Sea Sled madness. It’s in my brain.

My thought as well.
Buy a roll, 3 layers outside, two inside.
Sell what's left.
Roving has no place on your build John.

 

Depending on roll width, 5 rolls or 4 rolls. And a barrel of epoxy, half barrel of hardener.

Thanks a million guys! I mean that.

I've wanted this boat since I was 27. Now I'm 55.
When I started this, I knew I had one window of opportunity. I live in Vancouver BC, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the best place I've ever lived. But its damn expensive. Last fall a friend offered me a shop, for a year. And my partner Anne, told me: "Now. The time is now."

It's been 28 years since I have built a boat. And those were 40-50' carvel construction ketches.

I wasted the first month and a half frantically studying and relearning engine compartment design, before simplifying and going with outboards.

Another month lost on the lines, layout, assembly details. And then I had my revelation: there isn't time to learn everything before I start. There's barely time at all.

I lofted her on the shop wall, and started building bulkheads. I would have loved to run those lines through software and tweak them. No time! Get it right when I get there.

Work 8-430 outdoors in the winter, then drive to the unheated shop and work 5-10. Get home and sleep with sawdust in my hair. Anne at my side. Love.

Bulkheads built, figure out a strongback with what I have on hand and assemble them. How to plank? Not now.

Planking bulkheads. How will I make the intersections of chines, hull sides, and curves of the keels? I'll figure it out when I get there.

I made a mistake lofting B1 and B2, but that didn't affect the tunnel, so I planked the tunnel. And then I spent a day with battens and a pencil and solved the problem. Sawzall to cut down B2, a little extra fillet material on B1.

Yesterday I planked up to the chine, and drank a coffee, while I figured it out. (Starbucks Grande Americano, black. If you put cream and sugar in it, its undrinkable when you come back to it 3 days later.) So I'm 5 planks past that problem.

And you guys, my friends out in the world, figured out my next problem, just in time.

This was my revelation: I just don't have time to figure it all out at the beginning. I have made a leap of faith. I'll learn each skill, when I need it. Find the answers when I get to the question.

I don't yet know

The detailed design of the roof/cabin windows assembly.
How I'll install and control the outboards.
Anything about electrical systems and electronics.
The unknown unknowns.

But I've built houses and yachts. Designed wind turbines and engines and meteorological instruments. I'll knock em down as I get to them. Anne is the perfect partner, and my friends are brilliant.

John

 

Are your bulkheads installed? It you have not and need to match curves there are easy ways to get this done

While they are expensive, a copy of the ABYC manual is a perfect resource to ensure that what you do is correct for the marine application
Canada has similar requirements, Small Craft Standards TP 3022 or something close to that for numbers. Much of the info is contained on the Canadian side. They will include the standards for hoses, wiring, voltage drop, head considerations
and requirements, fuel tank installation and requirements, just a myriad of information
The cost of buying the manual and doing it correctly compared to doing it incorrectly, tearing it out to do it correctly, or being unable to get insurance because you did it wrong and your insurer requires a survey

 

Solid advice, Barry. As soon as the hull is able to survive outside in the weather, I'll pick that up for the next stages.

 

How much glasswork have you done?

A bunch of ideas are flowing in my brain for you, but might be silly; some of it.

For example, you really need decent radiuses on all corners for the glass. Then for at least the transom; you bring back to square on the bottom below dwl.

Also, what is the transom made of? I recommend using some nonwood core. Noah's sells corelite 26#, but not sure your hp plan.

You need to plan the transom glass. I used 4 layers db1700 both sides of mine for 30" wide transoms and 90hp plan. So I have 8 layers of glass on the top, because I overwrapped from each direction about 8",6",4",2" (fyi)

I glassed my transoms outsides before flip and used a hotcoat and peelply to make sure the overwraps stayed up. (more fyi)

 

your roll estimate is way off John

sold by linear yard; not sqyd

50-51.5" wide and a linear yard is nearly 1.5 sqyd, but u get the idea

 

How many rolls do you reckon? I was thinking hull perimeter is 30', by 26' long. With 3 layers outside, and 2 inside, that's roughly 4000 square feet of glass, not including tabbing, built up layers at chines, and layers on bulkheads, transom etc. So with a 50" roll, allowing 2" for overlap, I make it 1200 square feet on a hundred yard roll. 4 rolls if its 50". 5 rolls if its 38". Unless I've made a math error, which happens.

 

100 running yards at 50" is about 1200sqft; discounting 2".

you need about a 10-15% waste factor, too

If you had 50" sides and 50" to each side of the tunnel; wouldn't 104 square feet of glass or so cover the bottom and the side? Let's say I am off by one roll off the bottom and sides of the boat are like 20' wide. That is still only 520 sqft per layer. So, you definitely need more than 100 yards. I don't think you can do the 30' perimeter measurement and call it good, though.

My gut hunch is you need about 4 100 yd rolls. They sell 200 yard rolls I believe and they might give you a break lower still.

I am still curious about whether you could do db1700; one layer inside with reinforcements at chines and two layers out; it'd save some work and epoxy both...

You could reinforce all the chines with say 1708 8" tapes maybe. But I am really not an NA to be calling out scantlings u know. I can tell you the glass to get you close to your calcs.

See what Bluebell or Ad Hoc say about it...

 

I think you're giving good advice already, no need for me to chime in...
At this stage, one is not going to go for world records, thus, about good enough (in the absence of any other data), should be good enough at this stage.

 

About good enough is all anyone can do. Dave Gerr wrote extensively about this in the addendum to EofBS. He works a number of examples through, using exactly the same boat, but different rules, and gets quite different outcomes. Most interestingly, in one example he calculates strength required in a panel, the subdivided that panel with reinforcing stringers, and calculates again, and shows that the panel is now too weak. Which is, of course, nonsense.

 

Can you give us your inputs to Gerr?

I have some second thoughts. I think it might be nicer to get some 1700 and some 1200. Then on the outside, two layers, lot less labor; faster to flip, no difference to the 2 ounces of glass. Transom would be all 1700, no reason for the light stuff. Inside is two layers of 1200 and you can reinforce the chines with some of the 1700 cutoffs inside.

 

Actually mixed 1700 and 1200 was exactly what I was thinking too.

 

Today's

 

Are you having trouble at that chine or you gor a plan?

You might want to build a beltsander mount so you can form the ends into each other easier. Otherwise, a small fixed sander works better, but they cost 150-200. Holding the sander works, too, but harder.

 

No, no trouble. It takes me around 10 minutes to fit a plank. Sharp chisel, decades of experience.

In answer to your previous question, no fiberglass experience at all.