? Well, I have to get this brick right before I can think too much about grander things. PICs this p.m. if all goes right.

Update 8/26/09 DougBoat9000 project

The Port Watch has a gunwale, Starboard watch seems to sucking hind teat as this is all the clamps I have until I run to town tomorrow. Also out of the proper length screws here in the boonies.



Have started to sand down some of the ugliness, really need a random orbit or a belt sander, not sure which. The vibrating sander is good for beginners though, it's nice and slow.





Update on that dreaded 52 degree transom cut, Uncle Les was right, I should have set the bevel to 37. It's tight up front but by the time we go back an inch we have an opportunity to apply some gap filling stuff..



Also need to add camera batteries when running to town tomorrow. Really want to get my cave drawings up and ask some questions about seating, sails, walruses, and jelly sandwiches.




Bill, that sounds like a much better idea. I can save the bondo in case I decide to enter my 14 year old craftsman 12 hp in the riding lawnmower races. They are serious about that 'round here. Even dress up like their favorite gin-U-wine NASCAR drivers...

Seriously, I am going to try and get some of that sealer tomorrow. Does it expand? should I put some epoxy ( gorrilla glue) or gg and wood flour/sawdust into the cracks first?

EDIT - may have found a direction on the seating arrangements... http://www.kolbsadventures.com/tortoise.htm

Doug, from the photos that I have seen, only a heavy bead of the Concrete sealer is applied to the cracks. Some leave it as is, other builders use a rounded stick, like an icecream stick to smooth the bead. Since the seams on my boat will be hidden, I'll just leave the bead as is. I'll see if I can find a link for you.