Building a stitch & glue boat in Fiji

lol I wish! The mill is on the other side of the second major island! I bought tickets to Sydney for this Sat for 3 days....have emailed a bunch of fg sources there and waiting to see who has some in stock that suits my project. Bout time I went to see my folks too! I figure I am going to need lot of other stuff for the boat like rod holders, lights and trailer parts so might as well get all in one go. Prebooked 50kg travel baggage!!!

 

Remember if you cant purchase the correct tape , buy fabric on the roll and cut your own. Its more economical and easy.

Medium weight stitched 45 45 eglass fabric is the boatbuilders best friend. Purchase as much as you can carry then resell it to local boatbuilders.

Also pick up quality fillers for the epoxy or polyester

Sanding filler and structural filler...fill your pockets, shoes, anything with the stuff

 

300gsm?

 

My last boat was a 3.6m HDPE Mac Attack with a 25hp Yamaha and I loved it. I am so tempted to fit forward controls to this build. I came across a pic some where on the web of a RIB that had a metal pipe arm that had the steering hub fitted to the end and the pushpull cable running through it. That was the console! The pipe was part of the bench seat. Since its optimum to bring the load forward of the transom I am wondering if I something like this might be a good idea with the 8hp. There is a weight penalty with the forward controls though and if I had a 15hp I wouldnt think twice about fitting it but with the 8ph would it be too much?

 

Stick steering ...google it. Popular on small lake fishing boats. It uses a push pull cable like a rotary unit.

S

 

Thank god for Sydney! Shops open till 5pm on a Sunday!!! Visited Bias today and picked up a stack of stuff for the boat and trailer, lots of bits that cant be had in Fiji like ss fasteners, forward control cables and fittings, winch, trailer rollers and brackets, lights, PFD for the baby, deck fittings and much more. Then hit a couple of tackle shops for a PE8 popping rod and PE3 light jigging rod, lures, leaders, replacement trebles, hooks, UV wear for the family...found a good deal on a Hummingbird 385ci combo GPS and sounder unit for $269, will get it if any coin left over after visiting the FG shop in the next couple of days. First time been away from bubs, Mrs says she is very upset and moody...awww cant wait to fly back out

 

All the shopping now done for the boat!!! Shopping for the Mrs and bubs tomoz and packing whole night

 

Gotta love plans coming together! It is amazing when you can get what you need and fly back in country, other people are just amazed at your new toys.

 

well well, got back to Fiji a couple of days ago with bags bursting with goodies Onwards with the build now after a couple days rest and time spent catching up with bubs.

I got offered a good deal on 450gsm double bias fabric 1.27m x 10m for pretty much the same price as what the 6" tape would have cost me. This was a shipping mishap returned goods item where the courier had folded the cardboard roll the fabric was on and the customer had refused to accept it. I rolled it out and there is only a touch of scrambled fibres in the first metre. Rest is straight and clean. Reckon I did well there. Went across the island to the resin supplier today and have 5L epoxy kit coming on Wed. Still have the 10m of 600gsm roving sitting here, hope I can use that too, cost some good money that. Hoping it can go on the transom at least and maybe inside seams and deck. Wonder it it would be worth using to beef up the keel?

 

Remember to investigate the phenomenon of epoxy blush and secondary bonding

 

Youll need alot more than 5L of epoxy too mate... id buy it by the 20L pail to save some money if i were you... Youll need to paint on the epoxy all over the ply wood and it will suck up a good deal of it... 5L will be gone in no time at all, and then youll be waiting again...

Im sure youll find a use for that roving mate, use it to build up thickness where ever you want the extra toughness - like the keel as you said...

Good luck, and don t forget to show us few pics along the way

 

Normally the centerline will be one layer tape, one overlap port side laminate, one overlap stb side laminate.

Thats three times 12 oz on the exterior keel. This is Massive laminate thickness for a small boat. Id store the heavy cloth and conserve expensive resin

 

Tabbing and seam sheathings are dependent on the loads, which can be roughly scaled with the plywood thicknesses used.

For taped seams:
1/4" (6 mm) plywood, a single layer of 12 ounce (400 GSM) regular cloth on each side, over a structural fillet.

3/8" (9 mm) plywood, a single layer of 12 ounce biax on the outside and 2 layers on the inside, with staggered overlaps, over a structural fillet.

1/2" (13 mm) plywood, 2 layers of 12 ounce biax on both sides of the joint, over a structural fillet.

Typically using a 4" (100 mm) wide roll of tape, you'd have a 1.5 (38 mm) overlap if multiple layers are needed. If 6" (150 mm) tape is used, increase the overlap to 2" (50 mm).

This can be lighter, if the boat is small or loads light, like a canoe or kayak. On 1/4" plywood in a canoe, you can get away with a single layer of 4 - 6 ounce regular cloth on each side of a seam, for example.

Tabbing is different and load dependent. For example, transom tabbing in a powerboat will usually have a much heavier schedule. A boat's centerline seam may also have a much heavier schedule. The same would be true of a structural element like backing plates, mast steps, opening reinforcements, etc.

The general rule with these is, you can go over with only a weight penalty, but if the tabbing is under sized, you will have damage eventually, as things tear out.

 

Thanks, makes sense. I don't know about building up the epoxy thickness though, I thought just enough epoxy makes for a stronger laminate then slopping it on? At least that is the school of thought when making structural elements like fishing rods. The ply doesn't soak much, a little amount can be spread a long way. At least on this damanu stuff. I was planning to wet out the ply then lay the fabric and wet that out squeezing out as much as I can and then sanding down to exposing the glass

There is one thing that I still am having difficulty with. Why cant the sheath and tape be one unit? Like a 50cm wide tape that goes over the seam and covers half width of each adjacent ply plate? I am sure I have come across many plans for similar sized boats that only specify just taped seams. Shouldn't I be able to get the benefits of both sheathing and tapes with the 50cm wide tape?

 

50 50. Resin to fiber ratio. Once you a have achieved this no more resin is needed...smoothing the laminate surface is done with fairing compound , not liquid resin
Put your fabric on a scale and weigh it. This is how much resin will be needed

I suppose you could skip the tape seams , sheath the hull, then add tape to the exterior surface of the laminate to reinforce the joint

Normally you fillet and tape the seam in one operation. Let cure, abrade the seams , then sheath.

when you first fillet and tape the seam you increase the radius diameter of the joint that the structural sheathing fabric must conform to. This will produce a stronger boat. Fiber dont like to bend sharp angles.

In the end you must have the required fiber density on the seam. If 36 oz is called for , you must be 36 Oz across the joint

Building fiber density on the inside before final laminate seams to be the most popular way