k-19 Strip Planking in progress.

[bjl_sailor]

Hi All:

I've uploaded some pix (with a bit of trepidation and embarressment) of my 19' sport sailboat I'm building. AS you can see it is 1/2" X 3/4" bead and cove western red cedar over 5/8" particle board mold stations. (5 -- 1/2" okoume bulkheads will be tabbed in for the deck and cockpit). WHile I know the epoxy work looks rough -- I'm getting better and have already test sanded with my new PC 5.5" angle sander with dust control vacuum port.

Even so, overall it looks pretty fair to this novice's eye and I have some fairing boards and 60 grit paper so I'll spend the time/elbow grease. I hope to finish clear externally with e glass/epoxy and Bristol Finish for UV and on the interior I've seen kevlar/carbon fibre composite cloth ( $26.00 per yard but extra strength when used on only one side of cored hull?) . This with kevlar tapes for hull/deck joint and bulkhead tabbing.

bjl

[Andy]

Beautiful work - keep posting as much about this project as you can!!! Cant wait to see it sailing...looks kind of like my FD which means it should go like the proverbial...

[bjl_sailor]

Funny you should mention Flying Dutchman as that was the type of boat I wanted for this project. Either that or a thistle -- couldn't find plans/kit for a thistle or FD though.

[Dutch Peter]

Very nice bjl!
How is the progress? And what difficulties/problems/challenges do you encounter and how did you solve them?

[bjl_sailor]

I've actually completed planking the hull and have about half of the hull faired and sanded. I am very pleased with how it came out overall. I have a couple of tight radius' near the stern at the turn of the bilge that should have been done with skinnerier planks but they faired out OK. I just don't like how thin I had to make the cedar in that area and will probally bolster it with a couple of 12" x6" extra patches of cloth on the inside of the hull in those areas. I initially hand sand boarded it with a 8 x 28" length of 40 grit on 1/4 inch ply backer to scratch and mark all the high spots. I then went to a 60 grit belt on my 3 x 21 bosch sander ( new purchase EXCELLANT tool). Finally I'm at 80 grit with 6" PC random orbit sander. Before fairing I squeegeed 1 thin coat of wood flour thickened resin over the entire hull filling many of the 'grooves' from the bead and cove millwork joints. This was a very smart idea and the wood flour (from the belt sander) is a near perfect match filler for all the nail holes. (I used nearly 15 pounds of #4 1 1/4" finish nails to tack it all down what a pain pulling them!!!) By this weekend I'll be down to 100 grit with the sanding board -- I probally need a longer one....

Overall I am very pleased but I had one major brain fart. I had a hard time pulling all the nails cleanly, had some tear out and was more careless than I should have been with several tuffies and damaged the surrounding wood with my nipper dykes tugging at broken nails. It filled and faired OK, nobody else seems to notice but I KNOW what I did wrong... (tired and fustrated = bad workmanship -- take a break next time....) Ah well must carry one. Have picts but not yet developed and scanned in. Overall I can finish her clear and be very vain about the topsides and even the bottom as she'll be dry sailed. Incidently, I some how managed to get very lovely alternate patterns of dark and light cedar without really trying. Its seemingly random but both sides match up.

I've got 5.8 OZ S glass cloth for the outside hull sheathing and will be ready to go Thanksgiving weekend if I get above 40 degree days. This S glass is supposed to be 20% stronger than E glass with the same weight -- I'm sure it will be tougher to sand too....The inside hull once turned is going to get a carbon fiber / kevlar composite cloth sheathing-- none of the interior hull will be seen as it is all decked or cockpit.

I have also started my foils. they are drawn out as a series of NACA profiles that are to be sawn out of 3 inch sthick tock, center drilled and then stacked and epoxied to be faired, filled and sheathed. I'm tracing them onto card stock carefully with all center lines and witness marks, cutting them out and then using the cardbaord patterns to trace out the profile on the wavy grained doug fir. This seems more accurate than try to carbon trace directly to the wood. I'm using 2 x6 doug fir and making two cut outs for each foil pattern. My high end Bosch jig saw is smoking a lot of blades doing this. So I'm waiting on my Grizzly 16" band saw to arrive before finishing them up.

I still have a ways to go, I have 5 - 1 piece Okoume bulkheads to cut out and tab in. The reverse transom needs to be cut back and I have all my dagger board trunk construction, cockpit and deck stringers to go also.

For decking I am considering the following. The plan calls for two 1/4 layers of marine ply for decking and cockpit sole with 1 layer of 5.8 OZ boat cloth. At least for the deck I want to use one layer of 1/4" ply and then I'm going to resaw 1" x 4 " meranti down to 5/16" x 3.5" strips which I'll lay down in epoxy with spaced gaps and epoxy filling the grooves with a thickened cream colored epoxy filler. This will then be sanded and sheathed with s glass. Hoping it won't be too much of a wieght cost but I think it will really add to it. I'm staying super light with okoume plys everywhere else.

For a finish over the epoxy I'm going to try spraying a clear new 1 part 'water solubale' (not water based but it isn't as VOC nasty. ) Polyurethane. Anybody use this yet? Jamestown distributors is selling it.

That's about it for now. More pix of in progress in a bit....

[B. Hamm]

Just one thing, I really hope you're wearing a resperator when you're sanding/fairing. A dust mask will not do. You can and probably eventually will get an alergic reaction to epoxy if you aren't really careful. If you do you won't be able to go in the room with the boat, let alone use it.

Bill H.

[Gilbert]

Hi Bjl,
Just thought I'd comment on laying the glass cloth. I helped a friend glass his strip planked hull and an engineer suggested that he lay the cloth at about a 45 degree angle to the strips; that way both the warp and woof strands of glass are working to keep the strips lined up. If you lay it at 90 degrees only half the strands are doing that job. Half of them might be strong enough, but twice as many would be better, seems to me.
Gilbert

[bjl_sailor]

Hi:

AS per usual my timetable for getting the fb sheathing on was unrealistic and I am still sanding. However I think I've got a very nicely faired hull. I was applying a skim coat of wood flour and WESt epoxy with the 207 'fast' cold weather hardener last week before thanksgiving. While the stuff has been working great and my shop is at 40 degrees ambient for 8 hours after applciation, I had a real problem getting this batch to kick. I was merely filling a few holes and minor dings but I had to use a heat gun to get it to finally go after about two days. Now as I sand with my PC 6" RO sander using 80 and 100 grit I am having terriible loading problems. I am using Norton hook and loop open coat. Home Depot product -- crap I guess. Anybody have a solid recommendation for the best open coat abrasives out there?

[Phil Locker]

If you've gotten it to kick with a heat gun, but its still loading the sandpaper, I'd guess that your ratio was off on that batch. Scrape it off (slow & painful, but better than the alternative of a poor finish) and start over. Just my two cents.

Phil

[Andy]

Hi bjl,

Andy more peogress on your boat? Cant wait to see how it is going!

Andy

sometimes it helps to scrub with water and wet sand a little if the epoxy is loading the paper. If you had trouble getting it to kick off, you may have amine blush (waxy substance). It comes off easily with water.

[mojounwin]

Can I ask how long it has taken you so far to build?

Mojo

[bjl_sailor]

I started in August and have worked about -20 25 hours per week ( about 400 hours) up until late December when the weather has slowed me. I'm done planking, have the FB sheathing on and finishing the final fairing. I'm debating whether I'll finish the entire hull clear or paint the bottom and boot stripe with part poly. -- I'll be dry sailing the boat most likely but I don't think a spar varnish finish over epoxy will hold up well. Yet honestly I am proud and vain enough to want to be able to 'show her pretty bottom' when she heals. Theres a bit of resin cloudiness ( too cold during application) in one area aft on the bottom but other than that the clear finish is pretty good and I took tremendous pains to board sand the whole hull fair. I'm nearly ready for hull turning and have about 72 nprogress pictures I need to develop, scan and select a few for posting. -- Maybe this weekend I'll get them developed.

Btw I've found the hint that throwing a few handfulls of micro balloons on the amine blush prior to sanding really helps reduce the sand paper loading....