Starting up again

Due to family issues we haven't been able to do much for the last three weeks. Had a week long visit from my parents on their way to the New Brunswick, and my sister (who was living with us for longer than she wanted to) moved out to her new apartment here in Ottawa. Between moving, entertaining and trying to do real work there was no time left over for boat work.

Since I last posted I tried spraying the boat in my garage in a jerry-rigged spray "area" (I'm not going to dignify this effort by calling it a booth). I learned a lot about spraying paint, although not that much learned was good. The results had too much orange peel and the overspray and paint fog was miserable. I could thin the paint more, increase spray pressure, install a air movement system and buy a decent respirator, but the expense/effort of creating an environment for success is too high.

I'm going to wetsand the boat back flat and find me an auto body shop where I can either use the booth for a couple coats of paint or have them spray the boat for me. My quality expectations are too high for what I can do in the garage. My first (not quite honest) thought was to paint the boat in a booth but not tell - so people would think my garage capable of high quality work.

All the paint work done to date will be counted as primer.

Shifting gears

I've been happy with the oil-based paint going on Thomas' boat. Notes for posterity: the Penetrol does enhance paint flow and extends the cure time, but it somewhat dulls the gloss of the paint. It's great for help to keep the paint flat and reduce brush strokes, but it won't be in the last coat or so. I'll thin the paint with thinner instead.

Spent some time early this morning (5:30-6:30AM) before the family got up wet sanding the boat with 220 to flatten out the brush strokes and the edges of the roll & tip joins. It is now ready to spray and I hope I get the kind of finish I anticipate. If all goes well this boat should be about as good as you can get in a garage build without a spray booth. I'm going to prep the side panels of the cockpit later today with primer so they can be sprayed as well at the same time. They aren't attached to the boat permanently yet, so I'll spray them before they get epoxied in place. I'll protect the gluing edge with tape so I'm not epoxying a painted surface.

I was able to get good (but not spectacular) results with the roll & tip technique, but not as good as you can with spray. The paint I'm using has a little bit too much drag on the brush. I imagine I could get it a little better if I thinned the paint a little and really concentrated on low brush pressure when tipping the roll back into the wet edge. I'd also have to keep moving the wet edge location between coats. So far it has hit in around the same place each coat, making a little thicker area that needed to be sanded down.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Two days into the red oil paint and things are looking up. Coat number (three) four is on the boat and it looks dramatically better than it did after five coats of latex. Since it IS red paint, it is going to take a couple more coats to completely even out the color, but the dark gray primer really is an improvement on the light pink.

I've been able to do two coats per day. It takes about 30-40 minutes per complete cycle, sanding and then wiping down the boat with paint thinner, drying it and then painting & clean up. Then wait for 14 hours and repeat. The 400 grit sanding pass needs to be light, as without 24 hours it would be possible to go too far and cause problems. I've been storing the foam roller in a Ziplock bag between coats and cleaning the bristle brush and wrapping it in Varsol dampened paper towels and storing it in a Ziplock as well.

The oil-based paint is flatter, harder and better to work with in every way. Sands like real paint. The roll & tip works much better with the oil paint, and I'm using Penetrol as a flow enhancer with the paint. I'm going to switch to a flat foam brush tomorrow from the bristle one I'm using to see if the brush strokes are reduced. It will be interesting to see how good I can get the surface before I switch to spraying the paint.

I don't want to use the spray until necessary as I have a healthy respect for the damage that can be done with overspray.

Penance

I've sanded away the latex paint as punishment for my childlike belief in things I read on the Internet. As much of my life is on-line both work and after hours, I should know better. Since I'm publishing this on the Internet for others to read and learn from, a cautious reader may be inclined to believe none of this.

Went to see Benny Moore yesterday and bought some GOOD dark gray primer. It took a good chunk of the last two days to sand the latex off Thomas' boat. Not fun. Sanding is the long, endless dark tunnel you must go through in building a boat and I have been through the tunnel twice on this project. Once getting the boat prepped for the latex red, and now once getting the boat prepped for the next try with alkyd (oil based) paint.

One of the benefits of making mistakes like this is that the boat gets sanded a lot more than would have if I had been happy with the first try at red latex. The boat is much better off in the fairness and smoothness department. I'm also getting better due to practice. One of the important lessons learned in painting is knowing when to stop, and avoiding putting too much paint on just because there is a little left in the tray.

Today I'll skim the gray with 400 grit and then put on the first coat of red paint.

<pause of several hours>

The first coat of red paint is on. It looks far better on the dark gray than it did on the pink. Being oil paint, it is slow to dry and has already captured a few hairs and a couple bugs. I've used tweezers to remove the stuff I noticed, but it is what it is. I'll skim the first coat of red with the 400 tomorrow morning early and put another coat on. Oil based paint is a patience game - it is going to take 4 to 5 more days to get where we need to be. It is still red paint after all.

This paint is drying harder, flatter and with more sheen than the latex did after five coats. I'm happy so far.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter ....

I've lost faith in latex. I'll reserve it's use for protecting protruding body parts while applying epoxy and during other dangerous activities where bodily harm may result from inappropriate contact.

Maybe it was my brief use of the nap roller (see red paint rule #10), but I just can't live with what the latex paint is doing to Thomas' boat. Latex may look great on an accent wall, garage door or window trim, but it looks like crap on a boat. And it is easily marred and scratched.

I've been hemming and hawing about the latex paint for days. It has tested my faith and I now have to sand it all off (five coats) and start over. With oil based paint. I'll prime with a good primer and then make sure there is a final dark gray coat of primer before I start with the Senator's red. It has to be done right. I didn't want to go to all this effort, and a less obstinate person would just prime on top of the latex and get on with it. I'm pigheaded and it doesn't matter to me that I look like an idiot.

This exercise is a great demonstration on why you have to take stuff on the Internet with a grain of salt. The arguments posted FOR latex paint included advocates like Harold "Dynamite" Payson, Phil Bolger and many others. Some of these guys are card carrying and/or honorary members of the Loyal Order of Cantankerous Maine Boat Builders! Latex may be good enough for a rowing skiff or a gunkholing tender, but it sure isn't good enough for me.

You should have seen Thomas' face when he walked around the corner from the school bus this afternoon and saw me longboarding the Senator's red latex off the bottom of his boat. I told him the crappy paint wasn't good enough for him, and I was going to fix it. He said, "That's good Dad - go for it. I'm going to go have a snack." He knows me well enough to tolerate and humor my obsessive nature.

I really wanted to stick with the environmentally & kid friendly latex paint as part of the goal of making this parent/kid work project. I guess that just like my use of epoxy, my desire for long lasting quality trumps my ability to follow the project plan.

--
Bill

Doubts are creeping in

My last post about the red paint blues has come back to haunt me. Remember my Red Paint Rule 11 about faith? I sure need some right now.

Latex paint IS (may be?) appropriate for use on a boat, and there are long standing discussions on the Internet regarding this. Duckworks and many home builder sites and blogs have talked through the benefits and compromises of using latex paint. Latex paint does not behave like either oil-based paint or the traditional two part paints used in marine applications. There's the environmental issues of toxic paints and off-gassing from their curing process versus the finish challenges and softness of less environmentally dangerous latex paint.

Thomas' boat is going to be dry sailed, so it won't sit in the water for extended periods. This cuts out the need for marine paint. It will be moving around on a dolly and roof racks a lot, so the paint has to be durable and tough.

Therein lies the source of doubt for me. Latex exterior paint is flexible and somewhat soft. It's easily damaged by rough surfaces and scrapes. It is also very difficult to get a smooth, hard, flat surface on. Latex house paint generally rolls on pebbled and rougher to the touch than oil based paints. Identifying oil based exterior paints is easy - they are much flatter and harder than latex - and they chip and break instead of bend and bubble like latex.

I'm used to hard, flat, smooth boat surfaces and I'm concerned about my ability to get a smooth, flat surface out of latex. I'd really like hard as well. I've been going around the house running my hands over latex painted walls and such, reassuring myself that it DOES get hard over time and it can be nicely finished. Perhaps it is a function of the miserable red latex paint, but getting flat, smooth and hard may be a tall order.

I've done a quick 400 grit sanding pass on the foam-rolled Floetrol-enhanced latex surface on Thomas' boat after 48 hours of curing. The latex sanding results in lots of little rolled "sausages" of sanding debris building up under the long board. It brushes off and isn't building up and clogging the sandpaper, but it sure isn't like sanding normal paint. I'm basically knocking the tops off the pebbled surface, trying to smooth and flatten the paint for spraying. I sure hope spraying results in a flatter, more self leveling surface than rolling does. If it doesn't I'll be doing a lot of sanding to remove the latex experiment!

For most people, living with (and liking) the latex surface as it is now may not be a critical issue. I want Thomas' boat to be competitive with Optis and able to sail with O'pen Bics without performance embarrassment, so getting the paint surface right is important to me. I'm also a bit worried about my work area and the trouble overspray causes. I don't want everything in the garage to have a fine red mist coating, but I also don't want to do this outside and turn the wet paint boat into the largest no-pest strip on record. I can envision a whole bunch of miserable insects with their feet stuck in the drying latex surface of Thomas' boat. One of the closet doors I sprayed latex on showed permanent evidence of a long insect death march across the drying surface ending in a collapse of the now-white insect carcass. I wish I had a paint booth to spray in!

I'm thinking of spraying the boat outside and then picking it up and moving it in the garage to dry. This is a compromise that may work. I'll place the boat on a tarp on the ground so the spray is controlled and not three feet above ground, reducing the potential of drifting overspray hitting neighbor's cars (or ours for that matter).

I'm thinking of trying the Fleecy fabric softener trick as well - the latex paint sure needs help to self-level like normal oil based paint.

I'll post results once I try thing. Cross my fingers!

The red paint blues

First, if you ever think of painting a boat red, get some beer, sit down and drink it till the thought does away. Red paint ain't great. Please note these pictures show an unsanded, rolled surface! It will not look like this when done.

Here are my new rules about red latex paint:

1. Do not use red paint
2. If you are reading this item this refer to rule one
3. Red paint requires many more coats than any other color to reach the state where it is even worth sanding
4. Floetrol is worth it's weight in gold. It makes red latex paint actually behave somewhat like other paints. Without the Floetrol red latex paint is more like applying gravel-enhanced plaster with a dirty trowel
5. Never let anyone see the first two coats of red paint. It is embarrassing and makes you look like you finger painted to get a tie-dyed effect
6. Primer should be absolutely pre-tinted. The best recommendations I've seen are to tint the primer a medium to dark gray. Any light colored areas underneath red paint will show through four layers of red paint. My pink tinting wasn't bad, but it needs to be absolutely uniform or the red paint (which uses a transparent jewel tone paint tint) shows EVERYTHING. If I were doing this again I would use a dark gray tinted unsanded primer layer underneath the red. Unsanded because a consistent color base makes the red look far better than an uneven color base.
7. Latex paints surface dry in minutes, but take 48 to 72 hours to cure enough for sanding. Don't bother trying to seriously sand without a 48 hour delay to cure, or you are asking for trouble
8. I didn't bother spraying the red paint for the first few coats, it would not have been worth the effort. I rolled it on with a foam roller. I figured I should keep on putting on paint till at least the color was consistent and worth sanding before I bothered to spray.
9. The foam roller - Floetrol enhanced red paint had an alarming tendency to show a lot of bubbles on first pass rolling. Subsequent re-rolling of the area with less and less pressure on the roller reaches the point where the bubbles are eliminated, but the first few times you put paint of the boat are scary
10. Nap rollers are tools of the devil and should not be used with red paint unless you are trying to call a demon up from hell
11. Faith is required to work with red paint
12. Most of the people in paint departments at building centers don't know what they are doing from experience - they've sat through seminars, but haven't actually done anything. If I had talked to someone who had actually painted red latex with a good quality finish result they would have told me about the dark gray primer idea. The guy I talked to said my "tint it pink" idea was the right thing to do. Learn from my experience!

I'm currently waiting through a curing delay for 48 hours so I'll report on the next step - spraying after I sand. I've got lots of other jobs to do in the mean time. In this second photo you can see the effects of Thomas learning how to spray paint closet doors on the driveway. He keeps forgetting to release the trigger at the end of the paint pass. No serious harm done!

Put the boat in the driveway to have the sun help the cure process. It's got to be better than sitting in a dark garage.

It's not staying pink!

Here are some pictures of Thomas' Microskiff in primer. I tinted the primer pink as the boat is going to end up red. At this point I've done a few cycles of primer/sand/repeat moving from the pre-primer 80 grit to 120, prime - 120 a couple times (where the primer was almost completely sanded off). Once I did the primer, all the faults and problems invisible (or ignored) during fairing became very ugly and obvious. Little things like chine edges and surface smoothness etc.

Right now the boat has received it's last (I hope) coat of primer and has been sanded to 220 grit before this coat of paint was hand rolled on. It's pretty good right now and I'll have a go at 400 grit later today. Once the 400 is done I'll start with the final red color. Thomas chose the official Ottawa Senator's hockey uniform red color for his boat. Thomas is a die hard Sens fan and most of his personal decorating choices are based on this.

Like every fairing/sanding job, the more you do, the more you see and it's easy to get stuck in a endless repeat cycle. My time in the garage is getting shorter, so I've got to get this thing painted and done soon. There is more work to do on the cockpit, rails and the mast partners, so the exterior hull paint has to move along.

It's good enough to move on to the next step. Thomas and I have put probably more effort into the fairing and sanding than most homebuilders will bother - I'm hoping this boat is finished well enough to look good in pictures so that we can use it as an example for people interested in building a Microskiff with their kids.

The painting process (and spraying latex) has been an interesting learning process. I cornered one of the local paint store proprietors and asked about spraying latex - he's got a couple commercial contractors working with his paints that do it. He said that there is a latex additive like Penetrol (used as a flow enhancer with oil based paints) called Floetrol. I bought some and will be using it with the final costs in the sprayer. He also said the faux finish painters use a couple capfuls of Fleecy fabric softener in their latex paint for both flow enhancement and slowing the drying process a bit. Part of the problem with latex is that it almost dries as it leaves the sprayer and it doesn't self-level as nicely without help.

Testing 1 2 3 ....

The outside of Thomas' boat is ready for primer. This means I've tired of sanding enough to lower my expectations to meet my impatience in the middle.

I want to spray the boat, figuring spray will have a better chance of a good finish than roll & tip hand painting. I bought a cheapo spray gun at Home Depot and have been experimenting by painting closet doors from the basement in the driveway. This solves two problems - I accumulate some experience spraying latex, and I get one of those five year old items off the list of incomplete projects my wife keeps reminding me of.

The first door turned out surprisingly well - the coverage was good, even and it sprayed without spitting, globbing or causing any trouble. Took a little longer to dry than I expected, but I'd added 10% more water to thin the paint for spraying. Guess that extra water needs time to evaporate. The down side of the spraying is overspray - the driveway looks a little worse for the wear (but it's latex), so I'll probably re-coat the driveway sealer when all painting is done. I also don't want to hit any cars with overspray.

I'll be trying the boat soon.

Epoxy will show your faults

Thought I was making progress with the fairing and sanding of the outside of the hull with Thomas. Decided to clean off the dust and give it a coat of epoxy for finish sanding before painting the outside of the boat. Rolled on the clear epoxy and every fault, dip, hump, scratch, dog hair and uneven surface came to light making the boat look like it had never been sanded.

Our sanding was just at the point of going too far - breaking through the previous epoxy layer into the bare plywood in a couple spots. I guess this means another fairing compound pass now that I can see all the trouble spots that had been hidden by dust.

Fair is fair

Been working on the outside of the hull for a couple days (actually a couple hours spread over a couple days). Mixing fairing compound and applying it. It's kind of fun sanding on a boat this small, as you see progress relatively quickly. Thomas was sanding with me a lot, we had to get him his own long board and dust mask. He told me we needed dust masks when he smelled the epoxy-based fairing compound, so a trip to Home Depot was necessary.

While at Home Depot, I cornered Pierre (the one guy who actually knows what he is doing) in the store and asked about spraying latex house paint. I'm pretty much convinced that we are going to paint Thomas' boat with exterior latex house paint because I just can't justify using two part poly boat paint on a low cost project. Pierre said he's gotten tremendous results with spraying latex on similar projects, but the trick is figuring out how much water to add to reduce the latex to sprayable thickness. He recommended an el-cheapo $30 spray gun that would happily work on my small compressor. He said the cool thing about spraying latex is the super quick drying times and being able to re-coat in 30 minutes. Lots of thin coats is the best way.

The fill and fairing is going really well - I'm quite happy with the outside surface of the boat. Once I get it where I want it, one more coat of epoxy and then we'll paint it.

What a difference a day makes

By now, you may be aware of the major problem I created for myself damaging the sheer clamp of Thomas' Microskiff. 24 hours later, the crisis is past and the rail now will look almost exactly the same as it did before my self-induced trauma.

I'm actually a little proud of the repair work - no one will notice except readers of this blog since they know where to look. The last part of the repair is in clamps right now, re-attaching the side panel of the boat to the sheer clamp. With a little sanding and shaping the nightmare will disappear.

It should not have happened in the first place and would not have if I had more experience and wasn't rushing to fit a quick fifteen minutes boat work into a normal work day. Power tools require one hell of a lot of caution.

After the last repair stage was clamped, I turned the boat upside down and mixed up a little fairing compound. Started to fill in the panel joins, dings, scratches and screw holes on the bottom of the hull. Once the fairing compound sets, I'll do a first sanding pass on the hull, re-fill the obvious areas and do a allover thin coat of fairing compound on the hull.

Its actually kind of cool being able to pick up and flip over the boat by yourself! The whole boat shell right now weighs maybe 50 pounds!

Time for some humble pie

I just deleted a post I wrote when I thought I was past the point of major screwups. So I thought telling people my lofty thoughts would be a contribution. Wrong.

I always wondered why Eric didn't use power tools for a lot of jobs - opting for long boards, hand saws and eyeballing things instead of cranking up the router, belt sander or whatever instead.

I took a break from real work today for a few minutes, went up to the garage and decided I needed to put the desired perfect radius on the outside of the rail of Thomas' boat. I have a monster four horsepower Bosch router that has more guts than my Toyota Tercel. I put in a half inch radius round over bit and set the depth. Didn't bother doing a trial cut on some scrap - I'm a woodworking genius!

This is a very cool tool - it winds up like a turbine till it reaches the set RPMs. It would take me five or ten minutes and all the rails would be perfect. Started at the bow port side and worked backward towards the stern. It felt a little funny. I hate stopping because it can make a rough spot in your work, but I didn't like the feel, so I stopped to look.

The router depth setting had slipped, and the router had happily slowly plunged and kept on going without me noticing the serious damage going on. The router was so powerful it sent the round over bit deep into the sheer clamp and let me move it about four feet while way below the expected depth. The rail was ruined. All that gluing and clamping. Days of work gone.

I carefully put down the router and the revelation hit me that if I had been using a long board with 60 grit on it to do the round over I would not be in the very dark place I was now.

In my panic I thought, maybe I can layer some thin pieces of oak on the damaged area and glue it, clamp it and hide my stupidity. My brain abandoned me and I was like a 16 year old slapping Bondo on a freshly dented car.

It looked like crap. I had that ugly empty hollow feeling like I'd been caught dead to rights doing something really bad. I went back inside to do some paying work, wondering how I was going to explain the section of rail that looked like a rabid beaver had attacked to Thomas.

After a couple hours of work, I calmed down and my brain started to function again. Took a break from real work and went up to see if my horrible nightmare was actually true. It was.

Asked myself, what was the RIGHT way to proceed to recover from my temporary insanity. First, I mentally thought of Eric and how he gently deals with boat repair work clients to get rid of the negative blame and self flagellation. Next, I thought of how a professional would deal with the problem. Decided on a course of action that would involve carefully removing the damaged section of the rail, meaning two whole laminations would have to be completely removed for a four foot section, and then I would replace the damaged area with completely new laminations. It took me a while to section out the damaged area (using hand tools - a sharp chisel and back saw), but it eventually came out clean. The first new layer is clamped back in place drying as we speak. I'm sure it will be undetectable when it is done, and you can bet I'll be using a long board to round over the "new" rail.

Humble pie. Could use a glass of milk - it tastes a little dry and sawdusty.

We're back ....

First off, we haven't stopped building the boat. Thomas went to Grandma and Grampa's for two weeks, and then his Mom and I took off two weeks together. Thomas and I made a little progress on things while we were on holidays, but our backyard pool was lonely and needed attention. Pools actually stay much cleaner when they are used!

This will be a long post with lots of pictures to show where we are.

Here's a picture of the completed outside shell. When we left off blogging, the basic framing had been done and the outside panels attached. I made a few minor changes from Eric's build plan - moving the daggerboard trunk to the centerline, and using West System epoxy in some places instead of the construction adhesive. I did end up using the PL Premium for some jobs, as it was really nice, fast and appropriate for the design.

In this picture you can see the centerline daggerboard trunk. The panels are 1/8 inch Luan, and they are re-inforced with the pine stringers and cleats everywhere. You can see the stringers adding strength and squareness to the floppy ply panels - with the stringers attached it all gets rigid and becomes a boat.

These photos were taken after a major job was done - laminating the sheer clamp together. When you are actually building the boat, there is no sheer clamp at the rail of the boat. I opted to cut 1/4 thick by 1/2 deep strips of Oak for Thomas's sheer clamp - about $35 worth at Home Depot. Two boards - 10' 1"x8" (3/4 finished) and a 10' 1"x3" were used. I cut the strips using my table saw and help from first my sister (Elizabeth) and then a neighbor (Ron). Handling the 10' planks is not a one man job if you want to be accurate.

The strips were laminated using Titebond III (waterproof glue) from Lee Valley Tools here in Ottawa. It would have been painful to do this with epoxy (cure time blues and mixing). As it was it took several days of one or two strips a day. Bend, glue clamp. You can see my sloppy glue drips on the inside of the boat from laminating. I tried to clean up as I went, but just didn't make the time to be as neat as I could have been.

I had to obtain a bunch more clamps - it takes about 15 - 20 clamps per side to get each strip exactly how I want it. Thomas is now expert with both hand clamps and C-Clamps. C-Clamps are used about every 10-12 inches to force location and hand clamps everywhere else to keep the glue under pressure.

After the outside of the hull is together, you have to cut and fit the Styrofoam as it is a structural part of the boat. This is a picture of the foam in the sides of the boat. You use the side panels as a pattern and cut it to fit around the bulkheads and frames. It cuts very easy with a hand saw. I used a Japanese Dozuki (back saw) from Lee Valley Tools for just about every job on the boat. Thomas uses it too - he had some minor Band-aid action going on his finger from learning to be careful with sharp tools. One quick lesson taught him more than days of me yelling to be careful with tools. He now respects saws. No real damage done, but he did break the skin and saw a couple drops of blood.

Next, the Styrofoam for the cockpit floor was cut and fitted. You do not need to "fill" every space available with this, as it provides vertical support to the floor panel above it. Oh, yeah - it also provides flotation in the event the hull was breached.

All the "inside" panels you see in these photos are "dry-fitted" and not yet glued in place. Basically, I wanted to be able to create a photo series in one day, showing all steps.

This picture show the floor panel dropped in place (it is not trimmed or fitted yet). This panel is one of my "off road" excursions from Eric's build plan. The boat as designed uses 1/8 inch (3mm) Luan for this and I substituted the 1/4 inch shown. To make it a little more eye-candy, I routed a small V-notch every 2 inches to simulate Mahogany or Teak planking on more expensive boats. The panel is Luan ply, but stained with a reddish Mahogany color and then sealed with epoxy. Each V-groove was darkened with a black Sharpie after staining and before the epoxy. Some people may find it cheesy, but to be honest, it attracts more attention than it deserves from the neighbors and spectators. People seem to think the boat is far more attractive because of the simulated planking. Go figure. The dust and bugs in my garage formed the basis of the non-slip surface.

This is some detail of the bow of the boat - showing how I've just kept the Oak laminations simple and at 90 degrees to the panels. There is a one inch lamination on the outside of the boat, extending one half inch above the panel. All the subsequent laminations are 1/2 inch across the 2 inches for the Styrofoam (plus the 1/8 for the inside panel), and then there is another 1 inch strip to cap the side of the boat. The "cap" is not installed in this picture.

This picture shows the amount of curve in the sheer clamp. I can't imagine how Robert and Eric bent the 3/4 by 1/2 Pine for Eliane's boat - I had enough trouble with 1/4 inch strips! The Oak is heavier (a lot heavier) than the Pine which is why I made it smaller and will be rounding off the edges with a router still. I think Thomas' boat will be about the same weight as Eliane's (maybe slightly heavier) due to choosing the 1/4 panels for hull bottom and floor), but his much higher weight (over 100 pounds) and general roughness on things make this a good idea even at a slight weight penalty.

Transom view. The floor panel is not fitted here and will be a bit lower when done. This photo shows the Maple transom bar and open drainage.

More to come as Thomas and I actually fit and glue things together. I hope this shows we've been making progress building, although we've been not so good about blogging!

Cheers, Bill & Thomas!

Uphill climbing

Boat building gets to be like mountain climbing at times. Every time you look up, there is another false summit ahead. You think you are making progress and suddenly you realize there is lots further to go.

I've built and attached the transom. Had to do a little fiddling, as the transom CNC cut panel was a little narrower than the boat. Widened the transom a 1/4 inch and things are fine now. Nobody but me will ever notice the difference (except people reading this that is). I'm sure the CNC transom panel is right, and somehow during my tracing of the hull bottom and cutting it, an 1/8 inch a side crept in. No big deal. Used a piece of maple I had lying around to make the transom re-inforcement that backs up the CNC panel. Man is that stuff hard! But it will never break.

Cut foam Sunday morning - it looked like it snowed in the sidewalk between my house and the neighbors. Not my favorite neighbors, as they keep their house like it's abandoned. They'll never notice the foam bits. They are young and stupid - washing their cars more often than they cut the lawn - putting effort into a money loser like a car to impress people, while the real estate investment that could have made $100,000 since they moved in now looks like it is a grow op.

Things are moving again .... finally

The project hasn't stalled - I've just been too busy to blog things. I'll take and post some pictures tomorrow. Thomas' project is starting to look like a boat.

So far, I've completed the first assembly stage - the centerline frame is epoxied to the hull bottom, the bulkheads attached and all the supporting stringers and cleats are in place. I've got to finish the transom bulkhead supports. The outside side panels are now attached as well.

Surprisingly, everything has fit just about perfectly. There was a little twist in the hull bottom as the centerline frame was attached, but as more of the parts were assembled and fixed, the hull pulled itself into alignment perfectly.

Now for a little frank discussion .... I changed the hull bottom and the cockpit deck to 1/4 inch plywood from the specified 1/8 inch. Although the 1/8 inch is lighter, and the design strength in the foam sandwich is adequate, I feel that Thomas at 100 pounds and growing fast would probably damage the 1/8 inch plywood. Since I decided to build for quality over minimal cost, it wasn't a hard decision. Increase in cost? About $16 total.

I'm trying to make this build turn out as nice as possible - and to do this I've put some effort into cosmetic things, as well as strength. A while ago, a Italian boat builder (Marco Croci) showed a spectacularly beautiful 12' boat called the Truc 12' from Crusyacht. I immediately fell in love with the money-no-object classic yacht vibe and the presentation that looked both light and modern as well as refined. In tribute to Marco's drop dead gorgeous Truc 12', I've attempted to emulate some of the same look and feel, using lumberyard parts instead of the teak, carbon and mahogany. When the hull is finished, people can let me know if it looks good or cheesy.

My wife and I were out trying to take our 14 month old Husky/Shepherd mix to the Lac Phillipe section of the Gatineau Park this past weekend, and discovered things had changed a lot since we had last been there. Dogs (even leashed) are persona non grata there now, except for one trail you can't get to without a 3 kilometer walk through the busy campgrounds and beaches. We passed on the Park and drove out to Robert's nearby (15-20 minutes away) house instead. Roz (our puppy) played with Bibitte and we had a great time visiting with Robert's family.

Thomas got back from his grandparent's (my parents) today after two weeks. I've missed him and so has the project. Two weeks is too long. The one benefit is that most of the epoxy work is done, and I can switch to the construction adhesive for attaching the foam. We'll cut the foam tomorrow - I made a pattern from the centerline frame for the foam parts earlier.

Got an email today from Tom J. (teabag on Sailing Anarchy) a local 505 (and Contender) sailor, saying that he had some leftover Tyvek from a renovation project ... did I want it? Answered yes, and went to pick it up at lunch. Thanks, Tom!

Tomorrow I'm planning on figuring out how to handle the transom, build it and mark out and cut the foam supports.

Frustration

I wish I had more time to work on the Microskiff project. Real work is really busy right now, and I just don't have enough hours in the day. I'm trying to fit an hour or so a day boat building in somewhere. Perhaps I'll get time this weekend. I know exactly what needs to be done - nothing is difficult but the epoxy cure time delays are killing me.

There sure is a big benefit of Eric's low tech assembly method - I could have things done three or four times as fast. You just have to be patient with epoxy - rushing is the quick road to disaster. I've got to get more 205 fast hardener! I had a little can here that I bought last year that didn't last long.

I'll stop whining now.

Organizational pause ....

I took a few minutes early (6:00AM) this morning to wet out all the remaining panels with epoxy. Everything is now done in terms of wetting out prior to assembly. There are lots of tasks on the go and I thought a brief pause to organize a list of items would be useful.

• Complete the centerline frame and splice in the new daggerboard trunk (done)
• Epoxy some stubs 1/16" offset from one side of the centerline of the hull bottom (inside the boat) for screwing the centerline frame in prior to filleting. These little wooden stubs are big enough to hold the frame vertical, and maintain the hull bottom curvature long enough to get the filleting done. Once the centerline frame is filleted and cured, the little blocks could be removed (done)
• Cut the Mahogany blanks into 1"x3/4" strips, reverse every second one and epoxy it back together. This stabilizes the blanks for making the foils
• Epoxy the chine logs to the inside of the hull bottom (done)
• Glue the stringers where needed on the bulkheads & frames (done)
• Think about hardware mounting locations and block accordingly (done - at least the thinking part!)
• Cut out the foam structural supports (done)

I'll add more as I think about it. I've got to get real work done for the next eight hours or so.

Invisible work

I've been working hard on the Microskiff project ... really. There isn't much to see as what I've been doing qualifies as "invisible work" or stuff done in preparation for future steps. I've epoxy coated just about all the panels - there is one side of the four side panels to go, and I'll try to get to it tonight after dinner. Same goes for splicing the daggerboard trunk into the centerline frame. The trunk is cured and very stiff. It needs a little sanding before I cut the centerline frame and put the trunk in.

I'm taking my time on the project, not trying to rush, as some of the attention the project has gained make me think that I better do a good job. I'm trying to get all the epoxy work done before Thomas gets back from his grandparents (my parents!) -I'd rather not have him deal with epoxy. Thomas will be here to fair, sand & paint, to help rig the boat and to help test & tune the rig.

I grew up the son of a craftsman (thanks Dad!) - hence my lack of fear taking on the project. Because I'm familiar with reasonable quality woodwork and boat building, I'm going to attempt to make a standout example of Eric's design work - in the hopes that it be photogenic if the project does gain a larger audience. I'm staying true to the project's low cost goals - everything (except Norm's donated African Mahogany for the foils and the West System epoxy) has been purchased in a neighborhood lumberyard. No exotic woods, no marine-grade Okume plywood.

So far, none of the necessary tasks have been remotely difficult and out of reach for the average kid with a Mom or/and Dad's help. I've planned (and will be doing) a little fancy (but completely unnecessary) work to make an arched support for the mast partners, as well as some "wooden" boat fine finishing touches. I don't want Thomas' boat to be confused with a piece of rotomolded plastic!

I've recut the hull bottom and cockpit floor panels using a jigsaw and it was so easy I'd not bother with the $120 CNC cutting if I had full size paper patterns.

The only necessary tasks I see as possibly challenging for people new to woodworking is making the foils (daggerboard and rudder). You can make basic foils from plywood, rounded on the front and tapered on the back edge, but they do not perform very well. Eric, Robert and I come from a very high performance dinghy sailing niche called "Skiff" sailing - the highest performance small boats on the water today (excepting the crazies sailing hydrofoils). Upwind performance is very tightly coupled with precise foil design and execution. Hydrodynamically-optimized foils make a world of difference in a boat's performance. High performance foils are as carefully shaped as airplane wings to optimize lift and reduce drag.

The Microskiff is intended to be able to perform very well - combining good foils with very light weight and well-designed sails means this boat should be able to "plane" like a fast motorboat on top of the water - exceeding the traditional sailboat speed limits of displacement hulls. Keep in mind though that this is a KIDS boat and is intended for their safe & fun use only.

Postscript July 28: The bamboo arrived a few days late, and Purolator damaged a bunch of it. A fair amount of cracks & a couple shattered poles. I caught the driver before he drove off and got him to acknowledge the damage on his delivery tablet - now I've got to go through the claims process with Purolator. Damn.

Progress

Been raining here so much the ground is completely saturated. Every step you sink in and get a soaker. Now I know what the Pacific Northwest is like.

Yesterday I made good progress and tonight I'm going to try to get some more done. Too busy with paying work to go fool around in the garage right now. Robert emailed Eric and I this morning with a progress report and he's now sanding and filling Eliane's boat starting the process of getting ready to paint. He's asked Eric for a detailed painting process outline so he can re-explain it to Eliane in French and in "kid" terms. Eric speaks perfect French, but Robert has lots of on-the-job experience speaking "kid".

From what I remember, the idea is to varnish all the raw wood after the sanding & filling process is done. After the varnish to seal the wood comes the fairing with putty and a light re-sand, then comes paint. When Eric sends his procedure out, I'll fix any errors I've made here.

Postscript - July 28: Here's Eric's procedure:

1. Apply diluted (25%) varnish on all plywood edges, repeat as much as it will absorb
2. Remove staples with a long nose if you cannot, push them in with a punch and hammer
3. Fill all joints, holes with putty
4. Sand the putty, sand lightly the varnish
5. Apply the paint with the "roll and tip" technique. With a narrow (2-4'') short hair (or foam) roller, spread paint over a small area (4-8 sq.ft.) then quickly and delicately stroke this area with the tip of a dry brush (cheap foam ones are ideal) to remove bubbles. Do long regular and parallel strokes. Move to a next section and keep a wet edge to overlap the sections, if you cannot maintain a wet edge reduce the areas of the surfaces you work on at a time
6. Three coats of paint minimum

Thomas' boat will be different due to the epoxy that has been pre-coated on everything. I'll sand and then fair the hull. Areas which will need attention are the chines & outside panel joints. There shouldn't be any other major filling as I'm not using the screws anywhere on the outside of the hull. Once done there will be a light re-coat of epoxy, a finish sanding then paint.

Robert has been having fun sanding - the construction adhesive has a long full cure time (7 days) and it frequently gums up the sandpaper as it remains somewhat flexible even after curing. Cure time is also affected by ambient temperature, material porosity and humidity - all things that have not been optimal around here lately. Robert wanted it known that a harder setting sand-able adhesive would make things a lot easier. This goes hand in had with Eric's thoughts that a good waterproof wood glue would be better for a lot of tasks.

Eric sent out the basic sail dimensions today - we have to keep multiple project streams running concurrently to get this done.

I'm still working on Tyvek. The bamboo shipment has gone missing - it should have been here on Friday, but it was lost in Toronto and never made it to Ottawa. The Purolator Courier folks are on the case and they've commenced "an intensive warehouse search protocol" to find the shipment. Some Purolator shipping warehouse worker probably made our shipment into "Tiki Torches" for their Friday afternoon "staff meeting".

On your mark, get set, ready, go!

Yesterday I started the day making my wife a happy woman. I cleaned the garage. She was very happy to hear me vacuuming, throwing out stuff and generally organizing things. To prevent marital discord, I made a curtain of landscape plastic sheeting I had sitting from an old gardening project to form a barrier between the canoe, bikes, snowblower and things that don't like sawdust etc. from the "work" area.

Made up a plastic covered table top to be clamped when needed on top of a Workmate bench as an epoxy mixing station. One thing I learned from Eric on the last build was to keep a clean and clear epoxy prep area where mixing and all the epoxy-related stuff was segregated. Eric is super careful about contamination of his epoxy measuring pumps and materials.

I've found a big part of shop productivity is directly related to organization and preparation.

Once I had the garage relatively clear I started moving the Microskiff materials out there and I started boat building in earnest. A pile of 3/4"x1/2" stringers, one of 3/4"x3/4" stringers, one of the angled chine log stringers etc. After watching how well using a straight & level 8' long 2'x8' plank worked for Eric & Robert as a work surface, I put one in the jaws of a Workmate and that became the central work surface.

Those who have followed this blog so far know that my boat building activities have been limited to milling wood, cleaning & edge sanding the CNC cut panels and marking up the keel frame. Yesterday I marked and cut the new hull bottom from a 1/4" sheet of plywood. I know, the design plan uses the 1/8", but consistent with my "build it to last" philosophy, I feel the 1/4" bottom will withstand abuse better than the 1/8". I see less need for fiberglass as well with the 1/4". Yes, the weight of the panel is doubling, and that isn't trivial, but I'm getting rid of a bunch of the stringers and construction adhesive, so I don't think the net effect is that dramatic. I didn't use Okume plywood and stuck to the Luan outdoor grade lumberyard stock.

Today (Sunday with no sun) I kept things moving. Optimizing build simplicity for Eric was a goal from the start. One of the things he did to make things simple was to place the daggerboard trunk slightly off center, allowing a full length centerline frame to be used. Just because I can, I made a new daggerboard trunk today to be placed on the centerline. I used the existing CNC-cut side panel as a pattern, cut two new ones from 1/4" ply (offcut from the new hull bottom) and epoxied together the new trunk. It's in clamps right now, and I'll splice it into the frame next step.

Because I mixed epoxy today and also because it's a crappy day I started epoxy coating a bunch of the panels & parts. I got all the panels needed for the first stage of assembly done, and I may do some more later after the first batch cure. I don't want too many things on the go at once, so I'm not rushing. Every time I try to do too much at once, things start going wrong.

Mea culpa

Okay, I'm coming clean. I went out today to buy the PL Premium and PL 300 adhesives for Thomas' build (along with various and sundry other needed things). I was driving to the building center to buy the stuff and my car steered itself to Lee Valley Tools. It does this sometimes. The car shares my joy being in the calming presence of quality tools and a quality company.

I arrived at Lee Valley Tools and proceeded to get in a good discussion with the store's adhesive expert, talking about laminating the sheer clamps, the frame/cleat joints and good waterproof glue. He recommended the Titebond III glue for the job - and felt it a far better choice.

While I was there I decided that regardless of the addition incremental expense, I'd use West System epoxy instead of the construction adhesives to assemble and saturation coat the boat. The incremental cost is not that huge - probably an additional $100-150, but in the grand scheme of things it will give the boat a much longer lifespan. I've been struggling with the whole low-cost paradigm, and have concluded that low cost is indeed important, but you also have to consider the potential for resale value and more than one kid benefiting from the boat and build effort. The one problem I have with my decision is that I'm not going to have Thomas participate in some of the build steps.

Almost all of Eric's build techniques still apply.

Part of my reasoning is that I already have both resin and both 205 and 207 hardeners here, as well as the 406 colloidal silica and 410 fairing compound. I'm not actually spending a lot extra money since a good part of this stuff was paid for long ago.

I'm okay with my decision, as we already have one boat built using the innovative but new and untested construction adhesive technique, so my caving in to the siren call of West System epoxy doesn't hurt that bad.

Updates & more notes for those who follow ....

This post is to help me remember things learned through the build process, as well as commentary from people I should listen to.

Steve Clark noted on in the Dinghy Anarchy thread:

A couple of thoughts.

• I hope you slopped a couple of good coats of paint and or sealer on the inside of the hull before putting the deck down
• Keeping the thin plywood dry is going to make a difference to how it all feels and lasts
• Epoxy really is cool stuff and hard to live without, I know about keeping the kids toxin free, but maybe there s something in between
• Tony DiLima at MAAS has a "Lo-Tox" hardener for MAAS epoxies which is quite a bit like the old Versamid hardeners we used to use with Dow and Epon resins. Used to say "it takes a quart to kill you" There are other choices that are pretty benign that may allow you to seal and glue the bits together without feeling like you are giving the kids a head start on their cancer
• CAN$ 750 doesn't seem that cheap to me.... unless it is for both boats

SHC

Eric mentioned a few things in passing during a conversation as well:

• The PL Premium adhesive bonded stronger and better than the PL 300. The PL Premium isn't Styrofoam friendly, but he felt it a better choice unless it was directly bonding the Styrofoam. He thought the PL 300 was a good choice for the Styrofoam
• Eric felt if the boat was built with epoxy instead of the construction adhesive it would be dramatically lighter & stronger yet. Robert had 20 empty 300ml tubes in the garbage after the hull build, and that is a lot of weight
• Subtract >400 #6 brass screws as well, that's got to weight a couple pounds
• Eric felt the PL construction adhesive was okay, but not optimal for a lot of the jobs in assembly - it filled gaps well and worked in situations where you would fillet thickened epoxy, but it would be better to use a waterproof carpenter's glue for things like laminating the sheer clamp, and attaching the stringers to the bulkheads & frames

Chasing stuff down

Today I called Dupont in the US to find out about unbranded, white Tyvek (Spun Olefin building wrap) for prototyping the sail. I like the idea of sail prototyping with Tyvek, but have some reservations of displaying their logo on Thomas' boat (without sponsorship compensation!).

Eventually navigated my way through the Dupont voice mail minefield and caught a real person unawares picking up the phone. This person seemed stunned their customer avoidance training had failed and they had to talk to me. I asked about unbranded Tyvek and they put me on to a Canadian representative out of Toronto (pronounced Tronna if you are local). Called him and after three tries he answered his cell phone. It took me some convincing, but he eventually conceded Dupont may sell unbranded Tyvek. I said to Google "Tyvek Sail Boat". He said Tyvek was not appropriate for the application - it has a four month lifetime while exposed to UV - I said a couple months of direct exposure was more than long enough for testing sail designs.

He's looking into it and will get back to me. Yeah right. I'm not holding my breath.

Eric sent me the measurements I need to start the assembly layout on the keel frame. I'll go buy some large paper and make templates to layout the foam cuts better. I'll talk through this more as I describe things later on.

My over-the-fence neighbor Norm has a secret stash of African Mahogany he salvaged from an Elections Canada government office being renovated to use modern cubicles. I help Norm out with computer and communication issues and we take care of each other. He's a retired RCMP officer who happens to be a great neighbor. I'm going to see if I can come up with enough Mahogany to make the Microskiff daggerboard & rudder blade. Be nice to have some bling for Thomas!

<insert dramatic pause ....>

Just came back from Norm's place with enough Mahogany to do the foils for the Microskiff. Awesome.

We're showing up on radar

This project has always been about first one kid, my son Thomas and then another, Robert's daughter Eliane. I quickly determined that what was good for our children would be great for a lot of kids and for the sport of sailing as well.

This project has had serious benefit of input from one hell of a lot of talent - and Eric's final product shows it. If timing has worked out different and Eric had not stepped in making a good case for simplicity and low cost, I'm pretty certain I'd have built one of Chris Ostlind's Cabrillo designs.

I have to say, this is one example where a public community and open collaboration works well - Steve Clark's input is very visible in Eric's design, and both Chris Ostlind and fdsailor's renderings pushed the ante higher in terms of "cool".

In January 2009, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post in Sailing Anarchy in response to Steve Clark on resurrecting an interesting development class of sailboat. Here's an excerpt from the post:

I'm still enthusiastic on the last two ideas you've posted: the standard canoe performance sailing conversion and the inexpensive kids boat! I think people should pay more attention.

Perhaps I should write Carl and elucidate on these two ideas. I'm a Woodenboat subscriber, and their startup homebuild projects are pretty lame. Slab sided, flat bottomed rowboats just have no potential to raise a pulse rate. Articles on caulking with mallets & irons are nice history, but aren't going to interest the snowboarding generation.

I think the Loyal Order of Cantankerous Maine Boatbuilders (Woodenboat publishers) would consider getting behind projects like this - they just need to learn there have been new wood boats designed since Herreshoff passed. No disrespect to Phil Bolger and the like, but your new canoe should have been noticed. We have to get on their radar, as they've got the stage on which projects can be noticed in the builder's community.

It wasn't surprising to me that Carl Cramer, the publisher of Woodenboat responded indicating he would be following the homebuilt wooden kid's boat idea further. I sure hope Carl wasn't offended by my attempt at poking fun at his publication.

Carl is as good as his word, and he's apparently been following the thread in Sailing Anarchy and this blog as well. Eric received a phone call from Carl this week, and it appears there is interest in talking about the Microskiff design. Woodenboat. Wow - now that's something worth posting about!

Hey Carl, if you read this, thanks for keeping your word!

--
Bill

Now that I've seen the light .... (light boat I mean)

I'm at an interesting point in the evolution of this project - and having Robert and Eliane build her boat first puts me in a unique position. Usually, the person driving a project like this builds the first boat, and had to figure out "refinements" and "what they would do differently next time" either on-the-fly or after the fact.

First off, there isn't much I'd change on Eric's basic design. It is pretty damned good right now!

Since the boat hasn't hit the water yet, and it hasn't seen usage (and abusage) by the target sailors, we don't really know if it is up to the task yet. Having Thomas at 100 pounds walk around on the unfinished deck without ventilating the plywood was a seriously good step.

The build process worked out well in terms of speed (great!), level of skills needed (again very appropriate), and quality of result (spectacular!). There was a minimal (but still some) amount of judgment needed to work through fitting things.

As anyone involved in product development knows, variances and tolerance problems tend to magnify & exponentiate the closer you get to the final product. A little deviation at step one can make step twenty a nightmare. Robert's build didn't show major final assembly problems when the cockpit was assembled, but there was a bit of hand-fitting and customization done to the final panels.

Here are my thoughts so far:

• The angled stringer used inside the cockpit on top of the floor worked out fine in the end, but the angle cut didn't exactly match the curving cockpit sides perfectly. I'm going to rout a quarter-round on the cockpit floor stringer before install. I know many builders may not have a router table, but I do. I'm also going to undercut the angle on this (the exposed floor stringer) a little more to compensate for the changing angles of the cockpit sides. The normal assembly sequence is to glue and screw the stringer to the floor before putting the floor into the cockpit, but I may try dry fitting the floor, dryfitting the stringer, marking the best placement and screwing the stringer in there instead of following the edge of the floor panel.

  Postscript: I've been thinking about this and if I opt to use epoxy, I'll just fillet this as per normal, instead of fooling around with the stringer. Eric and I talked about this fit today, and he's going to alter the CAD files for the next build to make this section a little easier to assemble. He also said the cockpit side panels need to be fitted before dryfitting the floor - with the foam behind them. This forces the side panels into the right position

• Eliminating the foredeck is a go for me
• I'm going to construct a mildly arched mast support thwart / mast partners to replace the deck. The arch will increase the distance between the step and the vertical support location, better supporting the free standing mast. If the partners were placed level with the cockpit rail, there would only be 6-8 inches of mast captured - not enough in my opinion. With an arched support it will increase this to 10-12 inches. Much better, although it will create a problem stacking hulls or inverting the hull on a roof rack.
• I may put a small vertical support in the center of the transom bar, so that my son won't break the transom bar easily by falling on it, or dragging behind the boat.
• I'm thinking I will make the outer laminations on the cockpit rail (sheer clamp) 1" deep instead of the 3/4" used in Eliane's boat. The extra 1/4 inch would be inside the boat, and it would allow me to rout a large quarter-round bullnose on both the inner and outer faces. I'd be a little concerned about the 3/4" and routing too much - I don't want to affect strength - just hiking comfort. The other thing that falls out of this is that the laminations will have to be done with glue & clamp - without the screws, as router bits aren't happy routing the heads off brass screws! I'm also contemplating using 1/4 inch layers and alternating dark and light layers - and exposing the finished wooden rail with varnish.
• The boat is so beautiful, it would be a shame not to spend a little more and have it last ten to twenty years. Some 4oz glass and an epoxy layer on the outside may be worth considering - keeping the current construction method in place for the basic hull.
• I will be pre-painting / sealing all the bulkheads, frames and inner boat hull before assembly to limit damage in the event the hull is holed. I know this will add a pound or two, but it is an ounce of prevention type choice.
• Both Eric and Phil simlutaneously and separately suggested the idea of oarlocks, and this will require placement of a support block under the rail inside the boat if flush mount oarlocks are fitted. I'd want to go with flush mount ones so they didn't get in the way of hiking. Phil suggested a small seat that fit in the daggerboard slot, creating a small skeg for directional stability while rowing. Great idea.
• Thomas has suggested that we also create a way to attach my little 3hp Evinrude outboard to the boat (currently on long term loan to a friend as auxiliary power on his clinker-planked vintage catboat - Hi, Frank!). I've got some ideas, although I'd rather he sail
• When laying out the plywood sheets for the CNC cutting (or manually cutting them with a jigsaw), flip both of the side panels (inside and outside) so that the "good" side of the Luan plywood is different on the two panels cut of each. This will prevent using one "bad" side out of each panel. If your don't mirror image the two sides, one of your exposed sides will be pretty rough.

I'll keep on adding to this list and put it up for community discussion and debate. I've given Robert admin access to this blog, so he can add feedback as well.

The one hard choice to be made is the value of added craftsman beauty (subjective) versus minimizing cost. The other hard choice is the incremental cost of making this a ten to twenty year lifespan boat.

I think the optimal mix may be keeping with the construction method Eric designed for the basic hull, and then seeing how to minimize the additional cost of creating re-sale value to the next generation of kids after Thomas is done with it.

Attention on deck!

Thomas and I worked on his boat today. Just cleaning the edges of the panels with blocks & sandpaper, and trimming the panel CNC breakaway tabs off with a razor. I had to re-assure Thomas he wasn't going to make mistakes, and that this was his boat .... convincing him he was a big part of this project. My fault probably - I like things done right and am admittedly a bit of a control freak when it comes to this kind of job.

He worked with me a for a while, preferring to work on the smaller panels.

After about an hour of this, I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride to see Eliane's boat. He did, somewhat to my surprise. Thomas generally likes to stay close to home, and he is often shy in places he doesn't know well. We jumped in the car and drove out to Robert's house, hoping an unannounced visit would not cause trouble. We talked boat colors on the way out, and Thomas said his boat was going to be red, with a white cockpit. I approve of that.

Got to Robert's place and luckily we were both welcome and able to see the Microskiff. Robert asked Thomas to take off his shoes and to try walking on the cockpit floor. The cockpit floor held Thomas' 100 pounds without any problem. Whew! I've been wondering about the reality of the 1/8 plywood as opposed to the theory of the 1/8 plywood. I did some subjective testing here at home, and as long as the 1/8 ply is firmly supported, I can walk on it without problem. Basically, the Styrofoam support concept appears valid at first glance.

I'm sure with paint it will be better, but Thomas did no damage at all.

Thomas and Bibitte got on famously - although Thomas now saw some failings in our 14 month old puppy, who doesn't obsess on playing with him, and also can't catch a ball on the fly while twisting like a pretzel. Too bad Eliane wasn't there, Robert assured Thomas that Eliane had secret turtle catching abilities.

The Microskiff looked better in person than in the pictures.

I really want to get the measurements from Eric to start layout of Thomas' boat!

Five days .... talk about instant gratification

Robert just posted three pictures of Microskiff hull #1 "Plouffe-plouffe" after five days of work, including the half day he spent here milling the pine with me. The boat isn't finished by a longshot, but the major milestone of completing the hull construction is basically done. I'm just stunned. Take a look:

I don't know about anyone's impression but my own - the boat is far more beautiful than anything costing this little has any right. It certainly blows away my original criteria of "Cool. Whatever that is". What kid would choose an Opti over this? What parent would pay $3K for a O'pen Bic when they could build this WITH their child, learn a lot and save well over two thousand dollars?

I'm speechless ....

Money dicing

Like most normal people, I don't like to talk about money. Since this project is being done more for the benefit of the general public, I'll get over my natural reticence.

Here's where we are on the money aspect of the Microskiff so far:

• Plywood panels - 6 x 13.95 each (100.00 tax included)
• Pine for stringers, cleats, foils & chine logs - (67.50 tax included)
• Bamboo for spars - 13.18 plus 87.75 shipping (ouch!) (110.00 tax included)
• Styrofoam panels (3) - (26.00 tax included)
• CNC cutting of plywood - (120.00 tax included)
• Designer fees - (75.00 tax included)

That brings my total to $498.50 so far. This doesn't include the adhesives, shop supplies, screws etc. Robert is tracking his expenses there and will update. Also to be added is the Tyvek for the sail, pintles & gudgeons, blocks, cleats & cordage. The sailboat-specific stuff from The Chandlery is expensive - it is easy to spend 100.00 bucks there on a project like this. I'm hoping I can get pintles & gudgeons from Phil & Dave at Phil's Foils / Competition Composites at a better price.

By the seat of my pants, guessing the Tyvek to be cheap and the PL-300 to be 6.29 for the big tubes (x 6) (37.74 plus tax) screws at 15.00 - say another 100.00 total for supplies.

Robert and I are splitting the shipping fees for the Bamboo, so that will be lower by half in reality. I bought a little extra Bamboo just in case (and because Eric wanted a 3"x8' piece for a project). Bambooworld had a $40.00 minimum order in any case - the shipping is the same for one or two boats - has to do with overlength penalties and whatever from BC. Add $50 for paint.

Adding all this up comes to a build price (estimated) totalling $750 Canadian dollars taxes included. This "estimate" will get better as we collect receipts for the stuff I don't have an exact handle on. I think this is pretty accurate on first review. Sure looks better than $3000+ for an O'pen Bic!

All this is assuming no labor costs and no tool purchase cost. The CNC cutting cost of $120 could be eliminated, but there would be an attendant bump in the designer fees if Eric has to supply full size templates for lofting self-cut plywood.

Postscript (July 19): Robert has pulled together his numbers as well - a bunch of his "actual" numbers are much higher due to emergency buys (at twice the price of a mega building center) at rural shops, and overbuys of Styrofoam etc. I'm trying to use this section to figure out a projected price for people who buy "just enough" materials at lowest cost instead of the real world mistakes he and I make because it has never been built before. I'm going to buy his Styrofoam overstock, so his actual spend will drop a little. Robert also bought all Eliane's final paint etc.

Time slicing

Had to drop off Thomas around 8:15AM this morning at the University of Ottawa for his last day of camp. I was suddenly hit by a Non-Maskable Boat Building Interrupt! Since I was downtown, and pretty close to the main bridge to Quebec, I decided to take a half hour drive to Robert's secret lakeside boat building shop to check out progress firsthand on hull #1.

Got there just before 9:00AM, and was greeted by Bibitte with a tennis ball in her mouth, looking hopeful for a friend victim to participate in her ball retrieval obsession.

I really wanted to see the progress, so I ignored her and proceeded to the garage boatshop. Wow.

That one word, "Wow" describes my exact feelings on seeing the Microskiff progress. Robert and Eric were dry fitting the cockpit sides and floor, and I have to say it really looks like a real boat. Eric asked me to pick up one end while he picked up the other and the whole thing could not have weighed 45 pounds! Even with paint and fairing adding 10 pounds it is going hit the weight targets.

The laminated rails caused the whole boat to become true and fair, forcing the plywood sides into a smooth curve. Without thought, I bent down and tossed the tennis ball by my feet out into the hillside to quiet the dog's pleas for a friend. As soon as I tossed it, Robert said "You shouldn't have done that, she'll now never leave us alone! Completely ignore her".

The boat took my attention away from the disappointed, softly crying dog once again, and I could not believe how in four days of first time assembly somehow a boat was built. Part of the speed has to be attributed to Eric's participation and expertise, but this was done with no on-site power tools other than three battery operated drills (one each for drill, countersink & screwdriver) and Robert's commercial quality coffee/expresso maker. Really! All saw duties were handled by hand tools, and the construction adhesive handled the rest with a few C-clamps.

Points noted during the conversation were that they used more PL-300 than first anticipated, with the rail lamination process chewing up a bunch (much of which will be sanded off). The screws used needed to be doubled for the 3/4" and a box of 1" added. Robert commented that there was a little manual "adjustment" and fiddling needed to attach the inner cockpit side panels - they needed a bit cut here and there to fit around bulkheads and the transom. The upper edge needed trimming along the full length to fit the rails exactly, and the cool, chopped transom turn from the rail at an angle required a lot of eyeballing, cutting and fiddling.

By the time a rookie woodworker gets to this point in the project they've already got enough skills to handle this challenge. It makes the boat look so good!

Eric noted we were right on the edge of pushing the pine's characteristics for tolerating bending pretty far, considering the (low) lumberyard "Select" grade of pine used. Any knots or woodgrain problems become obvious by the snapping sound if you don't pick a clear stringer for the rail bending. Really good clear pine would not be as touchy to bending.

My impulse control problem is back with a vengence, as I'm contemplating the boat rails, the mast partners and the transom support in alternating layers of dark & light woods, epoxied instead of glued & screwed. It would definitely add some time, as epoxy / clamp repeated a few cycles takes time.

I've been thinking about the layout of the boat since I saw the first drawing, and because I witnessed kids at the NSC O'pen Bic Unregatta last year, I know they loved the "freestyle" competition - where they hang off the mast, tack and gybe by running around the front etcetera. By removing Eric's planned foredeck and leaving the bow open, this boat could "play" the same. I suggested just putting a crossing thwart at the mast partner location and leaving the foredeck off. If a kid tried to go around the Microskiff bow as it is currently drawn, they'd put a foot through the 3mm skin on the first go.

Reality Interrupt. I'm due at a client site at 11:00AM by the airport (an hour away) so I have to say my time at Robert's has been a slice. Robert has promised pictures via a CD soon, so I'll be able to show more. He's going to post photos after he and Eric finish today. Oh, and by the way Eliane was MIA today due to visitors arriving last night, and too much extended, boring shopping with her Dad at the Quincaillerie (Hardware / Building Supply store).

¡Ay, caramba!

I had a full day in the office planned today, writing a new system module to handle an emergency client situation duct-taped on to existing business systems in response to one of their customer's random demands. Sigh. I hate emergency response programming! It almost never works as well as cleanly designing things right from the start.

By late afternoon I was brain dead and couldn't write good code to save my life, so I started to play puzzle pieces with the CNC cut panels on my office floor. It's a 3-D Tetris game making a model out of flat panels especially when you can't stitch them together and you have to imagine the 3D result from a 2D flat layout.

I could not for the life of me make things work, and I take pride in the (hopefully) exceptional 3D spacial capability inside my melon. The hull bottom didn't match up to the transom width, and the cockpit floor was too narrow. For giggles I tried reversing their position and things suddenly started making more sense. What we thought was the two piece cockpit floor was actually the hull bottom, and the one piece panel that didn't fit on the hull was the floor.

This threw a monkey wrench into things. By placing the two piece bottom panels side by side and separating the two by .25 inches (router bit width at Phil's Foils), everything now lined up and made sense. I phoned out to Robert's place and was greeted by an anxious voice asking if I had started my build. I said no, I stopped dead when I noticed a problem. They had found out the exact same problem and had to reverse the build somewhat to correct for it. Nothing too serious, but I'm sure I would have learned new colorful French phrases to expand my emotional vocabulary had I been there! The French use a very un-English blend of religion in their profanity. What's even more interesting is that they modify religious words to be slightly different so it isn't technically a sacrilege, but the intended meaning gets through. Tabernouche! You have to admit, it's more interesting than using one word commencing with "F" over and over.

We have to recut the split hull bottom panel to make it one piece and all will be back on track. Not a huge deal. There are lots of little details in CAD file transfers that need person to person communication - just sending a file without a narrative is a recipe for this kind of problem. I don't hold anyone responsible at all - it is just one of those things that happen on a first prototype build. I'll have to go buy another 1/8 panel and trace out the corrected one piece panel on it myself.

While I was working today, Eliane, Robert & Eric made huge progress on her boat. They worked through the issue I describe here and have the basic hull half finished - in TWO DAYS of building. What remains is a little more stringer re-inforcement of the frames, insertion of the structural foam supports and then installation of the floor and cockpit side panels. Notice the inside of daggerboard trunk has been pre-painted during assembly. Photo courtesy of Robert (roblynn on Sailing Anarchy).

Dodged a few bullets there! Sometimes being on the trailing edge beats the bleeding edge!

I'm kind of relieved my puzzle play problems were justified and the 3D modeling problem I anticipated was real.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines ....

Picked up Eric & a minimal assortment of his tools after a stop a client's office. After a quick reconnaissance pause at the St. Cecile de Masham Quincaillerie (Hardware / Building Supply Store) we arrived at Robert's lakeside lair. Eliane and Bibitte (her ball retrieval obsessive-compulsive disorder Labridoggie) were waiting and ready to go.

First job was cleaning the edges of the CNC machined plywood. Cut the tabs with a razor, then block sanded the tear out from the edges. Very quick on 1/8 inch ply! Once the pieces were clean Eric proceeded to layout the assembly basics on the keel piece and the bulkhead frames. This basically meant cutting out places for the chine logs and the stringers, as well as the slots for interlocking the frames and keel. Using a sharp Dozuki (handheld Japanese cabinetmaker's back saw) made the cuts quick work and avoided tear-out from the thin plywood. One thing to note was that the CNC cut of the floor was split into two pieces instead of one piece as Eric intended - he thought he may have left a centerline on the CAD files, and Phil interpreted that as a cut line.

Our chine logs worked out dead on - matching the angles of the frames exactly. I love it when a plan comes together in the intended manner.

Eliane stuck bravely with her task of sanding the edges far longer than I would have at her age. She's really taken possession of her boat build - explaining her color choices to Eric quite clearly. Even when she took mercy on my inability to say no to Bibitte on the thousandth tennis ball throw, she remained with us while we worked on the boat. Bibitte retired inside the house so I could work uninterrupted for a while.

Robert went on a run to the aforementioned Building Supply store and purchased the needed 2"x2'x8' white/green Styrofoam sheets. When he returned, Eric laid out the keel frame on the Styrofoam and traced out a bunch (six I think) of pieces to be cut, carefully denoting the frame crossing points. The foam will be laid vertically side-by-side along the axis of the keel - making each one a made-to-measure support for the plywood sheeting on the hull bottom and decking. I had thought the foam would be laid flat on the bottom, and I guess that's why Eric is the designer and I'm not. This way makes eminent sense, and now I can see better Eric's intent to make the Styrofoam fill become a structural support to the thin plywood.

Once the foam layout was done, we proceeded to start to attach the stringers to the keel frame - using the PL-300 adhesive (Styrofoam-friendly). Started in the center and working outwards, pilot holes were drilled, countersunk and then a 3/4 #6 brass screw was used to hold down the now slightly-bent stringer to the base of the keel frame. Checked frame straightness on the floor and then filled in the screws to one every six inches along the keel.

I had to bail out at this point as my allocated time off paying work expired and I had an hour's drive back to my office and client meetings this afternoon. I took pictures during the process using one of Robert's cameras, so I'm hoping he can send them to me for use here.

Eric will be sending me a layout sheet specifying all the measurements used to layout the keel, daggerboard trunk location and other stuff that didn't make it into the CAD files used on the CNC table.