Chaffing Keel Protection

After scuffing up the bottom from my first two trips, I decided to add the 3/8" half round brass protection. I rounded off the bow a bit but it went on pretty easy. I fastened the brass with copper nails. To help drill holes into a half round I filed thin slot with a diamond file, and drilled a 1/8" hole about every six inches with an addition nail hole to support the bend points. I bedded the half round in silicon, but it probably wasn't necessary. I gently tapped the flat nail heads onto the brass, and filed the front edges to minimize them getting caught and torn off if I drag the boat up on a beach.

Final touches

Nearly complete. Close enough to Launch! 

Couple coats of varnish, two coats of paint inside and out and hatches finally on. Couldn't resist the urge to launch it for the first time and take my wife for a leisurely row down a slow river.

I'll add at least one more coat of paint to the inside, and another two coats of varnish on the decks as well as build a respectable cover so she last a lifetime. 

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I finally uncovered the art work on the deck supports/backrest. The bow has the boat name "Sundew," while the stern backrest has a water lily and a dragonfly. I drew them with colored pencil. 

I'll right about its performance in more detail once I use it move. But for now I'll say I'm happy. With my wife rear seat and me rowing from the bow seat, she's well balanced. Stability was also good with just a tad dory- like instability within about 5 degree but firms up solid past that point--the wife found it comfortable after the first minute or so; I also felt comfortable with my expensive camera--there's no surprises in her gentle Swampscott dory shape. She rowed as well with the 7 foot oars as any boat its size, a couple sweeps getting her up to 4 knots or so.

Front deck

Placing the front deck turned out to be more adventurous than I thought it would be. On a prior boat, I'd mounted a small deck with only one supporting beam at the end. That was pretty easy the plywood bending it's own radius down to the gunwale and remaining relatively straight. This deck didn't go so easy--it's longer and the shear line has a good bend. 

When I dry fit the front deck, rather than stay straight up the center line, it bent down taking a stressed compound and unflattering curve from the stem to the arched support deck. I had two choices. One is I could add a few support beams, but I wanted to use that only as a last resort because I wanted to keep the weight down. My other preferred option was to screw a temporary center line straight beam, clamp down the plywood to the sheer line, wet the plywood until it took on the right compound shape and then let it dry to keep that shape. I used 18 clamps and wet hot towels for a few hours that letting it dry overnight.   

You can see the results below. You'll probably not I've started painting. Boat is coming along nicely. 

 

Wooden cleats

To take a short break from the boat building, I decided to make wooden cleats for this dory. 

I learned with a prior boat that top mounted cleats are a pain to car top because they get caught up in the carrier crossbars so I decided to mount them sideways under the inwales and abutting the frames for strength. I won't use any larger than 3/8" rope so the cleats could be small--no longer than 3" long with a 1" base. Some scrap white oak would work fine. I made simple template of 1/4" ply, traced them on the oak and measured each frame to the correct angle so the cleats would be parallel with the inwale. The pictures show the blank with initial cuts and holes from 3/8 inch drill for rounding sides and base. .

The next picture shows the 4 blanks just about to be separated--I did it this way so it would be easier to to handle while I used the band saw for the straight cuts and jig saw for the curves. 

I mounted the tall base in a vice and did the final shaping with a rasp tapering them down to 3/8" in each end, the refining the shape with file and finally course grit sandpaper. 

The last picture shows the mounted cleat.  

Gluing the seats

Turned the hull over. During the last boat I built, I forgot to paint under the seats before they were epoxied down; what a pain (I did it with a my arm covered in a elbow high glove and several cans of spray paint. I didn't repeat that mistake.

I marked up where supports landed under the seat and painted between them as well as the compartment. The picture also shows the hatch plate support and the doubler that fits under curved extension beyond the bulkhead support.

To fit the seat, I covered the bare wood underneath with thickened epoxy, used a few clamps where they could reach and used drilled through round scraps down the center line into the support splines to hold everything down. On prior boats, 

On prior boats, I've added support cleats and used fiberglass to tape the seat to the sides. On this boat, I decided to forgo the cleats and and add thickened epoxy faired to the sides. The first batch of epoxy was too thin and some ran into the hatch--wasting an ounce or so, but it's all hidden and was easy to fix.  

 

More bottom work

After a day of letting the dry fiberglass settle it was time for the epoxy. Started on a cool morning so I'd get plenty of time to work each batch and spread it slowly using a 3" plastic spreader. I started from the top centerline, giving it time to saturate the two layers of 4 ounce cloth and working it down the sides. I finished with the transom and was glad I'd rounded over the planks.

About eight hours later, I decided to apply the box rubbing strake and skeg I'd already fitted out. Any longer and I'd loose the chemical bond between the fillet supporting the skeg and fiberglass. You'll note in the picture I used a chalk line down the center line to help.

I also cut along the blue painters tape with a sharp razor and pulling the still flexible fiberglass. It's a trick I'd seen Warren Messer of redbarnboats use on one of his YouTube videos that worked really well. 

The rest didn't go so well. I mixed in a too much filleting blend into the epoxy to fill the weave. It made the 2nd layer a lot harder to apply and added more work to get a smooth finish. I finished the skeg fillets at this point with a thicker bonding filler. After a light sanding it's ready for paint. 

 

Fiberglass the bottom

I decided to use 4 ounce fiberglass on the outside, but doubled in two layers over the bottom and lower chine. I needed two 50" wide overlapping strips. I applied 1" blue painters tape close to the gunwale. Next I laid out the first piece to completely cover the bottom plank dry carefully then running my hands stretching it down each plank and tacking it down with small dabs from a glue gun on top of the painters tape. I trimmed it so it overlapped the chine by about 2". I did the second piece the same way setting it up to overlap the opposite lower chine and stretching it over and down along each plank till it was flat down to the gunwales. The result will be 8 ounce coverage of the bottom and 4 ounce fiberglass on the sides and transom. I let the both pieces set overnight. (see picture below).

Fitting the seats

This went easier than I'd planned. For the sides, I measured the width from the spline center line at the end and at each the frame and support beams. I fit a 1/4" batten to scribe the line. To improve the looks, I extended each seat  beyond the bulkheads for the end seats, and supports for the mid seat into a nice curve using a 48" radius and a french curve. The overlap is between 1 1/2" and 4";  not shown in the picture is a doubler under this extended set for strength and so I can make a nice rounded end. It looks a lot better than straight ended seats. 

I put a 6" hatch in the bow seat and a 4 1/2" in the aft seat. I'd put the hatches at the end of the bulkheads in my other boats, mostly to hide them. But I've found they are difficult to use, usually an exercise and kneeling and groping around for keys, wallet or what ever else got tucked inside. With top mounted hatches will be more handy.

I have an old 10W Minn Kota trolling motor I hung off the standard side (see picture) as a mock up. Though smaller than most available today, it should push this tiny boat fine up the slow rivers and quiet ponds I intend to use it on. I'll pair it up with a U1 deep cycle battery that should give a at least a few hours of power. I'll have to built some sort of tiller extender. I see myself barely moving as I carefully stand up and scout for surfacing trout or crouched down camera and telephoto lens at the ready while I approach some wild life.