The Greenland Bug Cont. (Pt. 4)
Alright. So it has been over two weeks since I updated my progress report. People have asked for the progress, and I believe even given up looking for more progress over that time. What have I been doing, since I have not been on the computer? Working on my boat, of course. Here is what has happened since the last report.
First, I spent an entire week staring at the boat. This all started when I progressed as usual along the directions provided by Mark Rogers. His directions describe using only a small amount of copper wire to stitch only the bow and stern sheer edges. All the rest of the hull would be duck taped together with a strip of tape about every six inches along each of the three seams. So I did just the bottom two panels and stepped back. Now remember that I am working in the Mid-Atlantic in July....not Wisconsin! In the Mid-Atlantic in July, duck tape will peel off of a vertical surface within hours of being placed there. I also followed the instruction to hot glue hull forms onto the panels to help them retain their shape. Overnight the glue even released itself from the fiberglass. Too much heat, and too much humidity, I suppose.
I must have re-taped those two hull sections three times over the course of a week and stared at them for a long time, wondering how Mark Rogers actually gets this to work. I thought for a long time of just starting to add copper stitches all along the hull, but could not come to a decision. Someone recommended "Gorilla Tape", being the stickiest thing in existence. Finally with Cyndi's help, I Gorilla Taped all the four hull sections together, added the hot glued hull shapes, and got the whole thing turned over. Again I watched the hull sections slowly pull apart as the tape weakened and stretched. At least the Gorilla Tape did not peel off.
So I gave up.
Next I Went and bought twenty five feet of 18 gauge copper wire and started putting a copper stitch every eight inches along each seam. And even a few more in the places where the hull simply would not stay the way I wanted it. This took two days. When I was done, I was amazed. The hull looked great. It finally looked like a boat!
Next, I spent one day running a thin seam of gel into the lines where the hull pieces came together. Let me tell you that if you ever work with gel, you will learn by your mistakes. I kept trying to mix in the provided mediums of wood dust and silica dust to make the gel a peanut butter-like consistency so that it would not 'drool' out of the seams where I placed it. It took me three days and many many combinations of slow hardener, fast hardener, more silica, and more wood dust before I finally got this seam spreading down. By that time I had accomplished spreading in gel into the seams, letting it dry, sanding it all back to a smooth finish, and spreading in more gel to do it all over again. I got pretty good on the last day as using a drill and sanding disk to buff down the lumpy dried gel. And by the last layer of gel, I had created a great spreader tool out of a Nestle Quick lid and was making the seams almost perfect. Now I understand why had made boats can cost so much to have built for you.
Finally I had enough gel into the seams to do the finally glass inside the hull. I placed three sheets of glass inside, covering the entire bottom of the cockpit area. This I let dry last night. Then I was up again this morning sanding the hull smooth. Today I started to gel in the gunwale/sheer clamp strips. This will take three days to complete. After that, the bulkheads will be installed, the interior gelled again, and then the deck can start going on.
Now after all this work on the hull, I had been taking measurements of the dimensions that I was achieving. I succeeded in some of the expectations, and did not so much succeed in others. The rear cockpit height from 'skin-to-skin' is not the expected 5.5 inches. In fact it is barely 5.25 inches. No problem there. The width is about 20 inched naturally, as it sits now. The width is actually dictated by using hull spreaders as you work on the gel and glass inside the hull. I decided to leave the spreaders out, and noticed that the hull relaxed inwards about a half an inch. That seemed satisfactory for me. I tried to do mock-ups of the 'pinching' idea that I talked about last time. But when I did this, it made the hull look unnaturally distorted on the sheer edges. I decided to give up on the 'pinching' idea totally. After laying in some of the gel seams, I noticed that the beam measurements started to expand. I guess the wet gel allowed the hull to relax outwards a little. In response I have started 'strapping' the hull back together. I can put enough tension on the hull to gently pull the beam back to about 19.25 inches. Bringing it in about 3/4 inches uniformly along the entire hull length. I plan to keep this 'strapped' tension all the way up until the deck is in place. A 19 inch wide by 5.25 inch high boat will be just about what I am looking for. Of course the coaming will add about 3/4 inch too. And I will need to make the coaming fore measurement at least 7 5/8 inches, if not a full 8 inches clearance. But that is a good two weeks work away from now.
First, I spent an entire week staring at the boat. This all started when I progressed as usual along the directions provided by Mark Rogers. His directions describe using only a small amount of copper wire to stitch only the bow and stern sheer edges. All the rest of the hull would be duck taped together with a strip of tape about every six inches along each of the three seams. So I did just the bottom two panels and stepped back. Now remember that I am working in the Mid-Atlantic in July....not Wisconsin! In the Mid-Atlantic in July, duck tape will peel off of a vertical surface within hours of being placed there. I also followed the instruction to hot glue hull forms onto the panels to help them retain their shape. Overnight the glue even released itself from the fiberglass. Too much heat, and too much humidity, I suppose.
I must have re-taped those two hull sections three times over the course of a week and stared at them for a long time, wondering how Mark Rogers actually gets this to work. I thought for a long time of just starting to add copper stitches all along the hull, but could not come to a decision. Someone recommended "Gorilla Tape", being the stickiest thing in existence. Finally with Cyndi's help, I Gorilla Taped all the four hull sections together, added the hot glued hull shapes, and got the whole thing turned over. Again I watched the hull sections slowly pull apart as the tape weakened and stretched. At least the Gorilla Tape did not peel off.
So I gave up.
Next I Went and bought twenty five feet of 18 gauge copper wire and started putting a copper stitch every eight inches along each seam. And even a few more in the places where the hull simply would not stay the way I wanted it. This took two days. When I was done, I was amazed. The hull looked great. It finally looked like a boat!
Next, I spent one day running a thin seam of gel into the lines where the hull pieces came together. Let me tell you that if you ever work with gel, you will learn by your mistakes. I kept trying to mix in the provided mediums of wood dust and silica dust to make the gel a peanut butter-like consistency so that it would not 'drool' out of the seams where I placed it. It took me three days and many many combinations of slow hardener, fast hardener, more silica, and more wood dust before I finally got this seam spreading down. By that time I had accomplished spreading in gel into the seams, letting it dry, sanding it all back to a smooth finish, and spreading in more gel to do it all over again. I got pretty good on the last day as using a drill and sanding disk to buff down the lumpy dried gel. And by the last layer of gel, I had created a great spreader tool out of a Nestle Quick lid and was making the seams almost perfect. Now I understand why had made boats can cost so much to have built for you.
Finally I had enough gel into the seams to do the finally glass inside the hull. I placed three sheets of glass inside, covering the entire bottom of the cockpit area. This I let dry last night. Then I was up again this morning sanding the hull smooth. Today I started to gel in the gunwale/sheer clamp strips. This will take three days to complete. After that, the bulkheads will be installed, the interior gelled again, and then the deck can start going on.
Now after all this work on the hull, I had been taking measurements of the dimensions that I was achieving. I succeeded in some of the expectations, and did not so much succeed in others. The rear cockpit height from 'skin-to-skin' is not the expected 5.5 inches. In fact it is barely 5.25 inches. No problem there. The width is about 20 inched naturally, as it sits now. The width is actually dictated by using hull spreaders as you work on the gel and glass inside the hull. I decided to leave the spreaders out, and noticed that the hull relaxed inwards about a half an inch. That seemed satisfactory for me. I tried to do mock-ups of the 'pinching' idea that I talked about last time. But when I did this, it made the hull look unnaturally distorted on the sheer edges. I decided to give up on the 'pinching' idea totally. After laying in some of the gel seams, I noticed that the beam measurements started to expand. I guess the wet gel allowed the hull to relax outwards a little. In response I have started 'strapping' the hull back together. I can put enough tension on the hull to gently pull the beam back to about 19.25 inches. Bringing it in about 3/4 inches uniformly along the entire hull length. I plan to keep this 'strapped' tension all the way up until the deck is in place. A 19 inch wide by 5.25 inch high boat will be just about what I am looking for. Of course the coaming will add about 3/4 inch too. And I will need to make the coaming fore measurement at least 7 5/8 inches, if not a full 8 inches clearance. But that is a good two weeks work away from now.
Trying to get the two bottom hull panels to stay together.
Copper wire stitches.
Stitches, tape, supports removed and gel sanded from hull interior.
Starting to get the sheer clamps installed.
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