Boataholic
10-18-2004, 04:53 PM
O.K. well here she is!!! Almost done, but I couldn't stand it any longer. I've working on her all summer and the
season is rapidly coming to a close, so I splashed her on Sunday. Ran great, no leaks :)
http://pic15.picturetrail.com/VOL571/2723553/5471714/70056377.jpg
http://pic15.picturetrail.com/VOL571/2723553/5471714/70056367.jpg
This is my first venture into Wooden Boat land. Thanks to all who replied to my earlier posts as I was working my way into/through this project. I learned a lot about how boats are built, materials, finishing etc.
Even though I didn't build this one from scratch it was a great experience for a first timer like me. Maybe the next one I'll build from the ground up.
For those who want to know the gory details of what I did, you can see some photos at the following URL that go along with the long-winded story below.
Photos (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dp_ski/album?.dir=b9f1&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done)
I bought this 16' Simmons Sea Skiff boat from the a friend of mine on Cape Cod who knew the original builder on the Cape. My friend used if for the occaisional clam digging trip with his kids/grandkids. It didn't get a whole lot of use, but was in need of some TLC.
I brought it home, had a BBQ and convinced my friends if they wanted to eat they had to help me flip the boat. Once flipped I started scraping and sanding. I didn't take it down to the bare wood per the advice I got here for the paint on the sides of the boat was sound. The bottom I sanded down to bare wood up to about the water line, then the sides I just sanded reasonably smooth.
I reefed out any loose/questionable caulking between the joints/seams. Anything that was solid/secure I left alone.
The bottom was somewhat checked so it got a good dousing of CPES. After that I layed down a coating of a very flexible epoxy filler,"CM15", the yellow stuff in the photos. I got this from Progressive Epoxy, http://www.epoxyproducts.com/
I spoke to Paul numerous times about what I was trying to do and the CM15 looked like it would do the job. I was pleased with the results, filled in the checking and made for a tough but very flexible undercoat. The plastic containers I
mixed the stuff in I can squeeze and touch the opposing sides and the epoxy material does not crack and/or split. How well it will perform over time on the bottom of this hull remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful. After it was fully cured I scuffed it up with some scotch-brite pads to give it some tooth for the top coat.
I then filled in the small seams with liquid BoatLife and filled any larger gaps with the regular BoatLife caulk.
After that I then filled in any dings/chinks/guages with System3's fairing compound epoxy. This was good for me for
having never worked with epoxy in any large quantities this is premixed with micro-balloons. Saved me the hassle of trying to figure out which and how much to add to create fairing compound. Sanded down fairly easy but still pretty solid stuff.
Finally it was time to apply the topcoat. After reading countless debates here as to what type of paint to use, I went for the one that was repeatedly reported to be easy to apply yet gives very good results. So I went with the Kirby's
white semi-gloss for the hull, since I didn't take it down to the bare wood, there are still some minor imperfections in the hull so semi-gloss was a good choice for me. 3 coats gave it a good solid finish. Learned all about the roll & tip method of painting.
After than I needed to get a cooler full of beer to convince my friends to come over so we could flip the boat back upright. The flipping only took 15minutes, but they hung around for hours, well at least until the beer was gone.
So now it was onto the fore/aft deck and gunnels. I started to sand down the gunnels, when I thought they're not that big why not just strip them. So I broke out the heatgun. Well in doing so I found strips of mahogany on the inside of the gunnels, cool I thought that will look neat. Oh oh, thats means I have to varnish them, more new territory for me.
The mahogany altered my color scheme. I planned to paint the whole top deck and gunnels red with a blue rub rail. Having all that red next to the mahogany wouldn't do the mahogany justice. Since it was Friday before a 3day weekend I had time and good weather but I didn't have time to get another mail order from Kirby's so off I went to Lowes, sorry George. I thought I might find an off-white or Ivory oil base house trim paint. No such thing, all the trim paint is latex.
Hmmmm, but tucked up on the shelves I found Rust-oleum marine paint. I never knew Rust-Oleum made marine paint. Read the labels, looked liked it would work and they had the Oyster-white I was looking for so I bought it and the Rust-Oleum white primer. Went on very well, one coat of primer and two coats of top coat did it. The primer dries quickly but has some serious fumes, open the doors for this stuff.
Once the fore/aft decks and gunnels were painted I tackled the rub rails with the red Kirby's. Two coats and they were set.
Then the numbers, painted them with the Kirby's several days earlier. I screwed the number panels on Sunday afternoon and had her in the water 15minutes later. It was cold here in New England, but I didn't care had a blast, with a big smile on my face the whole time.
I'll finish up the mahogany trim this fall if weather allows and tackle the interior next spring.
Thanks to all who chimed in earlier and the companies below, I can safely say all the products below worked as advertised
and I had no complaints. But seeing how I'm such a newbie to this ignorance is bliss too. I guess only time will tell how well things last, but given that the boat will be under cover on a trailer and only get used 10~15 times a year, I'm hoping it will be years before the next repaint.
Kirby's Paint - for hull and trim, http://www.kirbypaint.com/
System3 Fairing compound which I got from Mertons http://www.mertons.com/index.html
CPES, Penetrol and BoatLife caulk from Jamestown Distributors
CM15 epoxy primer from http://www.epoxyproducts.com/
Rust-Oleum marine paint for the topside from Lowes, go figure.
Lessons learned;
Wow refininshing a boat is a lot of work, but fun too.
Building one must be even more work and more fun.
Read the directions carefully and mix thoroughly.
Don't try to rush it.
Oh yeah thanks to WoodenBoat magazine. Never knew about it until my project. Bought a bunch of issues. The informative articles and juicy photos kept me fired up for my project. Also went to the wooden boat show in Newport R.I. this past summer, that was great fun. Some real beauties there!!!!
season is rapidly coming to a close, so I splashed her on Sunday. Ran great, no leaks :)
http://pic15.picturetrail.com/VOL571/2723553/5471714/70056377.jpg
http://pic15.picturetrail.com/VOL571/2723553/5471714/70056367.jpg
This is my first venture into Wooden Boat land. Thanks to all who replied to my earlier posts as I was working my way into/through this project. I learned a lot about how boats are built, materials, finishing etc.
Even though I didn't build this one from scratch it was a great experience for a first timer like me. Maybe the next one I'll build from the ground up.
For those who want to know the gory details of what I did, you can see some photos at the following URL that go along with the long-winded story below.
Photos (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dp_ski/album?.dir=b9f1&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done)
I bought this 16' Simmons Sea Skiff boat from the a friend of mine on Cape Cod who knew the original builder on the Cape. My friend used if for the occaisional clam digging trip with his kids/grandkids. It didn't get a whole lot of use, but was in need of some TLC.
I brought it home, had a BBQ and convinced my friends if they wanted to eat they had to help me flip the boat. Once flipped I started scraping and sanding. I didn't take it down to the bare wood per the advice I got here for the paint on the sides of the boat was sound. The bottom I sanded down to bare wood up to about the water line, then the sides I just sanded reasonably smooth.
I reefed out any loose/questionable caulking between the joints/seams. Anything that was solid/secure I left alone.
The bottom was somewhat checked so it got a good dousing of CPES. After that I layed down a coating of a very flexible epoxy filler,"CM15", the yellow stuff in the photos. I got this from Progressive Epoxy, http://www.epoxyproducts.com/
I spoke to Paul numerous times about what I was trying to do and the CM15 looked like it would do the job. I was pleased with the results, filled in the checking and made for a tough but very flexible undercoat. The plastic containers I
mixed the stuff in I can squeeze and touch the opposing sides and the epoxy material does not crack and/or split. How well it will perform over time on the bottom of this hull remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful. After it was fully cured I scuffed it up with some scotch-brite pads to give it some tooth for the top coat.
I then filled in the small seams with liquid BoatLife and filled any larger gaps with the regular BoatLife caulk.
After that I then filled in any dings/chinks/guages with System3's fairing compound epoxy. This was good for me for
having never worked with epoxy in any large quantities this is premixed with micro-balloons. Saved me the hassle of trying to figure out which and how much to add to create fairing compound. Sanded down fairly easy but still pretty solid stuff.
Finally it was time to apply the topcoat. After reading countless debates here as to what type of paint to use, I went for the one that was repeatedly reported to be easy to apply yet gives very good results. So I went with the Kirby's
white semi-gloss for the hull, since I didn't take it down to the bare wood, there are still some minor imperfections in the hull so semi-gloss was a good choice for me. 3 coats gave it a good solid finish. Learned all about the roll & tip method of painting.
After than I needed to get a cooler full of beer to convince my friends to come over so we could flip the boat back upright. The flipping only took 15minutes, but they hung around for hours, well at least until the beer was gone.
So now it was onto the fore/aft deck and gunnels. I started to sand down the gunnels, when I thought they're not that big why not just strip them. So I broke out the heatgun. Well in doing so I found strips of mahogany on the inside of the gunnels, cool I thought that will look neat. Oh oh, thats means I have to varnish them, more new territory for me.
The mahogany altered my color scheme. I planned to paint the whole top deck and gunnels red with a blue rub rail. Having all that red next to the mahogany wouldn't do the mahogany justice. Since it was Friday before a 3day weekend I had time and good weather but I didn't have time to get another mail order from Kirby's so off I went to Lowes, sorry George. I thought I might find an off-white or Ivory oil base house trim paint. No such thing, all the trim paint is latex.
Hmmmm, but tucked up on the shelves I found Rust-oleum marine paint. I never knew Rust-Oleum made marine paint. Read the labels, looked liked it would work and they had the Oyster-white I was looking for so I bought it and the Rust-Oleum white primer. Went on very well, one coat of primer and two coats of top coat did it. The primer dries quickly but has some serious fumes, open the doors for this stuff.
Once the fore/aft decks and gunnels were painted I tackled the rub rails with the red Kirby's. Two coats and they were set.
Then the numbers, painted them with the Kirby's several days earlier. I screwed the number panels on Sunday afternoon and had her in the water 15minutes later. It was cold here in New England, but I didn't care had a blast, with a big smile on my face the whole time.
I'll finish up the mahogany trim this fall if weather allows and tackle the interior next spring.
Thanks to all who chimed in earlier and the companies below, I can safely say all the products below worked as advertised
and I had no complaints. But seeing how I'm such a newbie to this ignorance is bliss too. I guess only time will tell how well things last, but given that the boat will be under cover on a trailer and only get used 10~15 times a year, I'm hoping it will be years before the next repaint.
Kirby's Paint - for hull and trim, http://www.kirbypaint.com/
System3 Fairing compound which I got from Mertons http://www.mertons.com/index.html
CPES, Penetrol and BoatLife caulk from Jamestown Distributors
CM15 epoxy primer from http://www.epoxyproducts.com/
Rust-Oleum marine paint for the topside from Lowes, go figure.
Lessons learned;
Wow refininshing a boat is a lot of work, but fun too.
Building one must be even more work and more fun.
Read the directions carefully and mix thoroughly.
Don't try to rush it.
Oh yeah thanks to WoodenBoat magazine. Never knew about it until my project. Bought a bunch of issues. The informative articles and juicy photos kept me fired up for my project. Also went to the wooden boat show in Newport R.I. this past summer, that was great fun. Some real beauties there!!!!