New Design - 22' Powerboat - abuildin'

[mcdenny]

LES, I'm 50 miles NE of Detroit in Marine City on the St Clair River. The trailer is a Lil Snoozy ( I know, what a dumb name) http://www.lilsnoozy.com/. That link has all the info.

It does have a tiny bathroom, where the toilet takes a shower along with you.

Here is a fiberglass trailer forum with lots of relevant info: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/

BTW: there is a fiberglass trailer rally scheduled for the weekend after Labor Day in Algonac State Park with at least a dozen similer trailers planning to attend. Only 1.5 hours from Monroe if you want to check them out. Check the thread on fiberglassrv.com

[mcdenny]

It's been three months but finally the trailer and other honeydo projects are out of the way and I can get back to the boat.

Put down Xynole on half the bottom yesterday:









Xynole is so soft and pliable - way easier to lay over a curved surface than fiberglass.

3 hours and 5 quarts of epoxy later:







continued...

[mcdenny]

Six hours later the cure state was just right (Raka 127/350 at about 80 degrees F) to trim the excess cloth with a razor blade:














A little touch up sanding on the keel edge of the cloth and on to covering the other side.

[skaraborgcraft]

Looking good. Is there much difference between xynole and dynel for the purpose of sheathing?

[wizbang 13]

I have used both , can't tell the difference.both are amazing

[mcdenny]

I've not tried Dynel but I think they are pretty similar too.

[skaraborgcraft]

Thanks Whizz and Denny,I have been meaning to place an order with Jamestown Dist. as its not availiable in europe. Still undecided as the amount of epoxy it soaks up, may outweigh its abrasion resitance quality in favour of a lightwight glass cloth, for a boat launched and recovered on a trailer,not being dragged over rocks.

[mcdenny]

Tom Lathrop's data shows 0.36 lbs of epoxy per square foot of 4 oz Xynole cloth. That's the stick-it-down coat plus two fill coats. That's a lot of epoxy but I think that's why the abrasion resistance is so good.

Denny Wolfe

[mcdenny]

Another months progress:

Two coats Interlux epoxy prime kote, one coat pre-kote, first coat Brightsides ocean blue on bottom, one coat primekkote, one coat prekote, one coat brightsides black on sides:






The bottom (when floating) edge of the boot stripe is the Freeship predicted waterline. The top edge is the waterline 2 1/4 inches deeper from the transom to amidships, then gradually trending to 3" at the stem. I'm trying this instead of the usual method as the stripe is vertical on the aft side strake and very forward bow but at a very shallow angle in the middle of the boat. This looks weird now looking down on the inverted hull but will give the right appearance looking at the boat horizontally, like when its floating some distance away.

This pic shows it at its weirdest, the stripe is about a foot wide where it transitions across the chine flat:



I was going to use my cheezy laser level and a camera tripod to mark the lines but that was turning out to be a huge hassle so I made a marking jig that let me mark waterlines a fixed distance up from the top of the ladder frame. It worked fine and was ultra simple to do.

Here's the jig on the ladder frame:



And the top of the jig being used to mark the water line:



I went around marking one line, then cut 2 1/4" off the stick and went around again marking the second line.

The bottom 4' level is just being used as a rigid straight edge, the top 2' level is held level to make the mark on the hull. Eyeballing the bubble's "centeredness" certainly creates some variation but you can fiddle with the masking tape a bit to get a smooth looking line and this is definitely a place where the 'if it looks right, it is right' rule applies.

On to more sanding and two more coats of finish color, then the big roll-over.

[skaraborgcraft]

Looking good Denny. Looks like you will defo need a pair of sunglasses when she gets rolled out the shed!

[Tom Lathrop]

Looking really good Denny. Hope I get to take a ride in it.

[johnw]

handsome boat!

[andrewpatrol]

That paint job looks shmick, well done

[mcdenny]

Good thing you all can't see the dust in the gloss. Today I'm going to switch to wet sanding and paint fresh from a new can.

Denny Wolfe

[W Grabow]

Keep up the posts! Great boat and helpful ideas to use for my own project.

[mcdenny]

Finally Flipped!

After a month away I got back to painting the boot stripe and fitting bunks on the used aluminum trailer I got via craigslist last spring. This morning was the big flip.

Here's the boat ready to turn over:




Here's the structure I built to let me lift the boat from an eye in the ceiling and then rotate the hull 180 degrees: You can't see the forward attachment but it is bolted to the motor board through the holes that will ultimately take the outboard's mounting bolts.



Half way there:





The white rope you can just see at the bottom of the picture wraps around the hull and is led through an eye on the other wall of the shop. The boats CG is above the pivot axis so it wants to flop over as soon as it is lifted up. The rope restrains that and the boat slowly rotates as the rope is payed out.

Ta da!


Next I'll slide the trailer under her and adjust the bunks. Normally I wouldn't put the boat on the trailer until it is almost done as it is easier to climb in and out if it is sitting lower on the floor. In this case I want to get the trailer out of the yard and be able to move the boat out of the shop temporarily if the need arises.

After that its lots more sanding to clean up the epoxy drips, globs, etc and get the interior bottom ready for epoxy and paint and the interior sides ready for varnish.

So far 784 hours, maybe half done. I'm glad this is fun as I'll probably not run the boat 1500 hours in my lifetime.

[AndrewT]

Looking good, Denny. We tried something similar to your Rube Goldberg rope contraption when flipping the hull on our 15' Macomber Skiff. Ended up dislocating my wife's thumb. From now on, I use machinery or lots of big dudes and beer and swearing.

I haven't forgotten about your CAD project, but the wife and I decided to sell the house and build anew, which has my priorities out of whack. Will touch base with you about it another time.

[mcdenny]

Another update - detailing the table that magically rises out of the sole.

We often have a picnic dinner while putting down the river. Currently I have a 16" x 48" folding Formica/ aluminum table meant for an RV. It works OK but is kind of a pain to set-up and put away. My inner McGuyver dictated my new design have a table that rises from the floor and retracts with the flip of a switch. Here's a 15 sec video of the final result:

http://youtu.be/AF9Qga-2Jfk

The drive mechanism is a 2000# (smallest available) ATV winch on sale at Harbor Freight $59, including wiring harness and switch. The slides are epoxy coated drawer slides.









Denny Wolfe

[Breakaway]

Excellent!

[Figment]

I love this more every time I read this thread!

[mcdenny]

Since I got the table working I'm on to the cockpit sole.

Picking up the shape with sticks hot glued to a batten:



Laying out shape onto 3/8 Meranti plywood:


Finished panel:


Trial fit:


The plywood will receive a layer of 3/16" thick Garapa veneer with fake caulking lines later in the project. Right now I can walk on the plywood and not have to worry about dripping anything on the fancy Garapa. Here's what the finished product will look like. This is a picture on the second Harmony 25 but I used the same construction method for her seats and floor boards. The Garapa looks blotchy because I had just washed it and there are still wet and dry areas.

[LivingTheDream]

I just saw this thread and am very impressed (and also a lot jealous!)

I expect to see it driving by the cottage next summer! I am near Mt Clemens and spend weekends on Harsens Island off the south channel.

If you EVER need a hand, or wouldn't mind an able bodied helper, don't hesitate to call.

Keep up the fine work,

Steve

[mcdenny]

Steve, we often go down the South Channel a bit, cut through between Harsons and Russell Is and head home. I don't know if the new boat will be done next summer or in 2014. In spite of global warming it's gotten too damn cold to stay here in the winter so boat building will soon end until spring.

Denny Wolfe

[XJSKINS]

My eyes are learning much from what you have/will be doing - thank you for posting.

This is the first thread I have seen that detailed the chin flats. Is there a particular reason for strip planking these? structure? ease of building? economy of wood? why not plywood?

If you could also give a coles notes version of the function of chine flats, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Rick

[mcdenny]

I strip planked the chine flats because there is very little waste compared to ply and the sassafras is much nicer to work with, not to mention lighter and cheaper.

The chine flats act as a spray deflector and replace a separate outer chine log. They also reduce displacement a bit for a given draft. A light weight V hull can be so light it floats at rest with the chines above the water making it tippy feeling (tender). It just would look wrong too.

You want a deep V for smooth riding at speed but a shallow V so the chines are immersed at rest. The chine flats are kind of combination of a narrower deeper V with a little flat bottom thrown in. They also are angled up slightly (6 degrees if I remember correctly) so they act as trim tabs helping to hold the bow down at slower planing speeds.

If you look at Tom Lathrop's Bluejacket website you will get a better explanation of light weight planing hull design. I mostly used (stole) his ideas in designing the bottom of this boat.

Denny Wolfe

[XJSKINS]

Thanks, makes sense. I checked out the bluejacket site...well...funny how a little bit of knowledge leads to more questions. My education continues

Cheers
Rick