Five Gyres and More

 I saw this photo of kayakers on facebook and the thing that popped into my head unbidden was, Plastic Gyre.  Of course this isnt a plastic gyre, the real plasic gyres are in the worlds oceans and there are five of them and they are huge, and while there may be some plastic kayaks or kayak parts in these gyres, the majority of the plastic is from other sources.  So whenever kayakers decry plastic pollution, I see some irony in their stance.

 

I posted this picture before under the heading, how many kayaks are there? and this massive assembly of kayaks really does come close to being a genuine plastic gyre. And before you accuse me of being holier than thou with my wood frame skin on frame kayaks, I confess that yes,  there are plastic resins used in its construction, mostly in the skin and the lashings and the coatings used to seal the skin.  And I also wear some plastic garments when paddling and the small fibers that theyre composed of break off during washing and end up in the ocean where they displace plankton in the bodies of animals that eat plankton.

Lets let the issue of whether I am a hypocrite or not rest for a moment and look at the obvious problem of plastic pollution in the worlds oceans.  The organization Five Gyres has devoted itself to the problem. Click on THIS LINK to find out more about them.

Policy director Stiv Wilson of Five Gyres explains in an ARTICLE that plastic pollution on the worlds beaches is not the main problem but could be a big part of the solution. While the five gyres collect plastic that has made it into the oceans, they also spit out a certain percentage of plastic each year.  Some of the plastic moves on to different gyres, but some of it also gets spit out and ends up on beaches.
If we were to stop making plastics tomorrow, and did annual beach cleanups, plastic would be gone from the worlds oceans in a matter of decades.
The problem with the plastic in the oceans is not that the plastic ends up on our beaches and assaults our esthetics but rather that when in the ocean it harms the animals that live there. Inundating the world in plastic products and then expecting none of them to end up in the oceans is not realistic.  Maybe stopping the production of plastic is not realistic either but it sure would fix the problem.  What we have to decide is whether not having plastics in our lives is a bigger inconvenience than having it in our oceans. Weve lived without plastics before and we can do it again.

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New plywood more chine fixes

With G7 over, it was time to get back to work on the boat. 

In early October, I placed my order for 5 sheets of 1/4” BS 1088 Meranti Hydtrotek with Homestead Hardwoods in Ohio. I received my well-packaged crate of plywood just a few days later. Right off, I was more impressed with the Hydrotek than the Douglas Fir marine plywood I’d been using up to this point. The Meranti has a more attractive appearance, and a much smoother surface. It is also a 5-ply structure, rather than 3-ply like the Fir, so the outer and center plies are considerably thinner. I’m looking forward to using it to plank the boat, although I’ve read that Meranti splinters considerably when it is cut... we’ll see.

 

My crate of Meranti Hydrotek, fresh off the truck.

 

BS 1088 Meranti Hydrotek

Before I can plank the boat, though, I still have to finish fairing the framework. That means I have to deal with another problem along the chines.

Originally, I had cut 1” deep notches in the frames to receive the chine logs. However, the “1-inch” board I bought for the chines was in reality only 3/4” thick. This turned out to not be a problem, everywhere except frame #1. At frame #1, the chines ended up being recessed too deeply into the frame notches, leaving 1/4” of the frame extending past the chines on the sides of the boat.

1/4" of frame #1 extends past chine log.

1/4" of frame #1 extends past chine log.

Originally, my plan was to simply fair the frames inward to meet the chines. I changed my mind, however, and decided to laminate on a little extra material to this section of the chines, much like I did up forward. 

I cut two strips of 1-3/4” x 4’ Southern Yellow Pine from the most vertical-grained board I could find at Lowes. I planed these by hand down to roughly 3/8” thickness, and attached them with thickened epoxy , centering them with the 2’ mark in the middle of the frame. The next step is to fair these strips down to shape so that they form a fair curve along the length of the chine. Hopefully I can begin to plank the boat not long after that.

Dry fitting the 1-3/4" x 4 strips into place.

The port side strip clamped on while the epoxy cures.

Next step is to fair it down.

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A little more painting

Its October, and with it have come the low grey clouds, rain, and cooler temperatures to usher it in. It was a beautiful day.

I got a little more painting done on the boat tonight... working on that center section I epoxied a few days ago. Its slow going, painting it with a brush. Hopefully Ill make some more progress on it tomorrow.

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Fitting the Utility’s port side planking — and a little more progress on the Zip

Having previously used the starboard side planking as a template to draw and cut the port side, fitting the port side planking was relatively quick and simple. Busy days full of other obligations have meant that I’ve had to work on the boat incrementally... 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there... but, its getting done.

Thanks to a little help from my daughter, I’m now most of the way through driving the screws to hold the planking down. The new DeWalt titanium drill bits I bought have been a real pleasure to work with, particularly since my older ones had become almost too dull to use.

Dry-fitting the forward port side planking.

February brought with it an unusual amount of snow this year. In addition to school cancellations, there were a few days when I got snowed-in at home. I took advantage of these days to draw out the construction drawings for my Zip on a big sheet of eucaboard.  I drew the frames out as they would overlap one another, based on their shared x,y axis & set-up level. This will be a great reference for checking  the frame parts for accurate shape & for assembling the frames. It is also a very useful tool for checking the relative dimensions of various aspects of the hull.

My Zip construction drawing on a big sheet of eucaboard.

Last Christmas, I received a copy of How to Fiberglass Boats, by Ken Hankinson, along with the accompanying DVD. I finished reading it recently, and I’ve enjoyed watching the DVD. It’s useful information for those, like me, with minimal experience at working with fiberglass. It takes a lot of the mystery out of the process, and its very helpful to watch someone else actually doing it. 

Additionally, the book is very enlightening about precautions to take when working with epoxy.

With any luck, Ill be able to fiberglass the Utility’s hull before summer.

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More fairing on the Utility This time the transom

Warm greetings from Barnacle Mike’s crowded little boat shop. You know, one of the great things about the boatbuilding community is the fact that you meet some really cool people, both online and in person. The level of support and insight that you get from more experienced builders who kindly share their knowledge and give advice can truly help a newbie keep pushing his or her project forward. I’m very thankful for that.

An online boatbuilding friend, who has also been kind enough to follow my blog, sent me an e-mail the other day asking about the status of the Utility. It does seem like I’ve been paying a bit much attention to the Zip project lately. Truth is, I have still been slowly, slowly... s-l-o-w-l-y... fairing away at the Utility all the while. Still, his inquiry about its status gave me a little more motivation to get off my “transom” and put more elbow grease into getting the little boat past the fairing stage. (Thank you, Paul!)

So, that’s just what I did Saturday, fairing away at the transom sides until they were finished. The starboard side had a bit more excess material than the port side. So, I roughed it in with the belt sander, then worked it the rest of the way down with the mouse sander. Unfortunately, I did not follow the “best practice” of checking my work frequently with my test piece of plywood. (I thought the transom sides would be a no-brainer. I was wrong.) When I tested my “finished” work with the plywood, expecting to feel a broad smile cross my face as I witnessed my handiwork, I was disappointed to see several gaps appear. The culprit was an overly sharp bevel in a couple of spots. More gaps to fill with thickened epoxy. I’m getting pretty good at that, if I do say so myself.

Needless to say,  I was more cautious with the port side. I also went about it a little differently. This time, I started by carrying the line of the sheer and chine through the transom material first. Then, I “connected” the two spots by fairing the area in-between. This time I alternated between the mouse sander and a small block plane. I worked slowly and purposefully.

The results were much, much better.

I do still have a good bit more fairing to do, primarily in the mid-section of the boat. I also have to make a decision about the chines in that area, (more on that later). I could’ve worked on all this Sunday. However, yours truly decided he needed some time on the water. So, I spent the day canoeing. I’m sure you understand.

By the way, I met another boatbuilder out on the river. He was piloting a very nice-looking red drift boat upriver. It looked about 16’ long. The handsome-looking boat glided smoothly through the water, pushed by a silent electric trolling motor. He proudly said “yes” when I asked if he’d built it himself. He had some very nice things to say about Don Hill’s drift boat plans before we each went our separate ways. 

Yep. You’ve gotta love the boatbuilding community.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing

Starboard transom-sheer joint after fairing. As you can see, Ive got a heck of a gap in that "Marine-Grade" plywood that Im going to have to fill.

Port transom-chine joint before fairing.

Port transom-chine joint before fairing.

Port transom-chine joint after fairing.

Port transom-sheer joint before fairing. Notice all that epoxy thickened with #2 silica?

Port transom-sheer joint after fairing. I still have some thickened epoxy to file away.

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Laminating the front seat More painting

I decided to start working on the forward thwart. Both thwarts are cut from 22/32" AC exterior-grade plywood. My plan is to laminate 1/4" Meranti plywood onto the top, so that the seats will match the deck and the transom.

My original plan was to stain the sides of the lighter-colored AC plywood. However, Ive changed my mind & now plan to paint the sides Sea Foam Green to match the accent color on the sheers.

The forward thwart is 12" long x 45" wide at the base. (The sides are bevelled, so the top is wider than the bottom). Luckily, I had a piece of Meranti large enough to use, so I dont yet have to cut into one of the remaining sheets.

I cut out the middle section of it, arranging it so that it will have an attractive grain pattern showing on the top of the seat.

Grain pattern for the forward thwart.

Then I turned it over and coated it with epoxy. I coated the mating surface of the AC plywood thwart with epoxy, and stuck them together. Since the whole thing was laying flat, with flat mating surfaces, I did not use thickened epoxy. I weighted the thwart down with concrete blocks and a paint can to get good adhesion.

I set the whole thing on waxed paper to avoid accidentally gluing it to my working surface.

With the remaining epoxy from the batch, I added a 2nd layer to encapsulate the aft section of the boat. I got the port side done before I ran out of epoxy. Once it cured, it was ready for paint.

Half of the aft section with 2 layers of epoxy.

Once the epoxy on the thwart cured, I put the whole assembly in my bench vise for further work.

First layer of Whidbey White painted in the aft section.

Cleat removed from the port quarter knee; quarter knee taped off, and more paint applied to the back.

A light frosting of paint on the underside of the thwart.

A third coat of Whidbey White on everything but the transom.

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The Utility More incremental progress

As predicted, progress on the boat over the last 24 hours has been small and incremental. Little things have to be done in preparation for the larger tasks. So it was yesterday evening. I sanded & filed away at some big globs of cured epoxy.

I should not have been so careless as to let these big globs cure in place unnecessarily. It only makes for more work to do after-the-fact. Of course, you cant always reach some places to scrape away extraneous epoxy.

Equally, sometimes you cant reach a dried glob of the stuff with a sanding block or a file, when the thin blade of a putty scraper wouldve gotten rid of it easily before it cured. Such is the case with those spots behind the chine at the sheer. I decided to just leave them. Technically, I suppose these spots are already "encapsulating" that small area of the wood. Its just not pretty. So be it. That part of the boat will only be visible with a flashlight, anyway.

Moving forward, Ill just have to strive to work more neatly with epoxy.

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More Uses for a Two ton Crane

My neighbor at the shop came up with yet another novel way to use the two ton overhead crane.

Ben floating over the bottom of his boat with his dad in the background steering the crane to move him into position for applying the next batch of resin.

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More fiberglassing photos

The next section of fiberglass cloth "draped and taped" before applying the epoxy.

After the epoxy is applied, the fiberglas cloth is all but invisible.

I have tried to be as meticulous as possible with the transom. However, I will have to sand those areas where the fiberglass cloth overlaps it.

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Whats Popular More Stats

In a previous post I was musing on what makes certain posts more popular than others.  I looked at the stats that google provides to the blogger in more detail and found that my initial suspicion was correct.
The reason that the Iqyax^ and the Sea Otter post is popular is that it has pictures of cute sea otters.  "sea otter" is the search term that brings the most visitors to my blog. It beats the next nearest search term "frilled lizard" by about a factor of 20.  "Aleut paddle" as a search term in various combinations is about as popular as the frilled lizard.
Another interesting statistic is that traffic was down over the Easter weekend but picked right up again on Monday.  Im not sure of this, but I suspect that a lot of people do their internet time wasting at work, that is, people who sit at a computer monitor at work. If youre working a cash register, stocking merchandise, driving a car or truck, busing tables or mowing a lawn or shoveling snow or pounding nails or pouring cement, then you probably dont visit my blog when youre at work.

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The Utility More progress reveals new trouble spots

More fairing. This time, it has been a matter of fairing the overhanging edges of the side planking down to meet the chines.

For the most part, I have been doing this with a power sander and with a sanding block, along with occasional help from a hand plane. I also bought a “multi-tool” oscillating saw to trim the planking up forward, where accurate fitting along the mid-width of the chine is required.

A large portion of this work is done. However, as I look down the length of the chine to check for “fairness” of line, I’m seeing some new trouble spots. It appears I’ve got a couple of low spots in the chine, particularly on the port side... the dreaded “humps and hollows” mentioned in Boatbuilding With Plywood. 

Once I get some remaining areas fully sanded, I’ll be able to assess the problem more accurately. However, it’s already looking like I will have to add some more strips of wood to fill these areas. That means more fairing. (Yaaay!) Oh well, it will be for the best if so.

The dreaded "humps and hollows" are plainly visible along the port chine.

To a lesser degree, the same issues are visible along the starboard chine.

Fairing progress at the transom. I still need to sand away those Raptor staples.

Still need to encapsulate the limbers before planking the bottom of the boat.

Also need to encapsulate the sole supports before planking the bottom.

Test-run of the transition joint. Ill probably move this forward an inch or so.

Test-run of the transition joint. Ill probably move this forward an inch or so.

Here is the cut I made along the forward curve of the chine, using an oscillating "multi-tool" saw.

So far, Ive been very happy with the Porter Cable multi-tool I bought. It is very easy to use.

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