A place to sit.

In light of the marathon read of the last post, I will keep this one a bit more to the point...

Im sure we all remember the tank fiasco. It was a depressing foray into the doldrums, a realization that major screwups happen. Here is proof that even a major bonehead move will not stop your project.

All that needed to happen was a quick run down to the House of Hose (yes, that really is the name of the joint), pick up ANOTHER $40 filler hose, bring it home, and get to work. One of the benefits of a boat that gets paint instead of varnish is the ability to fix problems without taddletale lines. A little filler goes a long way to protecting your boatbuilding ego.

I got out the saber saw, snapped the blade in half to prevent myself from cutting into the tank or any of the hoses below, drew some lines estimating where the hose fittings were, rounded off the corners with a pop can and a pencil, and went to town. A whopping 20 minutes later, the problem was solved, and we were back in business!



As I would be doing some epoxy and fiberglass work on the seats, I had some extra filler mixed up and just put the little bugger back together later on the next day. Eazy peazy.

While I had the fuel system on the mind, I remembered that due to the location of the fuel vent, and the lack of spray rails on this boat, I had a fair amount of water coming through the vent. To remedy this, I read a few pages, and figured out that I either needed a $30 p-trap type fuel system attachment, or I could just run a loop in the boat and protect it with gravity.



Done and done!

Hell, we are on a roll, lets do some other projects.

Another little project that needed doing was to precoat the compartments with paint before I close them up. The compartments are rather hard to paint through a hatch, so I decided to slob on a bit of paint while I had full days to work. The color is Grand Banks beige, which I find to have a bit of green in it. Love the color, used it in the rowboat with great results.



All the projects are moving fast, so I got into something a bit more involved. I planned on doing the seats per plan, but after using the boat a bit, I changed my mind and did the following mods: lengthened the port side bench to the console, thus it can be used as a lounge, ran the full back bench with a very small amount of added depth, and completely omitted the starboard bench. This gives the boat a more open feel, and gives a working railing for landing fish, hauling pots, getting into and out of the boat, and helps to trim the boat when Im alone.

First we rough everything in, getting a feel for what it will do:



Now that it is all set, we need to find a way to brace it in place so things don't move around while the epoxy cures. I like clamps with any scrap stock, moved around until the tape measure likes it:



Voila!



A little fiberglass tape and some epoxy precoating, and presto, we have seat boxes:



At this point, I had a shift of work to do, so I finished it out as best I could to use in the water. There are seat braces for each box, 2 per seat unit, to support weight and divide storage areas up. Mainly I wanted sturdy, sag free seats, but also wanted to use some of the 6mm plywood scrap as seats. Waste not....

It was toasty this weekend (94-96F), so she went back in the drink to test out the fuel system, the new trim angles afforded with the trim pin moved, a little ballasting change with 15 gals of fuel in it, and swimming. Everything worked flawlessly.

My lovely bride went with me (although I don't think she was terribly enthused, she was willing to humor me with a smile) to take a few pictures for my loyal readers. I decided to get some moving shots at different speeds to give you all (and Jacques) an idea of the boat and trim. Keep in mind Im not a small kid (6'3") so the boat looks a little smaller than it really is.

12 mph:



16:



22:



28:



As you can see, this boat trims out much differently than most, with that high bow carried proudly. This is all as a light boat, only 200 lb of passenger, so she carries too much of the boat out of the water. All speeds are gps. I typically can't keep occupants out of the front seats, so she keeps that sharp entry in the drink most of the time. Did I mention its only supposed to go 18 mph?

Short hiatus for some family doings in San Diego, but I will be back at it very soon.



E