Egress/Cindy Lou Redux...

troy2000

troy2000

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After several false starts and more planning than doing, I've finally committed to building the 28' riverboat PAR drew up for me several years ago. Instead of retiring to find the time, I switched positions at work so management can't force me back into shift work - and overload me again with 700 hours of overtime a year. I'm now working five 8's, from 6:00 to 2:30. I still work away from home, so I'll be headed home for the weekend most Friday afternoons; that gives me Monday thru Thursday evenings to build.

I rented a 20' by 36' Quonset hut for a shop, and spent the last couple of weeks painting it, hauling tools, and building an 8' x 8' x 2' platform for a frame layout and assembly table. I put two coats of white paint on the table before heading home this weekend, so I'll start drawing out the frames Monday after work.

I'm attaching some pictures. One is the first trailer load of tools getting ready to make the trek to their new home; one is the new shop in the middle of being repainted (Kilz 2 paint is incredible stuff); and the last is the layout table before being painted. And I guess it might help if I added something to show what I'm going to build...

The owner of the Quonset hut (who turned out to be the brother of a guy I worked with for years) just finished rewiring it completely for me, and added electrical and plumbing hookups so I can park my travel trailer behind it. The rent is about what I was paying to park along the river anyway, so from my point of view it's basically a free shop. I'm mostly just giving up a good view, and the ability to walk out my door and throw a line in the water. 030.jpg 034.jpg 047.jpg
 

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Glad to see it's going to happen Troy, thanks for posting the update . . :)

Godspeed with the build !
 
For anyone wanting to know what this build is about, see Egress in PAR's Powerboats section, or a short description of her in the Riverboat series.
 
Called in sick today, which I think is the first time in 18 years I've ever done so when I wasn't sick. Normally I don't call in sick even when I'm sick; I figure I might as well be miserable at work instead of at home.

Instead I brought another load of tools for the shop, and will-called two gallons of marine epoxy for the frame gussets. Found a manufacturer (not distributor) that's only about twenty minutes out of my way when I'm headed from home to work; that beats heck out of paying the shipping costs I've been quoted by a couple of suppliers. The company is Polymer Composites Inc., in Ontario CA. Their prices seem to be good; they charged me $107.74 for the two gallon kit. And I like the fact that it's a 1/1 ratio epoxy; makes it kind of hard to screw up the proportions. :)

I also like their style. I first stumbled across the company in a kayak forum a year or two ago, when someone asked if anyone knew anything about their products. He immediately got buried under dire warnings that he was out of his mind if he bought anything but a nationally-known brand name. Then the CEO/Chief Chemist of Polymer Composites chimed in and said something like, "well, I used our products on my last kayak, and it turned out fine."

Someone asked if he'd be willing to send a free sample or two for test purposes, and he went them one better: he offered to send a member of the forum enough for an entire kayak. I don't remember the forum name and haven't been able to find the thread again, so I don't know where it went from there. But I was impressed by his willingness to engage...

I called them last Thursday, and told Gina at the desk I'd be in Friday afternoon to pick up the two gallons. Got hung up Friday, so I called to say I was running late and wouldn't make it, because according to Google Maps I wouldn't get there until half an hour after their closing time. A gentleman named Rick answered the phone, and promptly offered to stay late so I could pick it up my order anyway. I didn't want to do that to him on a Friday afternoon, especially for such a small order, so I declined. But I was seriously impressed: not only that he offered, but that he made it sound like it would be no big deal.

Of course, I'll be even more impressed if their product turns out to be a good one. I'm pretty sure it will, but I wasn't going to buy 20 or 25 gallons without trying it out first. ;)

[add] In the interests of full disclosure: when I picked up the epoxy I showed Gina a shot of Cindy Lou on my phone, and she told me I could get a 5% discount by letting them use pic's of my build.
 
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It's good to see you're back into the project again and posting.
On a large build like that, would there be any advantage to being a business, (like you're building a tour boat) and getting business discounts? I guess you then have some quarterly paperwork, but it's not like there would be much to report. Just a bunch of expenses and then you claim a bunch of losses and go out of business when no customers show up.
I'm under the impression business discounts are 25-35%, maybe they aren't that much.
 
Nice to see your post Troy and your new enthusiasm for Cindy Lou. That hut looks nice, I wish I had one, as they shed debris and weather good. Welcome back and good luck.
 
Angélique said:
Got a single shot hit on the first line by this: polymer composites epoxy kayak forum ---> Epoxy: Epoxy Brand - "MAX CLR HP" post #1

Follow the links below the first post, it's eleven years ago, Gerald Lapuz the chief chemist and CEO of Polymer Composites Inc. is post #2.

I haven't read the thread yet . . :cool:
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More proof you're the Queen of Search, Angelique... I tried 'polymer composites kayak forum' (without 'epoxy') and a few others, and got nada.
 
SamSam said:
It's good to see you're back into the project again and posting.
On a large build like that, would there be any advantage to being a business, (like you're building a tour boat) and getting business discounts? I guess you then have some quarterly paperwork, but it's not like there would be much to report. Just a bunch of expenses and then you claim a bunch of losses and go out of business when no customers show up.
I'm under the impression business discounts are 25-35%, maybe they aren't that much.
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Interesting suggestion, SamSam, but my life is complicated enough without creating an imaginary company to get discounts. Especially since I'm infamous for screwing up even simple paperwork; some shrink would probably have fun slicing and dicing me to find the hidden reasons for that. :)

I don't remember ever getting 25-35% discounts on materials when I was contracting; usually it was more like 10%. I can probably still pull that at a few suppliers. And a surprising number of places are starting to offer veteran's discounts; I'll take whatever I can get.
 
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PAR said:
Nice to see your post Troy and your new enthusiasm for Cindy Lou. That hut looks nice, I wish I had one, as they shed debris and weather good. Welcome back and good luck.
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I never ran out of enthusiasm, Paul; I just kept getting boxed in. You know the old saying: 'life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.' But I started laying out the frames tonight on my fancy new platform...

The interesting thing about this particular Quonset hut is that someone sprayed the outside of it with insulating foam, instead of the inside. Then they painted it white, and it's surprisingly easy to heat or cool. Unfortunately no one maintained the paint job, the weather has been getting to the foam, and right now the thing looks like it has leprosy. But Danny, the new owner, is busy patching it with some sort of concoction he mixed up, and it seems to be working.
 
Angélique said:
Got a single shot hit on the first line by this: polymer composites epoxy kayak forum ---> Epoxy: Epoxy Brand - "MAX CLR HP" post #1

Follow the links below the first post, it's eleven years ago, Gerald Lapuz the chief chemist and CEO of Polymer Composites Inc. is post #2.
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Just saw the actual thread sequence is as below, so Gerald of PCI indeed later chimed in with a later posted direct response to post #1, so Gerald's first post there is the eighth message of fifteen in the timeline.

polymer composites epoxy kayak forum thread.jpg


Alas the thread stops after Daren N was nominated to do the test, it doesn't tell how it went on . . . :(​
 
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Angélique said:
Alas the thread stops after Daren N was nominated to do the test, it doesn't tell how it went on . . . :(
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Troy, I think the proposed old fashioned field experiment still needs to be done, so best contact Gerald Lapuz at PCI to ask if you can collect the there offered free PCI epoxy and fiberglass, and offer in return to post here an unbiased and concise report about your experience in using those materials, plus a detailed photo diary of that part of the construction.

Good luck . . :)
 
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Angélique said:
Troy, I think the proposed old fashioned field experiment still needs to be done, so best contact Gerald Lapuz at PCI to ask if you can collect the there offered free PCI epoxy and fiberglass, and offer to post here an unbiased and concise report about your experience in using those materials, plus a detailed photo diary of that part of the construction.

Good luck . . :)
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I think Gerald offered enough materials for a kayak, not a riverboat... don't think 7 gallons would get me very far. ;)

The abrupt end to the thread makes me wonder if they started a new one for the proposed build.
 
troy2000 said:
The abrupt end to the thread makes me wonder if they started a new one for the proposed build.
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For whoever wants to dig into that, here's the latest version of the Kayak Forum, if it's there then I'll suppose it'll be in the archives.


OkoumeFest.jpg
 
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