(Aodhan Hubble)(Passagemaker build)

 5/25/22 Although I will not have the boat completely finished by the time I take it home, there is not an awful lot left to do. I had a look through the remainder of the manual, and thought back upon what I have finished and all I need to do is paint and varnish, with a little but of epoxy work thrown in. This should be doable within a span of one or two days. With this being said, I was able to get my first coat of hull paint on yesterday prior to express fest. I found this to be a fairly rewarding endeavor, because it was one of the few points in this project that there has been a really tangible change. After I got the coat on, it looked completely different and much more noticeable finished. I am really looking forward to getting the white paint on the skeg and skids, and getting the inside done. Once I am able to do this, I think I will be very pleased with the finished product.  I plan to come back to this blog whenever I am able to complete it, and post the final pictu...

 5/24/22 Today I finished work on the interior of the hull, for the time being. I lightly sanded the seats that I coated yesterday, prepping them for their final coat. My plan was to finish the interior, flip the boat, and paint the hull by tomorrow. For the most part, I was able to adhere to this. The last thing I needed to do before I could turn the boat over was to taper the rubrails. The reason for this is to improve the look of the finished product, because making the rubrails taper as they reach the bow is more aesthetically pleasing. Using a straightedge, I measured 25 inches from the forward transom on the rubrail. I marked this on both sides, and then marked a straight line from the middle of the rubrial down to the outside edge at the 25 inch marks. Using a grinder, I tapered the wood along the line until I reached my desired result. I finished it with a random orbital sander, using another 120 grit disk. At this point I was ready to flip the boat, allowing me to access t...

 5/23/22 Today was another prep day, really trying to get everything together so I can finish. Unsurprisingly, it involved more sanding and epoxy work. To begin, I decided I would finish sanding the top side of the rubrails. I initially thought I was happy with them, but I decided  I would rather sand them further to eliminate some more of the epoxy that was coating the wood.  After this, I moved onto the seats. First, I "broke" the edges of the seats - meaning I took a 120 grit sanding disk and, using a block, worked along edges of the seats. This softens the sharp edges, which result from the cutting of the seats. The only purpose this serves is to make the finished product look and feel smoother.  I then got the vacuum and took care to remove as much dust as I could, in preparation for my fillets. Using the pastry bag method I often refer to, I laid small fillets along the edges of the seats. With the fillet tool I made, I smoothed the fillets out the best that I ...

5/23/22 This week was yet again taught me a surplus of lessons, one of which is that nothing is ever square. I worked on many different aspects of the boat, starting with the skids on the bottom and ending with the rubrails. I had to depart campus on Wednesday afternoon, but I was able to get back in the shop by Saturday morning. This cut my week short a little, and as I am writing this I am contemplating how much catch up work I actually need to accomplish.  Amongst the lessons I learned this week was one about patience, which came hand in hand with the installation of the landing skids. One of the tools that I needed to use was a chalk line, which is essentially a tape measure that has a chalk coated line inside. This complex device is used by carpenters to "snap a line", allowing them to get an accurate centerline of something.  For the installation of the skids on the bottom of the hull, I needed to be certain that they were exactly the same distance from the center of th...

 5/21/22 I returned to campus yesterday, and got right to work this morning. It was a somewhat light day in terms of work, but I was able to knock out some more of the important prep work. I began by removing all of the spring and C clamps that I used to affix the second set of rubrails. There were a handful that were stuck by epoxy squeeze out, but they were nothing that couldn't be taken care of with the heat gun.  There were also a number of clamps that I needed tighten a little more aggressively, due to the warp in the rail. With this in mind, I cut a small 1x1 squares of wood to place between the clamp where it met the hull. Having one of these squares on either side of the clamp allowed me to tighten the clamps without worrying about damaging the wood. Once all clamps were removed, I repeated the same process I discussed finishing the first set of rubrails. Using a heat gun and chisel, I scraped the majority of the squeeze out. This time, however, I also took care of the...

 5/17/22 Today I began by removing the clamps from yesterdays rubrail installation. Then, using heat gun and chisel, chiseled away the squeeze out that came from the join between the hull and rubrail sections. Using a heat gun warms the epoxy, loosening its bond which allows me to scrape it away without damaging the wood.  This saves me an incredible amount of time when compared to sanding away drips and squeeze-out. Once I had the big parts gone, I went back with a block and some 120 grit sandpaper disks, and began to sand away the parts I did not get with the chisel. Once I was happy with the finish, I proceeded to fitting the seats.  This step required some patience, as it required me to place, mark, and repeatedly remove the seats so I could get them to fit properly. I used a rasp and a handsaw during this step, being careful not to take too much material off.  Once I had the bow and stern seats sitting where I wanted them, I ran a pencil around the perimeter, le...

 5/16/22 Today, I kicked off the day by running fillets along the edges of the skids I installed last week. I used the remaining epoxy to fill the cracks that formed when I drove the wood screws in. I then sat and looked through the manual, familiarizing myself with the rubrail installation while the fillets set up.  Once it was firmed up enough, I used the rubbing alcohol trick to smooth out the fillets before getting some help and flipping the boat.  Because of the work that I did on the bottom of the hull, I needed to get a new saw horse that was designed to hold a boat with a skeg. This took the form of a section of ply with a V cut in the top, which was driven into the sawhorse with wood screws. At this point it was time to install the rub rails. This process required some amount of patience, as I needed to use around 30 C clamps to affix the rub rail to the sides of the boat.  By nature the rubrails were warped to some degree, dictating that a dry fit was in or...

     This week, I learned a lot more about the harsh reality of epoxy sanding. I already know well how long it takes to sand said epoxy, but I had used an orbital sander for the majority of my work before this week. This meant that the sandpaper was easily fouled by the dust, but the actual process was much less labor intensive.       This being said, I did use a block and a dowel to hand sand fillets and portions of the hull stitching so I was familiar with the process, although I had not yet gotten to experience the joy of hand sanding the entire hull. This gave me a good idea of just how much time is consumed with sanding, considering the sanding time on the hull from start to finish easily surpassed 3 hours.       The time management regarding sanding goes hand in hand with time management while laying the epoxy. This week I certainly learned a valuable lesson about keeping the  epoxy cure times in mind. Curing is weather d...

 5/14/22 Hours Today: 4 Hours 30 minutes Total Hours: 40 Hours Today was yet another day comprised mostly of sanding. To begin the day, I sanded the final coat of epoxy on the hull using an orbital sander.  Then, with the faithful sanding block, I roughed up the coat on the skeg and the skids. The skeg will need one more coat, whereas the skids will need two. This is not where the work on the skids will end though. I decided to run very small fillets along the sides of the skids, that way they will be protected from any water working its way into the gap. I also need to fill the cracks, which may be something I take care of tomorrow.  After 3 or 4 hours working on the boat, I decided today would be a good time to go to the hardware store and get some paint. I went to Ace Hardware in Franklin, because they seemed to have the cheapest paint and the largest variety. The paint I will be using is the store's version of Rust-oleum, which is a brand of indoor outdoor paint that ...

 5/14/22 Hours Today: 6 Hours 30 minutes Total Hours: 35 Hours 30 minutes Today was a shorter day but yet again, sanding intensive. I chose to hand sand the hull with 120 grit disks and a wood block. I chose to do this because I was concerned that I might sand through my epoxy coat. It took me a few hours of consistent sanding to make my way across the entirety of the hull.  Once I finished this, I thought I might do some planning ahead. After reading through the remainder of the manual, I found out that the last thing I needed to do on the bottom of the boat was install the bottom skids. These are two small strips of wood, which provide protection when doing things like pulling the boat up on a beach.  First, I snapped a line down the center of the hull. Then, I measured a handful of lines on either side of the centerline 7 and 1/8 inches out. These lines gave me the inside edge for my skids. After I had this done, I laid the skids down on the lines and traced them out. ...

 5/12/22 Hours Today: 8 Hours 30 minutes Total Hours: 29 Hours Today was a longer day, and I started it with sanding the hull in preparation for another coat of epoxy. I realised, however, that I still needed to install the skeg. If I installed it prior to sanding and coating, the fillets would have more time to cure. With this in mind, I measured the center of the hull from stern to bow, and marked lines 3/8 of an inch on either side. The width of the skeg is 3/4 of an inch, so these lines would allow me to line it up perfectly upon installation.  The next step was for me to mark and drill 4 pilot holes through the bottom of the hull, in increments of 10 inches. Beginning at10 and ending at 40 inches, I used a 1/8 inch drill bit and followed the path the skeg will take. I then got underneath the boat, and countersunk all of the holes. This allows the screws to sit flush with the deck.  I got someone to hold the skeg in place while I conducted a "dry fit", in which I set ...

 5/11/22 Hours Today: 6 Hours Total Hours: 20 Hours 30 minutes Today, my focus remained on prep work. I mixed up some epoxy, and assembled my second set of out-walls. I have found that painting a small amount of unthickened epoxy prior to putting your thickened epoxy prevents the wood from absorbing any of your thickened batch, making for a stronger bond. After this, I got beneath the boat and ran epoxy fillets, thickened with wood flour, beneath the cockpit seat. To do this, I mixed the appropriate amount of epoxy and poured it into a plastic bag. Similar to icing a cake, I cut the corner off and laid a bead along the amidships frame and the daggerboard trunk where it met the underside of the seat. I then went over it with a plastic fillet tool, which I cut from a plastic spreader and sanded to shape.  For the next hour or two, I cleaned up my skeg and first set of out-walls with some 120 grit sandpaper, and began the process of fitting the skeg to the hull.  When laying...

 5/10/22 Hours Today: 10 Hours 40 minutes Total Hours: 14 Hours 30 minutes Today, I began by sanding the Passage-maker in preparation for the installation of the cockpit seat. I found quickly, however, that although the epoxy had cured, I did not give it enough time to fully harden. This means that it was hard to the touch, but sanding proved to be impossible because the dust becomes sticky and fouls the sandpaper.  After I realized that sanding would be inefficient, I decided to go to some preparation for tomorrows work. The skeg is a piece of the boat the is glued to the bottom, and provides stability for the boat while it is in the water. It comes in two pieces, and needs to be glued together with thickened epoxy. I initially glued it and put weights on so it would cure properly, but it began. sliding around on the coat of epoxy. I then took the weights off and clamped it instead, which solved my problem. I went back downstairs, and although the epoxy was still gumming up t...

 5/9/22 at 7:22 pm.  Hours Today: 4 Hours 50 minutes Total Hours: 4 Hours 50 minutes Today I worked on a few different steps of my boat build. One that I have become incredibly familiar with is sanding. The interior of the boat needs to be coated a minimum of two times with unthickened epoxy. When I sand through the epoxy layer, I need to patch it with more and sand again. By today, I had finished my second coat and was sanding the places that I needed to patch. I then moved onto my seats, and sanded those smooth. The seats also needed two coats on the bottom before they get installed, because there would be no way to do so once they are on the boat. I then vacuumed the boat out, and dry fit my seats. I will need to make sum adjustments to the stern seat, although the cockpit seat and bow seat seem to fit as they should. I didn't get into the shop as early as I was hoping, so I only logged 4 hours and 50 minutes today. Tomorrow I will work on further patching and fitting the c...