Back at it

[KMacDonald]

I recently started work again on my Marsh Cat after the summer break.

Before interior paint




After two coats of primer and one finish coat of Easypoxy off white.

[Todd D]

Beautiful. A pity to cover all that pretty wood with paint though.

[Thorne]

Looking good!

[bob easton]

Looks great! Boy, are you going to be able to tell when it is clean. (or not)

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Beautiful

[crabskiff]

Kevin,

She's looking great. Sorry I didn't get to talk to you much at MASCF. As usual at this event the ADD kicks in with all the boats and people to see. Look forward to seeing her out on the water (this spring?) and maybe sailing with you and Doug O.

Kevin Brennan
"Slip Jig"

[KMacDonald]

I have made a little more progress. I put the decking on today. The 1/2" okoume plywood made the very slight compound curves without any difficulty. That was a relief as I was not sure it would.

Ready to deck:


Decking on:






The decking overhangs the hull slightly and will be trimmed off flush with a router and pattern bit.

[KMacDonald]

I started the installing the ipe floorboards this past week. It is a very heavy, strong, and extremely rot resistant wood. I used it instead of teak as it is about a third or fourth the cost and will add the necessary ballast suggested in the plans. Ipe is also used on decks.



The two stip sections on each side of the centerboard case are removeable. I need to drill a finger hole in them to make it easier to lift out. Does anyone know what size hole to use?
Two or three more courses on each side are not finished. Need more screws.


The screws are bronze #12 x 1 1/2. It is hard to tell in the photo but they are counter sunk and will be plugged.

[KMacDonald]

Two more floorboards added this morning.

[pipefitter]

Beautiful work. That's about as neat as it gets.

[Mrleft8]

I like a 1"finger hole.
Why are you going to plug your floorboards? Personally, I would Fasten them to sleepers with toggle hold downs, so you can remove them when you need to..... Or am I not understanding?

[Tom Robb]

You could drill a series of different size holes in some scrap and see which you prefer.
BTW, nice clean work. You may be justly proud.
What Left8 and Gert said.

[gert]

Why are you going to plug your floorboards? Personally, I would Fasten them to sleepers with toggle hold downs, so you can remove them when you need to.....

Ditto

A lot of s&%# accululates under them; and it's nice to remove them for winter storage & refinishing.

ps
I copied your deck frame image for future refrence when it's time to frame my deck; nice detail; nice boat.

[KMacDonald]

Mrleft8,
I would have liked to make the entire floor removable but it would be too big and heavy. The two strips next to the centerboard case are removable as will the strip aft the centerboard case. This will enable bilge access. As you can see, it already has $h1t in it.



Removable section:

[KMacDonald]

I finally got up the nerver to cut the transom to final shape. It turned out well but it was a couple of hours with the longboard.


Next I need to cut the hole in the transom for the rudder. I think I will think about it for a while before cutting and do the cut when I feel lucky.

[Tom Robb]

What's the hole in the transom thing that one sees on cats like the Beetle?
Why not bring the rudder head up over the transom? Is it that hard to engineer the rudder for the torque on those barn door rudders?

[MiddleAgesMan]

Very nice work but I'm sure Lefty does not trust you...your shop is CLEAN!

I agree about the 1" finger hole, pretty much standard. The bare minimum is 7/8".

BTW--I have a very messy shop but I still trust you.

[KMacDonald]

1" finger holes for the removable section.


After much debate, I decided to epoxy the bungs. There is a black ring around the plugs but it doesn't look too bad. The tear-out is another story though.

[KMacDonald]

I finally finished the floorboards after taking a few months off.

Floorboards looking aft:


Looking forward:


Forward anchor well:


Anchor well hatch:


I guess the coaming will come next.

[KMacDonald]

The coaming is now on and the deck is painted. The deck color looks white in the photos but is really a light tan. I used system three WR-LPU. I applied it directly to epoxy without a primer. It was very easy to work with and clean up. The paint is rock hard and near impossible to scratch. Wished I would have used it for the rest of the boat.



This is the short bowsprit. You can also see the semi-gloss non-skid deck.

[Lew Barrett]

Great boat!

[BETTY-B]

Looking really, really good. God I love wood boats!

DAN

[KMacDonald]

I did some of the rigging and deck hardware instalation today. I used Sta-Lok terminals. They were real easy to install. Hopefully it will be launched within the next couple of months.

[Candyfloss]

A catboat with a stayed rig? Sorry mate I am a foreigner. What am I missing here? BTW your boat is just beautiful.

[KMacDonald]

Almost ready to launch.

[pipefitter]

Looking very nice. It looks as if you enjoyed building it.

[NYCKiwi]

Fantastic! Looking forward to the launch photos.

[KMacDonald]

I finally launched it three weekends ago. Everything went well and was able to test the boat and rigging in a three hour storm with 30 knots+ of wind. No, it didnt start with that much wind but ended that way.


Before the storm


This past weekend had good sailing weather. 15 kts of wind.

[gsmckee]

Very inspirational! Outstanding job.

[TimmS]

Very lovely! I want to build one now!

[Ed Armstrong]

Very nice!! Don't know how I missed this thread before, but I enjoyed seeing the building sequence!

Ed

[River Sailor]

Great job! Any more shots of the launch itself — like champagne over the bow, etc?

[andrewdarius]

Were you in St Michaels Labor Day weekend? Jenny and I were there with our 1950's Blue Jay and thought we saw a white hulled Marsh Cat prowling the harbor... If so, will you be back for MASCF?

Andy

[KMacDonald]

Andy, Yes that was Teresa and I sailing in St Michaels last weekend. I have been sailing there the past three weekends. I will be at the MASCF. Hope to meet you there.

[andrewdarius]

Great, MASCF is one of our favorite events. I'm assuming you've met Pete Peters...? He own Obadiah, a Marc Barto built version with a plumb stem and no sprit. He should be there, as well as Doug Oeller with his dark blue hulled version and perhaps even Ned Asplundh with his newly acquired yellow-hulled lapstrake version. Pete's and Doug's were built with seats, I can't recall if Ned's has them or not.

You should have plenty of competition for the race...

[crabskiff]

Kevin,

Congrats! I was wondering how soon we would see this post. Look for you at MASCF.

Kevin Brennan
Navigator "Slip Jig"

[Ned Asplundh]

Great, MASCF is one of our favorite events. I'm assuming you've met Pete Peters...? He own Obadiah, a Marc Barto built version with a plumb stem and no sprit. He should be there, as well as Doug Oeller with his dark blue hulled version and perhaps even Ned Asplundh with his newly acquired yellow-hulled lapstrake version. Pete's and Doug's were built with seats, I can't recall if Ned's has them or not.

You should have plenty of competition for the race...

I don't have seats. See you all in St. Mike's soon.

[ILikeRust]

It's threads like this one that make me want to build one of these and learn to sail. Yeah, I've been a stinkpot guy since my dad bought a used cuddy cabin cruiser when I was about 5 or 6 years old. But damn, these little woodie sailboats are just so damn pretty and look like so much fun to go scooting around on in a breeze. I like the (apparent) simplicity of them - they have this elemental quality - just a shell made of bits and pieces of dead trees, a few bits of purposefully shaped metal, some lengths of rope, a few yards of cloth and BAM, there you are, shooshing across the bay with a little salt water spray in your face.

Very cool. And very, very nice job on the build!

[mhtimber]

Really nice boat and great work building her! Definitely inspirational and thanks for posting.

Cheers
Jeff

[KMacDonald]

See "Marsh Cat Update" for more pics.
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74079