Worst moments in boatbuilding

I am starting this thread on a whim, because I have a few funny boatbuilding stories to share. Some of them have been only personally embarassing, others have been downright setbacks, of the 1 step forward, 2 steps back variety. I will start by sharing one my finest moments, because my normally reserved personality is emboldened by the anonimity of the intraweb.

I was working on a major step on my 23' cabin cruiser, which involved glassing/epoxying nearly the entire inside of the boat. This is before the stringers and frames were added. The hull had recently been flipped from its upside down position to rightside up.

Anyone that has done this before on a sizable boat realizes that it is a very labor intensive process. I found this to be true, in spades...

I recruited my buddy for a large part of the process, but was then left alone to complete the job after several hours of work. As the hours wore on, I found myself using more and more epoxy with slower and slower results. Eventually, I worked my way into the bow of the boat. Unfortunately, this required me to kneel/sit/slip/slide on previously epoxied portions of the interior. In hindsight, of course, I would have started at the bow and worked toward the stern. Lesson learned.

As I progressed into the wee hours of the very hot/humid night, I was forced to abandon all hope in completing the process in an orderly and safe fashion. After slipping and sliding around on uncured epoxy for quite some time, I finally finished saturating all of the interior with 12 oz. cloth. When I extracted myself from the boat, I was covered head to toe in semi-cured epoxy.

I know that this is very unwise, as it can lead to epoxy sensitivity. However, my only thought upon finishing this task was to get into the shower as soon as possible. I stripped down on the deck and pursued the mostly futile exercise of using a shower to get the epoxy off my skin.

Anyone who has done anything similar will not be surprised when I can say I spent the next following night/day being covered in extreme stickiness. I was able to wash some off with acetone, but it is next to impossible to get it all off.

When I woke up the next morning, I was very chargrined to discover that my butt cheeks had been glued together. Then, to add insult to injury, on my deck I found my "tighty-whities" securly epoxied to the deck. My wife, of course, proceeded to tell the entire family. Such is life.

Please share your f*$#-ups.

 

OH....please tell me there were pictures! Not for here but for posterity!

I will share my latest...done within the last couple of weeks. I designed this little dinghy, did up the offsets and laid it all out on plywood. Now the boat is only 5.5' long but I have to scarf the ply because I only have 5x5' sheets of 3 mm. I was going to scarf the added bit in a the aft because of the very sharp bend in the side panels closer to the bow...so after cutting out everything...I ended up with the scarfs at the bow instead of the stern. My error? Doing up the offsets opposite to what I normally do...with the stern to the left and the bow to the right. I did it bow left/ stern right and then proceeded to lay it out like I would normally do for the other way. Didn't notice until I had cut both panels big panels out and was laying out the little ones. I shall persevere and see if I can get them to work right anyways.

 

Hmmm....since it was so humid that night tell me......did the boat blush, did you blush or both?

 

Oh...by the way...if you want to get epoxy off use regular vinegar first then some citrus cleaner like Goop. Don't use Acetone as it is absorbed by your skin and brings along the nasty stuff from the uncured epoxy along with it. The vinegar will stop the epoxy from curing at all...so things will stay unglued and the Citrus cleaner will remove the residue. Soap works too but not as well. You can use vinegar to soak your brushes and stuff too, then use a solvent to clean off the residue when you need them again.

 

I once hung a lightbulb on a cord over a lamination so it would cure in the cold, but the cord slipped and the bulb contacted the lamination while I was out.
Later I got back and things smelled a bit toasty, but fortunately no fire.
Spent the next day digging out charred core and fiberglass and re-repairing my repair.
Lesson learned -don't turn a boat into a bonfire!