Fancy Boat Flippin' Mechanism

Now that the boat was all painted, I needed to flip it over and start working on the topsides again. Since I shouldn't need to do anything else to the bottom of the hull, I figured it would be good to go ahead and put it on the trailer. The boat probably weighs almost two hundred pounds now with all the coats of epoxy and paint I put on it. I knew I couldn't just manhandle it onto the trailer without messing up the paint job. I could have gone knocking on doors to round up a couple of people to help me turn it over and put it on the trailer. Also, Nic had offered to help me when Debbie posted about it on Facebook. In the end, I guess I am just a little too independent for my own good and saw it as a challenge to figure out how I could flip it myself. 

At first, I thought I might build a couple of "D" shaped frames around it made of 2 X 4's. I figured that if I made the D's big and then used other 2 X 4's to span the D against the hull to keep it from shifting around, I could roll it over. It would have looked like a big D with a V inside of it. The round part of the D would be segmented so I could take it a little at a time. It probably would have worked pretty good but I was concerned about the boat still shifting some against the 2 X 4's and rubbing the paint off.

I had already purchased a 2 X 12 that is sixteen feet long. I'll cut it up into a bunch of skinny sticks to use to make my trim pieces and spars. I wanted to buy the biggest and longest board I could find which gives me a lot of quartersawn wood with fewer knots. I figured I could use that board to span between a couple of A frames to make a lift to elevate the boat so that it could spin around freely. Here's what it looked like.

 

Boat Flipping Jig

Then, I had to figure out two attachment points to connect some ratcheted straps to the boat from the overhead beam. The trick was that I didn't want the hooks from the strap to rub against the hull. The front would be easy enough to use the hole I had made in the keel. I tied up a loop of rope and passed the loop through the hole with the knot keeping it from going all the way through. For the back end, I made a sandwich of two 2 X 4's and some plywood to clamp tightly into the hole I had made in the transom for the tiller. Here is what it looked like.

Wood Sandwich

 

I used a couple of 3 1/2" screws to hold it all together. As you can see, I cut a square hole in the middle. Then I cut a stick about 3' long and square so that it fit in the hole tightly and stuck out about a foot or so. Next I pushed the boat out under the lift.

Ready to go

I hooked on the straps and cranked it up. Here it is before and after. The way I had the rope rigged on the front made it automatically want to spin around right side up as I ratcheted it. 

Before

After

I took the lift apart and cranked the boat up on to the magic tilt trailer.

New Home

On the Trailer

It's been awhile since I've seen the boat right side up. I'm pleased with how it looks on the trailer. I think I'll take a moment or two to admire it......AHHHH.

Times up! Back to Work! 

And now, as promised here is the cockpit with the seat backs installed. See, I really did make them. 

Cockpit

Starboard Seat

Port Seat

No way around it. I see some more sanding in my future.

 

Feeling Blue

After finishing with the primer, it was time to get down to business on the topcoat. The first thing I did was tape off the lines where the bumper rails will go using green frog tape. I wonder if they call it frog tape because it's green or if they made it green because they wanted to call it frog tape. Hmmm. 

Ribbet

After that, I used the blue painters tape to tape wax paper along the same line as the green tape.

Wax Paper

I wanted to minimize the amount of dust and bugs that could land on my wet paint before it dried so I hung a tarp over the boat about the same level as the top of my fence. It made for a nice little enclosed area to do my painting in when I closed the gates. Here is the tarp.

Tarp Ceiling

I rolled the paint on then followed that up immediately with the tip of a brush to smooth out any bubbles. Here is how it looked after the first coat.

1st Coat

Transom 1st Coat

I wanted to keep the drips down to a minimum so I put several thin coats on rather than one or two thick coats. Here is what it looked like after the second coat. 

Transom 2nd Coat

Bow 2nd Coat

I allowed the paint to dry at least 24 hours between coats. Here it is after the third coat.

3rd Coat

Transom 3rd Coat

One more coat ought to do it. I was trying for a 10' finish which is pretty ambitious for an amateur boat builder. The quality of the finish is determined by how far away you have to get from the boat in order for it to look good. 

4th Coat

I pushed it out from under the tarp so that I could see how it looked and to identify the areas that still needed touching up. 

All Painted

Here is how it looks from ten feet away.

Ten Feet Away

And here is what it looks like from twenty feet away.

Twenty Feet Away

The ten foot picture shows some of the flaws but the twenty foot picture is pretty good. I think I'll call it an 18 foot finish. Pretty good! I am pleased with the Rustoleum paint I used. It went on easy, flattened out nicely and dried to a glossy finish. 

It started to get cloudy and I knew we were about due for our daily rainstorm so I got everything ready to push the boat back under the tarp. I almost made it.

 

Rain

You can see how well the rainwater beads and this is before I put any wax on. It's good to have a boat that repels water.

Making Dust

I hadn't realized it's been so long since my last update.

Well, when I left you last, I had just put the fiberglass mat on and was ready to fill it in. It took a couple of more coats but here is what it looked like all filled in.

 

All Filled In

Shiny

 

From the Front

It was starting to get that plastic look to it and was very shiny. It was also a bit splotchy but I knew just how to take care of that. Yep, more sanding....................................which took that shine right off.

After I got it sanded, it still wasn't fair so now I thickened up some epoxy and put another layer on. It dripped a little but I wasn't concerned about the drips because I knew they would be, you guessed it, sanded off.

Another Layer of Epoxy

I used my long board to sand in several directions. It was easy to see where the low spots were because of the contrast in the places that the board scratched and the places that it didn't. I sanded off most of the one layer, knocking down the high spots. Then I put another layer of thickened epoxy on and sanded down to where there was hardly any low spots. I went around and just filled in the few low spots that were left and sanded them smooth. It was a lot of work and took hours and many weekends. Here are a couple of pictures I took during that process.

Half Sanded

From the Other End

 

 

 

 

Smooth

From the Bow

It doesn't look like it but I got everything pretty smooth and fair. I tried to take a couple of pictures that show how smooth it is.

Low Angle

 

The Other Side

I think I could keep putting coats on and sanding them off for a year or more and still have a couple of spots to work on. After six months I decided enough was enough and declared it done.

The next step is to paint it but before I did that I wanted to cut out the hole in the bow for the winch on the trailer to hook into. I didn't want to just drill out a hole because that would leave end grain inside the hole that water could get sucked up into and rot the wood. I drilled out a 1 1/2" hole and filled it in with epoxy. Then I drilled a 3/4" hole in the epoxy plug.

Another Hole in the Boat

After that, I spent a day stirring up the primer I bought about a year ago. Then I put the first coat of primer down.

One Coat of Primer

Of course, I felt like I needed to sand it a little. I think I'm addicted to sanding. Let me know if you need anything sanded because I'm a sandaholic.

I put the second primer coat on and this is what it looks like now.

Two Coats of Primer

All Primed

 

Another White Boat

Just what the world needs, another white boat. It will not stay that way for long. My next step will be to put a couple of top coats on. Once that is done, I'll be ready to flip it back over and get back to working on the topside. 


I don't think I'll ever make a living at boat building because evidently, it takes me a couple of years to make a little daysailer. Hopefully I'll get to use it for longer than it is taking to build it.

Moving Along

After flipping the boat over, the next thing I did was start to shape where the sides and the bottom meet. Here is a before and after.

Before

After

  
As you can see, I also rounded over the keel. All of the sharp corners on the boat need to be rounded for it to glide through the water smoothly. At the same time, I want the keel and chine to bite to help the boat to track well. It needs to be rounded over but not too much so.  

Rounded but Not Too Much

I'd round it over some and go do something else. Then when I was working on another part I'd go back to the keel and work on the shape some more. I think I'll probably be working on it until the first coat of primer is applied.  

The next thing I did was work on filling all of the screw holes and filling in where the panels meet. I also needed to fill in where the bottom meets the keel which needed to be rounded as well. I used epoxy with microballoons and wood flower. I mixed it up to a putty consistency and use a putty knife to butter it in. Here is a picture with one side filled in and sanded and the other side just filled in.

Half Done

After filling everything in and sanding it down, I used a large plastic paddle like thing to put a coat of the thickened epoxy all over the sides and bottom. Then I spent a lot of time sanding most of it off. This filled in any voids in the surface of the wood and  helped to make sure I have a solid, flat surface for the fiberglass to bed onto. I spent a bunch of weekends filling in with the epoxy and sanding it off to get everything flat. Here is a picture that gives you a little idea of what it was like. The epoxy is red from the microballoons and that little pile on the ground is not a mistake by Lacey. It's a glob of the thickened epoxy. 
 

Filled In

Finally, I said enough is enough and it was time to start laying down the fiberglass. I rolled it out onto one side of the hull and smoothed it out and used push pins to help keep it in place. 

Fiberglassing the Hull

 

Smoothed Out

Then I mixed up some unthickened epoxy to  wet it out. I made several small batches that added up to almost 60 ounces. My main goal is to just make sure that the fiberglass was flat against the wood by soaking it through with epoxy. Here is what it looks like after I applied the epoxy.

Wetted Out

Wetted Fiberglass Bow

 

Wetted Fiberglass Stern

After that, I trimmed the excess fiberglass off. 

Trimmed Up

Trimmed Up Stern

Here are a couple of pictures that show the weave of the fiberglass which I will fill in with subsequent coats.

Port Fiberglass

 

Fiberglass Weave

I was all set to do the other side the following day but it was windy as hell. I didn't want a bunch of stuff to blow onto the sticky epoxy. It would have been a great day to be out sailing though.

I wrote earlier about wanting to make my own spars using the birdsmouth method and I thought it would be good to have a little experience before doing the real thing. I have a shade sail that I needed some new posts for so I gave it a try. I got some eight foot 1 X 2's for seventy-five cents each and used eight of them to make a spar that was eight feet long. I inserted a two and a half foot piece of pressure treated on each end with  twelve inches sticking out and rounded them over. Then I cut the spar in half. I mounted them using hose claps but made some wood pieces for decoration that I thought looked like mast brackets and kinda salty. I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Sail Shade Mast

Sail Shade Mast

This gives you an idea of how the spars will look for the boat.  They seem to be very strong.
 
Another thought I have is making a solid bowsprit. I made this contraption to use my router to turn square piece of wood into a round spar. I needed a new support pole for an umbrella I have so I thought I would give it a shot. Here are some pictures of that.

Router Lathe

 

Router Lathe Sled

Routed Stick

I have to turn the crank while pushing the sled along the length of the board. I did it in several passes, taking a little off on each pass. It turned out pretty good but I am still unsure whether I'll use it for the boat spar or not. The bowsprit will be a little thicker than the umbrella pole.