Hot Chili (AKA Home Brew) Build site

This website is to introduce the build of the sailboat Home Brew by Stephen Cookson

HOT CHILI (HomeBrew)

This document is intended to chronicle the plans and progress of the build of the catamaran Hot Chili aka Home Brew.

My name is Stephen Cookson, I’m a crazy Swamp Yankee from Down East Maine (yes we do venture that far east) who thought nothing could be better than to build your own boat then take it down to the sea and actually sail it away. Google Swamp Yankee Wikipedia page for an explanation of the above description.

As a kid, my dad owned a motor boat he water skied behind up in the wilds of Maine back in the mid sixties and that passion of being on the water has never left me. I have always wanted to have a sailboat (or any boat for that matter) since being a small child. Pouring through the old Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated always stirred me to want to fashion a craft of my own. Then at age 15 and deciding to get my scuba certification from the YMCA only made that passion stronger. Imagine the places I could go and dive if only I had a boat. Shore diving was a lot of fun, but diving from a boat certainly had a certain panache that could not be replicated from shore.

My graduation present as a senior in high school was a gift from my parents. They got me a 5 day trip crewing on a 36’ foot schooner the Vernon Langille. It started a bit inauspiciously as we rammed the bridge at the Bath Iron Works and sank the ship. (See this link below to the NY Times… Yes I was crewing on this vessel.).

archivehttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E5D81E38F93AA35754C0A967948260

It however did not daunt my spirit in sailing or owning my own boat to go down to the sea. Too many sunsets have been missed already and intend to waste no more of them.

Now, with so much of my family obligations behind me, like changing diapers and renovating houses, it is with much anticipation I begin a project that as waited some 30 years.

I have enlisted the best of the best as I proceed forward with the recruitment of my build team. My 2 year old Mastiff Guinness will certainly be quality control on the project. In addition my 2 girls, ages 11 and 14 will provide much of the moral support. Not to mention the wife, who with out her support this would not be possible (kind of like PBS).

Just a bit more back story to conclude the prologue. I am building what I consider a utilitarian “yacht” in possibly the hot bed of all yacht snobbery if not in the world at least in the continent of North America. Yes, that is correct it will be launched in Newport, Rhode Island. The build will be completed in Coventry R.I. Can’t wait till the Kennedy’s get a load of this bad boy once she’s complete and we sail her out to the Cape!

So without further ado let’s get to the journal part.

May 27^th 2008

Duckworks has the order for plans and I should have them by the weekend the 30^th or the 31^st.I can’t wait to get them in my grubby little hands and start pulling a materials list. If my calculations are correct the straight build should come in around $2500 US. This is excluding rigging, sails, motor etc. This is the straight hull and rudder only. The materials list from the website states 16 sheets of ply. Without the plans in hand I suspect to go heavy on the epoxy and cloth and use standard exterior ply (non-marine) for all components below the waterline inside and out. Then go epoxy and glass on anything outside on the boat. Inside the boat, standard paint and paper I suppose. Can’t wait to get going I’ll keep you posted.

Saturday May 31^{st 2008}

Well it was an interesting day. I collected materials to complete the One Sheet Skiff listed on the Duckworks website.

The reason being twofold. My daughter would like to have a small skiff to fish in (and so would I ) and I figured it might make a suitable tender for HOT CHILI if indeed I do moor it. Certainly this skiffs size would allow it to be shipped on the forward deck of HC without compromising deck space and trailing it behind the boat. During mid construction of the skiff I see a Jeep pull up to the mailbox. I quickly dispatch my 11 year old to the mailbox and indeed PLANS ARE HERE!!!! It takes all my will power to continue to focus on the skiff. Once it is totally completed in the evening I did not have the energy to open the package and dig in. Just for notation purposes my One Sheet Skiff was completed in 7 ½ hours then I added a few short evenings in painting and trimming out. I even knocked together some VERY suitable oars from leftovers in my shop. From old tent poles, old rake handles and some leftover 3/8” ply and asst fasteners I was able to craft them. They work like a charm. Photos are available upon request.

Sunday June 1^{st, 2008}

Up early and digesting plans. Looks like this will be perfect! Exactly what I had in mind for the type of sailing I have in mind. I was looking for a boat that can accommodate a small family or 2 couples comfortably and without all the luxury. I was really looking for a floating camper and this design certainly fits the bill. I am currently compiling a materials list as I review the plans. Already calling around for Marine ply suppliers locally and not meeting with much success.

Tuesday June 3^{rd 2008}

SUCCESS! Found a local supplier who can get all the thicknesses of Ply required. The best part is they are only 7 miles away and deliver. It does not get any better than that.

Wednesday, June 4^th

WATERSHED MOMENT IN THIS BUILD AND LIFE IN GENERAL

Well Plans for HC may have to be placed on hold for a period of time. In the plans section of HC the builder/designer says this boat can be built and afforded by “anyone who is capable of holding a job.” After 10+ years with my current employer and having never been unemployed since the summer I turned 13 years old, I was informed as of August 1^st my tenure with my company would come to an end. Truly this didn’t come as a surprise. Not to get into excruciating detail but the employer was a small family owned company that I loved to work for. It was sold to a large international conglomerate 2 years ago. Since then cuts of employees have been frequent and deep so this does not really come as a surprise. This development, however, may throw a huge monkey wrench in my plans to FINALLY build my dreamboat. More to follow, soon I hope.

Thursday, June 12^{th 2008}

As you might expect the last week has been determining my future plans and after much discussion with my very understanding spouse it would seem that construction will continue. In fact construction may be accelerated as I will have at least half of August to work exclusively on my project. A very generous severance package will allow me to take off all of August and perhaps the month of Sept as well. This being the case I will forge ahead and get the materials ordered and delivered asap. My future is indeed yet to be determined. I will be back into the plans this evening in addition to delivering my resume via e-mail to some interested perspective employers.

Sunday June 23^rd 2008

Got up really early, as stuff on this project is running around in my head. Attempts to finds a broken down cat/ Hobie or even one for parts has been fruitless so far. I suppose being that I haven’t even STARTED the damn thing would leave me with plenty of time to source one. However I wanted to get rigging so as to spar on my build. I figured if I had masts, rigging and sails it would only make me focus more.

This unavailability being the case made me begin to even rethink the whole Idea of re-rigging with an old cat. All the current available cats in my area are running 500 - 1500 US $ This being the beginning of the season certainly may be putting a premium on those prices however I think I may have an idea for even a better way to rig this sail craft with out the cost of masts and booms. I have decided to build a hollow laminate mast/boom using pine and ply. I’ll have to document the process with photos to be able to elaborate. Needless to say it may be a bit of a costly experiment. Oh well that’s what us tinker’s do, trial and error. Look forward to additional detail once I get to the build stage.(Perhap’s 6-9 months out.) I have a friend in Maine who is an engineer who I will run this by to see if the idea even has merit before starting the layout.

Tuesday, July 01 2008

Holy Crap! I actually pulled the trigger. I went to my local lumber supplier close by as noted above and bought the needed lumber to build this Cat. 23 sheets total for a price of $1384 US I decided Marine Ply was much more expensive but would give me a much better final result so I bit the bullet and spent the extra cash. . Yeah it might be a bit much but I don’t have to go get it or even have additional materials delivered as far as I can see. If I end up with extra full sheets I’ll put them on E-bay. No WRC for the stems (or at least not what I needed. ) I’ll lam up ½’” Ply for the stems from the sheets I have coming and see how that goes. The WRC would have been easier to plane down. I suppose I’ll just get some additional belt sander belts and use those to rough them down in say 40 Grit. MAN I’m GEEKED! Delivery looks like Thursday July 3^rd perhaps I can get it started over the 4^th of July Weekend.

Thursday July 3rd,

Plywood is here. Stacked in garage. Ready to go......

Saturday July 5^{th 2008},

The OFFICIAL start date of the boat commenced today at 10:30 a.m. EST. I started building the stems as our Fourth of July plans have been derailed by a really bad bout of rain. Figured I might just as well be productive as opposed to sitting on the couch. I decided to go with laminated ply to build the stems as the Western Red Cedar was pretty expensive and hard to get in the needed length. I could only get 14 running feet in 5/4” and only needed 7 feet. Cost has become a bit of an issues as I currently am unemployed (or will be soon) so cost will become an issue as I try to stay on schedule with this project and have it in the water in the spring.

Cutting the stems was straight forward. Glue up was easy and the entire cutting, gluing, and clean up the shop only took about 2 hours.

Sunday July 6^th 2008,

Glue up is dry and indecent weather took away our plans again to day so while my wife putters about the house with mundane cleaning tasks the stems were taking shape in the workshop. I was skeptical the tools I had for the task would be adequate. After about 4 hours work they proved worthy. I did not have any specific power shaping tools but the ones I did have allowed me to adequately complete the job. I had the following for the shaping. A small belt sander with 40 Grit belts, a medium hand plane (very sharp), a wood rasp/file combo. As hand tools go, a Surform tool might have been the tool of choice if some sort of power planer is unavailable. I found however I had quite a bit of control in shaping and not over cutting with the hand tools. With this task completed I am confident when I get to shaping the dagger boards and the tiller assembly I should be able to complete the task myself on a particularly dreary nasty day that will not allow boatbuilding on the hull. In my estimation this may be one of the more technically challenging tasks on this build. (Short of taking all the decimal measures back to sixteenths of an inch!) Most of this build would seem to be square edges against square edges, glue up, and epoxy. This works for me.

Shaping Stems 3.50 hours total to date 5.50 hours

Sunday February 1^st 2009 (Super Bowl Sunday)

Yeah I know been a while since we have had an entry however much has occurred since the last time I sat down to write.

q Vacation in Vermont and Maine in early August.

q A complete septic redux for our home

q Lots of landscaping in the Fall after the septic

q A major computer failure (not allowing me to log any diary updates)

q Launching my own Home Renovation Company with a Partner

q Tons of business from the start up of the business until now.

q The Hoildays

Which is good, however it has allowed Home Brew to be put on the back burner a bit until today.

Now with the business up and running, and the Holidays in the rearview mirror, I can now hunker down. Today allowed the temps to climb into the low 40’s F. This should give me ample chance to get the project back on track.

HOWEVER ……

If indeed the project will get going, it is not today, not in a meaningful way to speak of. Let’s call this installment …

Measure three times cut twice

It was with great anticipation I took the plans to the garage. My Daughter would be the photographer for the day. Much reading and re-reading of the plans recently would allow me smooth building.

I have decided for the winter to basically “KIT OUT” the Home Brew. Weather here for January has been unusually cold. I intended to begin during the Christmas layoff of our new company had but the cold did not allow me into my unheated shop to start cutting pieces. Today is the day, temps are reasonable and that would allow me to begin the “kitting” process.

It is my intention for the next few days/weeks to cut any and all pieces and label them appropriately in order to assemble them once the warm weather has shown up. Hopefully around April 1^st.

With the walking of my Quality Assurance Supervisor, Guinness, out of the way. It is intended that cutting the pieces to the bulkheads begin.

Remember Fans, measure three times cut twice. Yes, I made an error fatal to 1 sheet of ¼ inch ply. I began cutting bulkheads out of this material instead it should have been from 3/8^th inch ply. Yes, I measured twice to cut once but in my haste I grabbed the ¼ inch piece on the end not the 2^nd piece in on my pile of Plywood. OOP’s! Not only was this incorrect but the very first bulkhead I cut was of course off by ½ an inch. Yes, two mistakes in the first day of progress since mid July last year. Oh well live and learn I ordered one extra sheet in case of mistakes. I am a bit disappointed it happened day #2 of construction but it is not a total loss except of time and a small amount of $$$. Lesson learned but you would think someone who makes his living now building things would not make such a mistake.

I suspect in my haste to start this project again I was a bit excited. Not an excuse but really a reflection to this point. I have to admit I think one of the reasons why I had not started was the fact that I have $1300 invested in the project and did not want to screw something up. This may be a good thing I made mistakes the second day and am undaunted. In fact this entry is taking place immediately after my failure so I suspect this is a positive. My beautiful wife was very supportive. She expects mistakes as I make them all the time and am happy she supports me in my quest to continue until Home Brew sees an initial launch.

Cutting bad bulkheads 2 hours Total time 7.50 hours

Saturday March 7^th 2009

Bulkhead cutting got underway in earnest today. Pics are included. All bulkheads are cut and we are ready for construction. Titebond III will be the glue of choice. I also will be making a bit of a change in the construction process. I have an air nailer available to me and expect to be able to construct at a quicker pace as a “glue and nail” process will be to my advantage in making a boat I can get on the water much sooner and at a good quality.

And here is my assistant Boat builder and indicated earilier in the One Sheet Build My Daughter Erinn.

And my Quality Control Assistant Guinness (he's in the middle)

Well it's about time! Spring has sprung and boat building is in full swing. Finally I have moved forward due to fortuitous scheduling in my business and luck on the weather side. Made tremendous progress today. I was able to scarf together both sides, cut out the hatches for both bridgedecks, cut out all pieces for the daggerboards, rudders, and transom mount.

Was able to complete handles on the daggerboards . The port side is now fully scribed with all details. Unfortunately due to attempting to turn the starboard bulkhead the pine scarf split down the seam making me have to affix a full scarf in plywood once again.

another 3 hours today. Getting the sides ready for trimming tomorrow. Measured fully from all datum points checking and re-checking all measurements . ready to set and trim tomorrow. Ran outdaggerboaerd rails today as well.

Another 4 hours today. Cut sides to spec. Photos to be published.

Daggerboards sanded and finished ready for epoxy.

Full day today. Scarfed bridgedeck together today. All bulkheads glued in place on both sides.

Only a couple hours today. First time working with epoxy. Filleted in all bulkheads to side panels.

Big day today. Bridgedeck leveled (to the best of my ability.) Found out much to the designers ntes that you will find out how you should have built it after its done or on the way to being doen so to speak. Should not have cut out the hatches or the foot wells until after attaching the sides. If it is done before it allows the ply to flex out of level off the table due to only having 2-3 inches of material on the leading edge. I fund that after leveling the table and then having the hatches cut out allowed far too much bridgedeck flexing and warping after setting the weight of the sides in place. I seem to have not built any Rack into the boat thus far as I leveled the sides and the cross level on the bottoms of the bulkheads and all seems level and fair.

Hot Chili Updates

Saturday May 30^th – I am finding that the build portion is taking over for my updating the project form. I’d rather build than update and by the time I have completed the build process on the weekends (usually between 9 and 10 p.m.) I am too exhausted to even consider firing up the computer to complete the time and effort updates I never have been a very good paperwork person.

I have neglected a couple days of updates and will include the estimate of hours and effort here. A couple nights this week have been dedicated mainly to adding the blocks of wood for the bunk berths flats and footwell flats. Also the couple nights efforts have been adding the epoxy fillets to the structural components. Not really much to update any way at least not much that’s very impactful, absolutely necessary however, but not very flashy boat building stuff.

A couple of notes, observations and perhaps not so very esoteric items.

I am really focused on the build process. I understand there is an obvious amount of detail that is necessary as noted above, I tend to be focused on results as opposed to the finer arts of the “boatbuilding” process. You may notice from the recent photos I am really not terribly concerned about the look of my epoxy fillets. I want to make sure they are very structural but asthetics are not really what I’m going for here. They are all inside anyway and it’s not like many will see below decks anyway. (In the cabin and above decks I’m sure I’ll be a bit more fussy.) My real goal is to get this built and in the water. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I’m not taking my time, however I would like to build it instead of just thinking about building it. I did that all winter it’s now time to get it afloat.

A note to a non boat builder who wants to build. To Jeff Gilberts credit he says get a chair for your pondering time…. I agree. As much as you want to build there is a lot of brain bending time involved in the process of building, or if you will,… pre-building. I had a day last week that probably consisted of a 6 hour day and I think I spent about an hour putting wood in place. The rest was planning and getting ready for the next steps. That kind of drives me crazy.

As you can see by the photos I am ready for Chines to start going in.

And I have a question? I have built boats before and I have sailed/motored on many boats as well. In this design are they really truly necessary as opposed to using a glue/epoxy block method? I mean it seems to me you could (COULD as I am neither a boat designer or engineer.) To me it would seem you could block in between the bulkheads and then epoxy in between. You do have access to all bulkheads even after flipping albeit a bit in convenient where you could fillet all the bottoms and side panels bulkhead joins. I would also venture that in order to have structure out in front you could do the same with some sort of plywood “socket” laid just below the bridge deck Forward of BH2 to Bow structure in both the pontoons forward of the mast. It is my intentions a a cold water sailer to have a full front deck this will only add to the strength of the structure thereby eliminating the real need for fully bent chines. Another note is that you would have to install the footwell flats and berth flats AFTER filleting. I think it can/could be done but not conveniently to be sure. This was the reason for my 5 hours pondering last week was to do this or not.

A note on my chines. I am going with pine at ¾” X 1” they are scarfed ahead of BH3. This is where the bend would seem to be the slightest or nearly so. I am hoping these have enough profile required and structural strength as required. It’s what I had available and have done these with good luck before.

6 hours today total is

Sunday, May 31st

Hopefully today I’ll get all the bunk wells cut and installed the the Chine logs will go in today up to a point on BH3 I will tweak these in on BH2 and Bow nights this week.

Before I get into epoxy, thinking, building, cursing and a moderate amount of beer consumption I thought of one more additional note for the beginner as well, it may run counter intuitive and I may even be reprimanded by the designer for the following statement. DON’T WORRY ! I have been encountering minor issue after minor issue with the build it’s all part of a project this size as most of you already know. I find that when I worry about what this and that will have on the ultimate outcome of the build, worrying takes all the fun out of the build. Here are a few examples. I have a 1/16^th difference in the side sheets. I split the difference when hanging the sides and have about a 1/32^nd on each end. I have found my corner to corner measurement to be off a bit right now about 3/16^th’s I’M NOT WORRYING. It will take all the fun out of todays progress. I am being as fine with the measurements as I can however there are a few things I was unable to over come (see my update on hanging the bridgedecks AFTER having cut the footwell and bunk cuts outs should have done it after) but I am still not worrying. All seems to be OK at this point. Hopefully after the flip I find out that I have not built any sort of a rack into the frame. If I have I’ll figure out a way to over come it. Anyway this boat will be completed even if it doesn’t sail to it’s full potential I will still be on the water in my boat that I built. Not worrying!

On my structural build. I am cheating where ever possible. I have the luxury of making attachments with Glue and nail construction. Again this may go against the proper “boatbuilding model” but it does speed the build. I have glued the backing of all my pine battens, spread with a brush to level the glue then nail in place with galvanized nails using an air nailer. It works very well and speeds it so much. I have used galvanized screws on strucrural components like all attachments of chines to Bridgedecks etc. then nails along with glue and then epoxy fillets this may be overbuilding but it certainly won’t be weak I suspect. It is my intention to epoxy/glasscloth/glass tape on exposed edges on anything on the pontoons from bridgedeck under the pontoons up to the TOP daggerboard rung. This will seal all holes I have created using this glue and nail methodology.

I have included photos of the “secret weapon” the “epoxy station” and the “pondering chair”

Without further ado on to building……for today!

Ok so maybe after a day of building I’m worrying a bit. Only because I have fitted the footwell flats and the berth flats and I think I have made a couple of small errors there. In addition, in attempting to fair in the chine logs I think I may have a bit of an issue with the bottom log at one of the datum points. I have set the intended break to allow the intended chine brace and it would seem it does not fair the chine at all. It is not REALLY bad but it could be a bit better as far as the fair is. It might still work I expect but I would have liked it to be a bit better set. I was only able to set one of the bottom chines on the Starboard side (upside down remember.) Hopefully I can set the inboard bridgedeck chines this week.

Total today 5 hours.

November Tuesday June 2^nd

Today was the curiosity day of all days. My next door neighbor, my father in law and across the street neighbor all swung in during the build tonight to check on progress. Welcome enough but it slowed me down considerably. Was only able to get one log tied in tonight.

5 hours (only about 2 being productive)

Sunday June 7^th

Lots of additional progress today all the chine logs have been laid in and tied in. I have made some minor changes on the tie ins in the bow on the sheer logs and the bottom logs.

As noted above I did add some blocking aft of the front Chine tie ins on the bow to allow for a better ability to secure the chines. They are small triangular blocks that allowed gluing and screwing for a better hold. Planing has commenced as I decided to tie in the logs flush with the bridgedeck then planning in order to tie them to the deck. Epoxying will be completed nights this week.

6 hours today.

Uh yeah... whats happened since June 7th... Well quite a bit actually. The new Home Renovation business started last fall has taken off like gangbusters. (That's all good) However it has slowed boat progress quite a bit.

Although I have not updated in quite a while I do have progress to report. The entire hull has been completed in the upside down mode. It is complete... faired and is ready for fibreglass. The bad news however is it looks like it will have to winter over upside down until I am able to have enough warm weather to fibreglass in the spring. NOT exactly what I had expected. June and July's extremely wet weather has forced me to winter over before the flip. Very disappointing to say the least. I do have additional photos to post and will do so once i have a bit more web space at my disposal. Pictures say a thousand words so much better for all of you if you can just click and see the results.

Not where I am now but...

Hopefully I'll have new photos soon!

Total time build so far 61.50 hours (as of June 7th)

I wish... maybe 100 as of November 15th 2009..

December 24th 2009 -

Well some progress in the last couple weeks. The days before contracting a bout of pneumonia I was able to get the daggerboard rungs epoxied as some final warm weather was around. Addede about 4 hours of work here and bringing the total to my best guesstimate of 104 hours.

I must admit by last few weeks of late summer/fall building frenzy (along with alot of new business for my company) did not allow much time for updating lately.

With the above said I do have a few items to cover in addition to my somewhat disjointed updates.

Item #1 - In re-reading I suspect I have not been concise in some updates with regard to what has gone on in my full construction. My fastner methodology comes a bit from my constuction background. I usedthe following to tie all my ply to my bulkheads. I used a glue/nailgun with 2"finishnails/ then full fasten with 1 1/2 galvanized screws into the bulkheads. This will then be covered with a fibreglass cloth from 6"up the hull all the way under the hulls and across the bottom of the bridgedeck for a full waterfroofing. All other seams will receive fibreglass tape and epoxy for full waterproofing. In my estimation using the heavier 1/4" ply and this method of fastening This will make for and extremely overbuilt carcass. The additional build weight will in all likly hood be somwhat negligable and will make for a more than sturdy craft for open water sailing. In additiona all bulkheads were trimmed in each side with 3/4" X 2" pine trim for a solid connection for glue and screw.

Item #2 - I have also admitted that much of my "boat building" in this particular project has not been to the artsy standard of true boatbuilding. As stated previously I simply need to get this craft afloat. It is not ugly and the construction techniques will certainly compromise safety however I suspect I could have been a bit more fussy in some of the construction at times. Much like #3

Item #3 - I LOVE Epoxy...I HATE Epoxy. As a first timer in the epoxy use game and now being in about 1 gallon of epoxy and about 2 gallons of sawdust in for the "filletting" of joints and connections I'll outline a few pros and cons.

PRO A.) Once a joint has been filletted with a sawdust and epoxy mix and it has set, it makes the joint somewhat like what a weld will do with a steel plate affixed 90 degrees to another.

PRO B.) It allows you a bit of latitude with panels that attach to bulkheads that may not be exact in cutting/ fitting etc. If there is a gap to be filled it can be done with epoxy.

Con A.) Once it is set... make sure it is not somewhere you don't want it. I have yet to find the right tool to remove unwanted epoxy About the best I have encountered is a very sharp 3/4" chisel. It can be shaved down with that but it takes some elbow grease.

Con B.) I have not quite gotten the desired effect with the recipe in using sawdust and getting very consistent results. In many cases the same amount of sawdust used in one batch will make a stiffer or looser batch depending on how fine the sawdust is.

(Note: When preparing sawdust to be used in the epoxy mix in order to fillet joins, my technique in getting the sawdust to be consistent was to sift all of my sawdust through a window screen. This removed alot of big unwanted unuseable chunks thus allowing for a smoother fillet. I did 2 - 5 gallon buckets in about an hour.)

Pro C and Con C.) You have 10 minutes before it starts to set up. In small batches this is GREAT in larger batches you have alot of waste.

So this is my disertation on my epoxy experiences with the filleting portion of the show. I'm sure I'll have additional updates once I move on to working with cloth and epoxy coating for the hulls/bridgedeck.

I know I know not much of an update since Christmas Eve however much has happened since the last update. (photos to follow.)

Updating with the following progress to hours and the $$$$ to follow with the photos.

Here is the progress report....

1.) Mast and boom materials purchased, laminated and roug cut for the time being.

2.) A friend last fall dropped off the following poached off a sailboat he was junking. An anchor, a couple cleats, a couple blocks, a nice tab run for attaching the mainsail to the mast that upon review will probably work on my design.

3.) Tiller boxes and rudders all cut fronm specs and ready for assembly on the next crappy weather day.

4.) Fibreglass cloth ordered from DUCKWORKS and has been received.

5.) As of today both Catamaran canoes have been "wetted in" from bottom daggerboard rung to bottom of bridgedeck.

Approximate time invested in the above noted efforts

3 hours on mast/boom construction

4 hours on tiller box construction

12 hours on wetting in the first coat of fibreglass cloth onto hull canoes

adding this to the above mentioned 104 hours gives a grand total of 123 construction hours.

Been too long since the last update however here's what has occurred.

Completed Fibreglass cloth 1st coat.

Taped all below water seams and epoxied 2 coats.

Sand out full first coat of epoxy.

Cat out any really bad epoxy work where it did not properly wet out

Second coat of epoxy

Sand out second coat of epoxy.

Reinforced bridgedeck with additional layer of 1/4" ply.

Fibreglassed underneath bridgedeck and one coat of epoxy.

Second coat of epoxy on bridge deck.

Repairs of any epoxy drips and final sand.

Painted hulls under bridgedeck up to bottom of canoes all the way to bottom edge of hull deck.

I'm going to estimate the time expended on the above project list. I do know I have 3 full days and from recollection about 4 partial nights here and there to complete the list.

I think we are in the neighborhood of an additional 45 hours.

Total hours 168. ($$$ amount to come shortly.)

Additonal update July 13th 2010 -

BIG NEWS - HOMEBREW FLIPPED!!!!!!!!! (this actually happened last weekend however just getting to the update.)

After much virtual engineering inside my head I expected to manufacture a rather elaborte flipping cradle constructed with 2X4's of differing lentghs. I thought if I laminated (2) 2"X4"X12's together with drywall screws and attached them across port to starboard to stiffen the some what weak bridgedeck with rachet straps this would create the foundation. Then I would laminate 2"X4"X8's to tie it together fore to aft. Again attaching with the rachet straps (see photos).

The major problem in flipping this with this rig... the cabin side

I suspected this would work. It kind of did but made it akward in the attempt. Nothing a sawzall could not fix. After cutting off one cabin side this allowed the deck to be completely lowered to ground level for much easier flipping. In the plans it describes cutting this cabin side partially though and "kinking" it in at a 5 degree angle to allow a sleeker look. I would have had to cut it partly through anyway so what the ehck I'll cut it off and attache it once I frame the cabin.

So after chopping off the additional 4' ofthe 2X12's it was ready to go over. I have a smal video and have been unable to post it due to my technical limitations. Photos will have to do.

Suprisingly It took a rather modest crew in to flip it.

Since I flipped it I have :

Epoxied the fillets need to strengthen the bulkheads from the topside.

Epoxied the footwell flats in order to make them waterproof and drilled the drain holes.

Built the forward and aft beams and epoxied with fillets.

Attached the full forward bridgedeck.

An additional 16 hours to complete the above list.

Total hours to date 184 hours.

Ready to flip

Not quite ready!

Hard aground!

A few more days and she'll be in the water!