I bought a b̶o̶a̶t̶, I mean a pile of plywood and epoxy


  • Sailing row cruiser kit from duck works. I'll need to get a storage unit/work shop rented before it gets here. How big was the package when shipped to you? 




  • Got the storage unit rented. Hopefully the heavy builders paper I put down will catch the stray epoxy drip. I will probably put plastic down under an area I'm doing a lot of it


  • A 10x20 unit fills up fast! For those who've got theirs done already, do you think the rich conditions are going to be a problem for me? 


  • Epoxy kit, and 30' of carbon fiber tubing. Rock west composites had them on clearance. If I got them in the length I wanted, the shipping quote was over $1700. Cut in half it came to $36. Looks like I get to learn about bonding carbon and ferrules


  • Interesting idea for a work space. I think that's a good call on putting paper down. I left a few dozen epoxy drips on my garage concrete.

    As far as the size, I can only compare to the Oxford wherry I built. That boat is 16 ft long by 38 in wide and I built it in a work space 17 ft long by 6 ft wide. It was tight in some steps but doable in the end. I suspect you'll be fine in your 20x10 workspace for the 19 ft x 44 in Rowcruiser.


  • So after much anticipation I finally got the shipping notification on the plywood portion of my kit. I was out of state, and the race was on. Who would get there first, me or the boat.

    I was mere hours from home when I got two pieces of news. 1) one of the boxes had been delivered, 2) UPS had damaged the other box so severely that instead of delivering it, or returning it to the sender, they took it upon themselves to throw it away.

    I didn't even know such a thing was possible. So now I've got half a kit, with pieces of row cruiser and pieces of sailboat add-on, with no real idea of what parts are in the box they discarded, and what parts may have fallen out of the box they actually delivered but had busted open. 


  • My gosh that's awful. I've never heard of that happening either from a parcel company. It's almost like they took it upon themselves to throw away evidence of their incompetence. They should have just delivered it so you and the vendor could figure out what was left and  where to go next...

    That damaged box must have been busted to smithereens. 😬🫣


  • cool boat


  • I have gotten my replacement kit from duck works. However the slow time at work I had planned for boat building passed while I waited. That combined with not wanting to spend time in a 100+ degree storage shed, are going to slow construction considerably



  • I know I said progress would be slow, but I got excited and took the week off work. Bulk heads are temporary and will need fitting and wiring in. No progress next week until the weekend possibly


  • Seats are just sitting there. Bulkheads are all wired in. Shear clamps in the bow are matched.  Winding sticks said the boat was a tiny bit twisted, so I clamped them in place and hung another clamp off opposing sides. I'm hopeful that a couple days like that will move the boat to level. Needs vacuumed and fine tooth combed, but epoxy in the joints is the next step. That's when stuff gets permanent!


  • Up to this point I've been using all total boat thixo products in the tube. Fillets on the bulkheads went great, but I wasn't sure it would be thick enough to do the bow and stern.

    I also bought the epoxy kit from duckworks. Two false starts and I'm throwing in the towel on this stuff. The half volume pump sucks air about 75% of the time screwing the mix.

    Not that it matters since even with medium hardener, the epoxy is smoking as fast as I can get it out of the cup. Stern looks like a horror show after removing the ruined tries and that's as cleaned up as I can get it. I'm thinking it will be covered up once I get better epoxy, plus it's getting painted anyways. 

    That's as much work as I can do until the order from total boat comes in. Maybe I'll get some work done next weekend


  • I took yesterday and today off work. The amount of progress I achieved on the boat surprised me. The entire inside is epoxied, and fiberglass/epoxy where intended. I'm thinking I'll give it another coat later tonight. Next step is flip it, and epoxy/fiberglass the outside.  I promise it's not as ugly of a job in person. The pic really exaggerate the imperfections


  • Hi Thomas! 

    Great progress! When I did my inside it was a bit bubbly too, I found it really hard to judge the amount of epoxy and the pressure of the spatulas without pulling on the glass.

    The outside is more work, but much easier to pull on and get cleaner results.

    Keep up the good work, and the pictures.

    All the best,

    Michiel


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