Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

[jbcurt00]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

I don't think it will matter which way you run the CSM or 1708. Doing it your way, run CSM & 1708 patches over the dagger board hole, 2+ inches past on all 4 sides. Then adjust your CSM layout so the overlap falls across your patch.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Thank you JB, That is a relief to know. Because the insides have a good rounded curve, I think the glass will also be easier to lay this way.

I got a small break this afternoon and was able to get all the transom pieces cut and glued up. I only got pictures of the final product as I was working as quickly as I could before I was called inside for family duties.

It took me some time to figure out the genius behind the WOG clamps. I finally figured out to spread the top bolt outward to help draw down the clamp near the bottom.

I was able to get the 3 1/4" ply sheets together with Titebond III wood glue, and then I drove in some 1" screws to squeeze out all the glue and get the sheets to bond together well. I am not 100% sure if I was getting the plywood to shape to the transom or the other way around? I am hoping that the claps are grabbing well to the thicker bottom glass on the transom and that will win out overnight as the wood slowly flexes and the glue cures.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Cold front blew in tonight so I started thinking about my next project while I wait for warmer temperatures to glass the transom. The boats original configuration had a glassed in stern area that was full of flotation foam. Because this is a small boat and I might put a very beloved old engine on the back, I wanted to get some foam back into the design. The enclosed bow already has foam and i like that because of the possibility of ramming an object and I feel like foam would slow any leak caused by the damage.

I don't want to put back the foam against the transom in the stern for a number of reasons so I thought I would continue to develop my fiberglass skills by building a custom rear bench seat out of glass and filling that area with foam.

Here is what the area looks like now:

And here is what I am thinking I will be able to with the bench:

This will allow me to use the stern area for a fuel tank, battery for a trolling motor, beer cooler, etc. I was going to use the existing seat as a template and make it a bit larger for an adult sized seat. I figured I could cut the main seat out of 3/4" plywood and screw it into the original mounting holes. Then, I could frame in the rest with the 1/4" and glass it all in after pouring the foam in the void.

Any ideas about how to best plan this build?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Nice Fish!!! Nice work on the Transom too!!! Your plan for the bench seat is good. I would not use Pour in foam, instead use the Pink Or Blue Slab foam from Lowe's or HD and cut it to fit.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

As a sailboat, this hull's rounded bottom, smallish keel strip & narrow beam were a great thing. As a small OB motor'd boat, you might want to consider weight & balance before you make permanent changes to it's layout. The battery (maybe the gas too) might be better located forward of the helm bench seat. Adding the motor's weight & shifting the helm rearward may make it light at the bow, esp w/ a heavy battery & gas at the transom as well...

A smallish OB might sip gas enough to get plenty of cruise time out of a 2-2.5 gal tank...

Bench seat flotation plan sounds good, and WOG's foam suggestion is GREAT. In fact you can fab the bench out of the vertical sheets laminated together, then skin it front & back in 1/4" ply, and a 3/4" top plank. Page thru Jasoutside's SeaNymph build, that's how he built several aspects of it. Or a very similar style bench seat in his Starcraft Jet build.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

JB, I really had not thought of the weight issues before. Thank you for the ideas. You are right that the boat has more of a canoe shape than a runabout. The 2.5 and 5hp Johnson's are at my grandad's garage. I think the 2.5 might actually have a built in fuel tank and your right, only a 2.5 gallon would likely be necessary.

After it is all said and done, this may just be my puddle jumper bass boat for piddling around on some of the larger ponds and lakes around without the need for a trailer launch. I may just put a big trolling motor and some paddles in instead. With that idea in mind for the weight, I might fab a center bench and give it a hinged lid where I could store the battery to help keep some weight towards the front of the boat. If I did that, I would need to make a small PVC channel down the side for the battery cables.

In other thoughts, what should my plan be on the glass for the rear bench. I was thinking CSM, 1708, and CSM. Will that be enough strength over the wood and foam (pink foam from Home Depot, Thanks WOG) structure?

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Still too cold in the garage to start with any glass, so I am sticking to the remainder of the carpentry work. I am working on getting the form and structure together for the new rear seat. I was able to use the previous seat board as a template and then I stretched the width of the seat about 3 inches to make it more comfortable. I then had to find a way to cut the front and rear skins for the underside and match the contour of the bottom of the boat. I did this by attaching my 1/4 plywood to the seat with screws and using my compass to trace the contour onto the panel.

It came out pretty well, except there were spaces left on the sides where the wood was a little short. I will fill these in with scrap. I did much better on the other side:

Now, I just need to get all the pink foam cut and put together for the inside then get a plan for covering the whole thing in fiberglass.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

You want to leave @ 1/4" between all of your plywood edges & the hull. These vertical bench parts need to be bedded in PB or PL just like stringers, w/ a 1/4" gap to prevent point loads along the edges of the plywood.

You'll see the gap during fab & installation of stringers on most of the rebuilds @iboats...

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

You should also prolly cut some 1 1/2" PVC pipe into 1/2 rounds and allow for thru drainage. I know I would.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

You want to leave @ 1/4" between all of your plywood edges & the hull. These vertical bench parts need to be bedded in PB or PL just like stringers, w/ a 1/4" gap to prevent point loads along the edges of the plywood.

You'll see the gap during fab & installation of stringers on most of the rebuilds @iboats...

Thank you, I ended up with gaps anyway because of my measuring and cutting skills, but now I know that is a design requirement. Thank you for the information. Is this to prevent stress during flexing that might crack the glass?

You should also prolly cut some 1 1/2" PVC pipe into 1/2 rounds and allow for thru drainage. I know I would.

Thank you WOG. I will do that, great idea.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

You never want wood to lay solid against the glass due to your reasoning. Flexing of the hull will cause issues. Got any pics of your progress??

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

I had some warm weather so I got to move forward a bit more this weekend. Over thanksgiving I got some additional motivation to get a boat with a motor.

All that paddling was worth it for all the fish we caught, but a boat with a motor would have made for a better and longer fishing day.

I mixed up a batch of PB to put in my horizontal bracing (boating term for this?) I used the PVC trim as my structure since there was foam there before, I figured it should be something flexible. I bedded the trim in the PB and also ran it up the sides using my rounded putty knife tool (Thanks OOPS!) so that the glass will lay up easier later without air bubbles.

I then started work on a wooden block to hold the bow eye in more securely at the front. I plan to cover that in a layer or two of CSM and bed it in PB to make it solid. (pictures of that later)

I also laid my very first fiberglass on this project by covering the old dagger board hole that I previously filled with PB. I sanded the area with some 40 grit, hit it with a acetone wipe down, and then laid a patch of CSM (2 inches larger all around than the hole) then covered with a larger patch of 1708. That first glass made me feel like a pro.

I turned my attention to the transom next. Still following the WOG tutorial, I removed my transom clamps to pull my glued, screwed, and formed plywood work. I then removed all the screws and filled the screw holes with PB. After that cured, I hit the whole think with 40 grit on my grinder and prepped it for glass.

I wet all the plywood with the prepped resin and let it set up until tacky. I then laid a slightly larger CSM cutout over the plywood and rolled the resin until the CSM was clear all around. I had some issues tearing the overlap of the CSM and getting the torn edge to wrap around the plywood. My hands looked like porcupines as the resin and torn fibers stuck to my gloves.

I was able to do both sides and learned a lot in the process. First, don't try to do both sides at once! Every time I tried to turn the plywood, I would move the mat and then I would have to roll-out all the air bubbles again on that side. Also, I made my CSM overlap way too large and now I have a lot of sanding and trimming to do.

Here is the final product.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Ok, so I went into the garage this morning and noticed that the PB around my second PVC brace was still soft after 24 hours! It was then that I realized I made my first big mistake that will cause some rework to be done. When I mixed up my PB for the horizontal PVC bracing, I ran out and had to mix up a second batch. I obviously forgot to catalyze the second batch. :facepalm: I also noticed some air bubbles in my transom fiberglass, but at least it is hard.

So I am assuming that I will need to pull that section out and start over. It is colder now so I will have to wait on any glass work for a bit.

Question: Will that un-catalyzed PB ever cure if given enough time?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Not to Shabby for a New-B!!!! I'd say overall ya "DUN RITE GUD"!!!!

Check these out...
DIY Kayak Trolling Motor (YAK Board)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKyVKb7sGLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yip4Tq4C0-o

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Question: Will that un-catalyzed PB ever cure if given enough time?

Nope

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Yes it will harden when Gasoline is 19? a gallon!:laugh:

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Nope

Yes it will harden when Gasoline is 19? a gallon!:laugh:

I guess playdough would harden faster than that PB. It still looks just the same as the day I put it in. I guess that will make it that much easier to remove. Lesson learned, glad it wasn't on some larger part of the project and it did not make me lose any of the mat.

About 25 degrees this morning in Texas, guess I will have to wait a while to continue with the glass work, but I can finish cutting pink foam for the seat and clean up my transom work in the meantime.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

Well, it has been a while since I made any progress. Weather has been kind of unpredictable and I sold my business, which slowed me down some but I am back! Feels good to smell the resin in the garage again.

I got the transom back out and, still following the WOG tutorial, drilled the holes in the glassed over wood and mixed up a big batch of PB. I PB'd the transom skin and installed and clamped the new transom with my WOG clamps. The PB squeezed through the holes just like it was supposed to and made me feel pretty good about the expected strength of the new transom.

Once everything cured up the next day, I mixed up another big batch of PB and used it to (i belived it is referred to as "fillet" on the fourms) fill in and round off the inside corners of the transom and also to continue my work on the horizontal lines I have been working on.

 

[Something2do]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

I also got moving on the new rear seat and foam. I cut enough of the pink home depot foam to fit under the new seat, then I sanded off the sharp edges on the new wood seat and mixed up some resin. I coated all the wood (front, back, and edges) with resin, waiting a bit, then glassed the exposed sides with a layer of CSM.

Next, I need to sand and smooth all the interior, especially the PB I used for the fillet on the transom and horizontal lines, to get ready for my full layups of CSM and 1708.

Questions:
- How in the world do you get the CSM around the edges of things? I had a hard time getting the CSM to go around the edge of my new seat top without getting in air bubbles.

- What is the purpose of "tabbing" in the transom, if you plan on doing a full layer of CSM and 1708 on top of the transom anyway?

- My plan to stiffen and strenthen the boat is to add 1 layer of CSM and 1 layer of 1708. Does that sound good considering I am working on an exsisting framework? I was not planning on adding any glass on the hull of the boat except a patch of 2 layers (1CSM, 1 1708) over the old dagger board hole.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Practice Boat - New Transom, Gel Coat, Seats

To get the CSM to go over corners it's best to tug and tear the glass to make it kind of "Hairy". Then use a Cheap Chip Brush with the bristles cut half off and DAB the resin and glass over the edge. It's also a good idea to wear some nitrile gloves cuz they're more durable and use your hands to smooth and press the glass into place. Tabbing the transom is just adding another strength layer to the mix. For your canoe I think you could forgo the tabbing and just do a layer of CSM and 1708.