15' Garvey Build, Gartside #240

[moprince]

I will be documenting my build of a Paul Gartside 15' Garvey through this winter. The plan is #240 and can be found and purchased on his site. I built a Point Comfort 18 designed by Doug Hylan last winter, and regretted not taking more photos and notes of the build. I will do my best to document all major points in the build as well as adding some commentary on woodworking as well as my limited knowledge of boatbuilding. I do furniture making professionally and although I will go into some detail on some subjects, I do not claim to be an authority on boatbuilding. I welcome commentary on this thread, although I will not be able to respond to all comments and questions, nor do I wish to get into any extended debates about methods, materials, tools etc.

Thanks for following along!

Matt Prince

[neil.henderson]

Look forward to following your thread. I find the good build threads with lots of photographs very useful - when I'm building the same boat I can look at their pictures for ideas on how I should go about a task, or see where something fits. Very useful.

Regards Neil

[moprince]

Step one included lofting the plans full size onto cheap luan plywood and lofting the transoms full size onto 1/4 Meranti ply.

I apologize the photos are out of order on this one.

The building base is salvaged from a previous abandoned building project, it will be extended a few feet when the transoms are mounted to the jig. Sawhorses are cut short to provide a comfortable working height and the base is set level. The jig was jointed and planed previously and has had plenty of time to acclimate to the humidity in the shop. At this point I hot glued the feet of the horses to floor and screwed the jig to the horses. My previous boat build was done in our large back storage room, although the lighting and heat are much better in our main shop, so I opted to squeeze the build into an area of the shop that is out of the way of normal work.

As a side note, my Point Comfort 18 will be going up for sale this spring, if anyone knows of an interested party, please reach out. It's located in Eliot, Maine. I will be posting photos of that boat later on in this thread.

Moulds are mounted onto the jig at the lines established in the plans, and set square off of a string pulled tight down the middle of the building jig. The moulds are made of scrap 1/2 ply for the gussets as well as 1 and 1/2 sheets of a product called "Puma Ply" that I had left over from a cabinet project. This material was used only because I had it available already. Sticks will be added to reinforce any areas that may become distorted by the keelson, gunwales and paneling as well as to set the moulds plumb. I forgot to make the cutouts at the sheer to allow for the inner gunwales to pass through, so they are cut rough and routed using the shown jig. I prefer to use scrap material where ever possible for disposable jig parts like this.

Gartside specified pine lumber for most of the solid wood on this boat, and I was able to find really nice 5/4 KD s4s white pine at a lumberyard nearby. The fwd and aft transoms will both be made of 1" pine sandwiched between 1/4" meranti ply. 5/4 x 8" material is crosscut, stickered, and allowed to acclimate to my shop's humidity for a couple of days

The transom material is jointed and edge glued into halves and allowed to dry overnight.

The keelson (I'm not sure of the exact term) is made of s4s KD 3/4" pine that is milled down to 5/8", ripped down to width and sanded to 100 grit on all sides. A 1/8" roundover is run along the upper part of the upper side (bottom on the jig). A centerline is marked in both pencil and with a marking gauge on both faces.

[moprince]

Next, the inner gunwales are milled down to dimension from the same lot of 5/4 pine. They are given a 1/8" roundover and sanded. The design specified a small bead to be added to the lower edge of the gunwales, but I think I will forgo that out of concern that the bead may shear off if it's caught by a shoe or errant paddle.

I began to attach the keelson by setting the moulds plumb, centering the keelson and attaching using the small blocks shown. I will re-attach and check for fairness after the transoms are attached to the jig.

The forward transom is shown after being cut out using my tracksaw and jigsaw. The tracksaw makes quick work of things like this, but this process could easily be done using a circular saw or jigsaw with a fence. The final shape of the fwd and aft transoms will be cut out after the boat is flipped upright. I was sure to double check the lofting before making any cuts and before laying out my moulds.

The pine for the transoms was milled down using a planer, jointed and edge glued a second time to it's final rough dimension. Later the final glue line was scraped, and the pine as well as the 1/4" meranti is sanded to a rough grit.

The final photo shows the cauls used to laminate the outer 1/4" meranti panels onto the 1" pine transom core for the aft transom. The fwd transom used a similar setup. It's very difficult to apply even pressure to thin material, so 3/4" MDF scrap was used for the lower caul and 1/2" MDF scrap was used for the upper caul.

[moprince]

Photos being out of order from their descriptions may be a theme of this thread.

The aft transom had small knot in the pine that was drilled out prior to assembly. I cut a slightly smaller plug of the same material that was installed using epoxy prior to assembly.

All of the pine was wiped down prior to assembly using solvent in order to remove as much pitch as possible. Eastern White Pine is a lovely material to work with, however I am avoiding the larger resin patches and large knots. All small knots will be drilled out and plugged.

All transom parts were rolled first with unthickened epoxy, followed by a generous coat of epoxy thickened with silica. I find the 1/4" nap black foam rollers to work well for this. 12" rollers can be cut down carefully to smaller sizes to save money. Sheets of plastic prevent the cauls from sticking to the transom parts. These cauls will likely be used again when I scarph the bottom and side panels.

I drilled out holes slightly larger than the screw threads through the top caul and all three layers of all transom parts, stopping short of drilling into the lower caul. Masking tape makes a great depth gauge for drill bits if you don't have the correct stop collar available. The pine and the lower 1/4" material were left oversize to make lining up the parts easier.

Screws with washers added are installed working from the center out, with a few clamps to help along the edges. The screws will be removed the next day and the holes will be re-drlled slightly larger (to remove any stray plastic or metal bits and blushed epoxy) and filled using thickened epoxy, likely later in the process when there are more holes to be filled. There are many ways to do a lamination like this, I considered using my vacuum pump but realized it would likely suck too much epoxy out of the parts and into the pump. Additionally, this method was quick to set up and allowed me to check that all the parts were flat after assembly.

Too much pressure can lead to a starved glue joint when using epoxy, so I was careful not to over tighten the screws or clamps. Additionally, I was sure to make pencil lines to line up the parts while they were still dry to prevent moving them around too much after the epoxy was spread. Good contact is all that is needed when working with epoxy rather than the high pressure needed when working with carpenter's glues. The last photo shows the epoxy squeezing out from between the parts, this is consistent around both transoms. I did not attempt to clean up any of the epoxy from the parts as it will all be cut flush after curing.

Although I am typically weary of using solid wood for a wide part like this that will be help in one place, the 1/4" skins and the fiberglass should keep the transoms stable through the seasons.

Our shop space is relatively cool in the winter, so I will be using the fast setting epoxy hardener, I find that in even in warmer temperatures this gives plenty of working time. All epoxy and solvent covered rags are always bagged and removed from the shop the same day.

[moprince]

Thank you Neil, following a couple of threads really helped me with my previous build. I hope you follow along!

[rbgarr]

You may want to watch the thoroughly documented offcenterharbor.com videos of building a Hylan OONAGH pram for things to document and describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcxcmnSHBg

[Liberty53]

Great work, and Awesome Shop!

Thanks for posting.

-Derek

[moprince]

After the epoxy has set, the two transoms are rough cut again, and trimmed to the correct shape using a flush bearing bit in a router. The transoms are then mounted to the jig to determine the bevel angles. This is done using a batten laying fwd and aft. The bevels are carefully cut out using the tracksaw and brought their final shape with sharp hand planes.

At this point I also made the cutouts for the keelson to pass through the transoms at their respective angles. The point where the forward transom meets the keelson is narrow enough that it was easily cut using the tracksaw. The aft transom notch required a handsaw and chisels. As seen in the third photo, I used a block of wood cut to the correct angle to use as a reference for my chisel.

[moprince]

As seen in the final photo of my last reply, the keel cutout of the fwd two molds and fwd transom create a flat cutout instead of the notched cutouts of the aft molds. to save some time beveling the keelson, I marked out the widths of the flats and cut them out using a saw and my edge plane. The plane was made by "Wisner" and cuts beautifully, given the skew of the iron.

The transoms are finally set level, centered and mounted to the jig using temporary blocks to screw them in place from the inside.

At this point, the keelson is again screwed to the jig and all molds are set plumb.

[moprince]

Here the 3/8 plywood is laid out to cut the scarphs. I used my sharp smoothing plane to carefully approach the lines, from each side of the panel, eventually yielding a feather edge on each panel. The scarphs were then roughed up using an orbital sander. I found that the long smoothing plane worked much better than the power plane I have used in the past, it makes for cleaner, more uniform cuts, and the whole process from alignment to sanding took under an hour.

The scarphs were rolled using unthickened epoxy followed by epoxy thickened with silica. They were then carefully aligned to a straightedge, stacked and clamped in place with plastic sheeting between the panels. Screws were driven through the cauls and into the bench. The holes will be filled once the panels are installed onto the jig.

It's beneficial to use cauls that are wider than the scarph joint itself, this allows for the epoxy to fill any gaps in the joint by keeping the panels clamped at the correct heights even if there are voids or alignment issues. The epoxy will also bleed out of the joint a bit, helping with later fairing. I'm hoping each assembly will yield one bottom and one topside panel.

[Mike1902]

Methodical and neat.
Nice work, look forward to seeing more.

Cheers,
Mike.

[moprince]

Here the chines are fitted and attached the the fwd and aft transoms as well as along the moulds.

The keel is beveled to the moulds using a bench plane, smoothing plane and finally a final sanding.

The bottom panels are clamped to the jig in several places, marked and the cut lines are faired using a batten and nails.

[moprince]

I'm not sure why the photos are all rotating when being uploaded.


With the bottom panels cut, they are epoxied to the transoms, and screwed to the jig where needed. Thickened epoxy is used along the keel to fill any gaps.

The overhanging bottom panels are brought flush to the chine of the jig and beveled to match the angle of the jig. A batten nailed along the molds serves as a guide to make a fair line at the correct angles.

[adamarthurryan]

I always thought this boat looked great and would be a fun build. I'll enjoy following along!

[moprince]

At this point, the topside panels are traced and installed in the same way. I was able to get the bottom and topside panels out of two sheets of scarphed ply, although I had to install a small patch along the gunwale where the topside panels didn't quite meet the sheerline. This patch was epoxied in place as the topsides were installed and will be fully captured after the outer gunwales are installed.

The area along the chine where the topsides didn't overlay the bottom panels are filled with thickened epoxy. Once everything has set, the chine is carefully planed down fair.

To relocate the centerline, a laser level is positioned connecting the centerline on the aft and fwd transom. Pencil lines are marked along the center, and out from the centerline at the point where the keel will lay when installed and further out for reference.

[moprince]

All holes in the hull, low spots and nicks are filled with a mixture of epoxy thickened with microballoons and silica. The flat area long the centerline where the keel will be installed after glassing is carefully planed down. I began by planing to the pencil marks established in the last step, then fairing this flat using a longboard (80 grit sandpaper glued to a long strip of 1/2" MDF). The outer pencil marks are re established with some force to allow them to be seen after the hull is sanded and fiberglassed.

Next the hull is sanded fair and reinspected for holes, imperfections, high spots and low spots.

The transom and chine edges are carefully beveled first using a longboard followed by sandpaper.

After all dust is removed, the hull is ready for fiberglass. I don't enjoy this process and have had difficultly in the past. I have found that thinner resins are MUCH easier to use at low temperatures. I am using System Three Silvertip here. All of my assembly to this point has been done using S3 general purpose. Although this is marketed as a non blushing epoxy, all surfaces will still be washed down if they are allowed to fully cure. I discovered during my last build that in low / humid climates, blush will still form.

To make the process easier, I glassed the fwd and aft transoms as well as the chines in one session, saving the rest of the hull for the next day. All seams will be sanded to a feather edge before the next layer of fiberglass goes on. I have found that using disposable paint tray liners along with black foam 1/4" nap rollers allows for the easiest initial application of the epoxy. This is instead of the pour / squeegee method. It is important to seal any plywood end grain prior to the fiberglass being placed, or being sure to re coat those areas a couple of times while the epoxy is still wet if this is not possible. The area along the chine was rolled twice before the fiberglass was laid down. The exposed end grain along the keel is also sealed at this point.

[moprince]

Methodical and neat.
Nice work, look forward to seeing more.

Cheers,
Mike.

Thanks for following along!

[moprince]

I always thought this boat looked great and would be a fun build. I'll enjoy following along!

Thanks for following along, I think this will be a fun one to cruise around the harbors in my area if I decide to keep it. The grab post and floors (if I add them) should make for easy boarding as well.

[Michael_Owen]

Very tidy build, And fast!

At the risk of thread drift, I'm curious about those brick buttresses along your (curved?) shop perimeter. Church basement? Dr. Evil's former lair?

Anyway, carry on, and thanks for sharing your build.

Mike

[moprince]

Very tidy build, And fast!

At the risk of thread drift, I'm curious about those brick buttresses along your (curved?) shop perimeter. Church basement? Dr. Evil's former lair?

Anyway, carry on, and thanks for sharing your build.

Mike

Mike,

The mill building our shop is located in used to be a mill. The buttresses are a remnant of the area that the water that powered the mill once ran . From my understanding the water flowed through the building beginning in the area behind that wall. That specific area is now a storage room for us, and the rest has been carved up into shops. Unfortunately since the river was never actually diverted back away from the building, that back room stays pretty damp. Behind the corrugated metal that you may be able to see in some of the photos, are very large granite blocks that still hold back the river.

[moprince]

After the transom and chine fiberglass laminations set, they were scrubbed to remove any blush (there was some). All glass edges were sanded to a feather edge, and the rest of the hull was sanded once more for posterity.

The hull was covered on one side with fiberglass cloth and the whole mess had it's initial epoxy coat applied. I've found a "bubble buster" roller helps a lot with removing any air bubbles. The second half of the hull had it's fiberglass applied in the same way. I overlapped the glass at the keel and over the transom edges. After a few hours, a fill coat was rolled on.

At this point I'll let the whole thing cure for a day and lightly sand all of the glass edges and high spots before proceeding with the rest of the fill coats. The Silvertip epoxy allows 72 hours before sanding is required for a recoat. Given the lower temperature in my shop, I likely have more time although I am hoping to get back to it within 48.

[Dhermann]

Matt - Nice work! We're all pretty envious of your workshop. I built my Oonagh in a shop about 2 feet longer than the boat. All my stationary tools are on casters to move in and out. No room for all of them at once. Looking forward to following your build! Doug Hermann.

[moprince]

(Photo 4). I lightly feathered the edges of the glass where it overlaps around the keel and transoms, and knocked down a couple of high spots where the glass had to be cut to fold over itself. Two more coats of epoxy were rolled out, completely filling the weave.

(Photo 3). This is the quick scarph jig I made for cutting the scarphs for the gunwales and shoes. Although it's very effective, it doesn't feel the safest, or something I will continue doing in the future, I'm sure there are better jigs. The clamp keeps hands away, but the wedge shape of the offcut likes to move around, I recommend letting the saw blade stop before lifting it out of the cut.

(Photo 2). The shoes and one gunwale are scarphed using cauls and screws.

(Photo 1). After a quick orbital sand to flatten out the epoxy around the keel area and a quick longboard sand along the keel surface, the keel is ready to install. The keel is made of a scarphed piece of 3/4" Meranti. Following my pencil lines made before glassing, I carefully centered the keel installing it with temporary screws to check for fair. After this dry run, I removed the temporary screws, reinstalling with thickened epoxy and bronze screws following the screw holes already established. The bronze screws go through the keel, the plywood and into the pine keelson. The holes are then filled with thickened epoxy. The clamp is helping to be sure nothing moves while the epoxy set.

[Thad Van Gilder]

That is a sharp looking garvey. I have built several, but none out of plywood. Always cedar on yellow pine, cedar on paduak, or cedar on locust. I can see the value of a plywood boat that lives on a trailer, though. Good job!

[moprince]

After a few days of curing, the epoxy is sanded down, leaving the chines for later. It's tempting to do this type of sanding the next day after application, but waiting for the epoxy to cure harder makes a huge difference. A couple more passes, working up through rough grits were made after this photo was taken. The sanding was done with a 6" orbital sander, being careful not to cut into the glass layer. Small divots in the final epoxy coat will be scrubbed with a scotchbrite pad and filled with primer later on. It's very important to always keep the sander moving across the surface. I typically avoid heavy orbital sanding around the chines and where the transoms meet the planking since the sander can easily burn through these areas even when held flat. They will be hand sanded and checked for fair prior to paint.

The outer gunwales are tapered slightly forward and aft using a jigsaw and hand plane before being installed.

Again using a laser level the lines for the shoes are laid out with pencil marks. Although it looks like the shoes splay away from the keel, that is just because of the shape of the hull, they are installed parallel with the keel.

The shoes and outer gunwales are installed with temporary screws and washers through oversized holes. These holes will be filled later. I wanted to only use clamps for the outer gunwales, but working alone with slippery epoxy made it a challenge to get the gunwales to stay in the correct place. Microballoon putty is used to make fairing the shoes easier. Bronze screws will later be added through the outwales and into the inwales where they meet the transom.

[moprince]

After installing the shoes, I realized they did not need to run as far forward as they do. I decided to trim them back, leaving the inner shoes a bit longer than the outer ones. The trimming was done using a flush trim saw as well as a fein tool. The remaining material was carefully planed down close to the hull and finally sanded away using blue tape as a guide to avoid sanding into the epoxy coating of the hull.

Short tapers were then cut into the front of the shoes using a hand plane and rasp, the same process was used to taper the aft part of the shoes and keel into the aft transom.

The microballoon filler seen in the last photo was used to bring the aft section of the keel and shoes back to shape (along with wedges) as I have previously over beveled everything, leaving the aft section looking wrong.

[moprince]

At this point, I started making the interior bulkheads. This is easier since the boat is sitting level and "plumb" to the building base. The bulkheads lie fwd of mould #2 and #6. From the lofting, spacers are made to make up that distance and attached to their respective moulds. This is the exterior plywood seen in the first photo.

Next, (photo 2) a template is made by hot glueing and screwing together scrap material to the shape of the bulkheads. A measurement is taken from the keelson down, and a level line is struck across the template before being trimmed. Both bulkheads are cut to shape using these moulds.

The bulkheads are installed back onto the spacers with a few screws and checked for level and plumb (Photo 3). Working from the fwd section of the bulkhead, so the moulds are not blocking the edges, thickened epoxy is added around the edges and left to set overnight.

The next day (Photo 5) the moulds and spacers are removed from the aft side of the bulkheads. More epoxy is now used from this side to attach the bulkheads. When the boat is flipped, I will add fillets to the bulkheads, but this is enough to hold the bulkheads in place for now.

[moprince]

More epoxy is rolled on in select places, mostly along the chines, and a few coats are added to the solid wood end grain. After sanding and fairing, the hull is almost ready for primer. I will do a bit more sanding and give the hull a good dusting / wash before paint. I would like to give the epoxy a while to fully cure before painting over it. In the mean time, I may make the templates for the seat tops, and begin laying out the floors using a similar process as the last post. The transoms will be shaped after flipping the hull.

[SaltyD from BC]

looking really good moprince

[moprince]

looking really good moprince

Thank you!

[moprince]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I decided to rough out the fwd and aft transoms. From the lofting, several spots are marked and a batten is used to create a fair line. From this line, french curve templates are used to create the curves into the gunwales and motor cut out. A jigsaw and belt sander are used to make the shapes. After flipping the hull, I will create the bevels on the transoms.

Next, a laser level is used to mark the area where the seat tops will meet the aft transom and aft sections of the hull on the inside. Although it's hard to see from the photos, I scribed the sides of the hull and made a template from the inside to create the shape of the aft seat top. The template is transferred to a sheet of 1/4" meranti. I'll be laminating two layers of 1/4" along with a piece of pine to create the overhang fwd of the bulkhead.

[rbgarr]

Looks great. Sorry I didn't get to stop by on Friday.

[moprince]

Once the hull is fipped, it's leveled front to back and side to side. The chine on the interior is given a fillet and then glass tape is applied. After feathering the edges, the chambers and transoms are glassed, followed by the interior hull. Glass is overlapped at the keel. Unfortunately the interior glass wrinkled like crazy, so once the epoxy sets, a thin mixture of epoxy and fairing filler (microballoons) is mixed and troweled over all interior surfaces. After being sealed with additional coats of epoxy, the interior of the hull is faired. Although it looks a bit messy, the strength of the fiberglass should not be affected. In retrospect, I should have applied the interior cloth in smaller sections as opposed to trying to make it conform to the floor, bulkheads and topsides all at once.

Next, the forward seat top is templated using small sticks to bring it right up against the topside and fwd transom. The seat is made by layering 1/4 marine ply doubled fwd of the fwd bulkhead, and sandwiching a piece of pine aft of the bulkhead. A fair line is struck according to the plans and the edge is given a round over. Pine stiffeners are installed running from the bulkhead fwd.

The aft seat top is made using the same technique. The fwd bulkhead area has a cleat installed on the bulkhead and fwd transom, epoxy fillets are made along the topsides and where the seat top meets the bottom panels. It may have been easier to install and shape a cleat here. The aft bulkhead gets cleats along the bulkhead, topsides and aft transom.

[moprince]

Cleats are installed midship to receive the center thwart. The top edges are planed down using a shoulder plane. The screws are replaced by bronze ring shank screws after the epoxy sets.

The transoms are both shaped using a rasp, block plane and finally a longboard sanding stick. The aft transom edge receives a rolling bevel, while the fwd transom is shaped flat. These surfaces receive several coats of epoxy to seal the plywood edges, pine and end grain.

The plywood edge along the gunwales are routed out 1/8" and filled back in with epoxy to seal them from the elements. I elected not to plane the gunwale down level with itself. I think it looks nice the way it is, and it flattens out enough to step on aft.

Holes are routed to receive screw out hatches on the seat tops prior to installation.