At last a build thread: CR16 skiff

[cracked_ribs]

Yeah, I thought I'd do it it a traditional royal blue and leave the trim bright. That's a pretty classic color scheme that always works for me.

[cracked_ribs]

Second coat of primer. Wasn't much to fix after the first; might have used two oz of Quikfair. It's funny, I bought a 1.5 pint pack three boats ago, then, before my previous boat, bought a second 1.5 pint pack because I figured the next boat would require more than I had left.

I think it's possible I'll finish this boat without ever opening the second pack. I really try to have things fair at the glassing stage and I guess this is the result.

Anyway here's the boat in primer. Oh, I also glued down a wear strip since this thing will get beached constantly. I live on a big island and then my summer home is on a really small island with no docks or anything, so for loading stuff on and off you either drive onto shore, or you row everything in on a dinghy. I'm sick of rowing everything in from my big deep-draft boat so I am building this little low power skiff to use as a runabout, and I put the wear strip on the keel or skeg or however you want to think of it so I can beat it up on the oysters and barnacles and when it gets wrecked I can replace it for about 30 ice pesos ($20 USD).
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[Fuzz]

Your glass work must be outstanding to use so little Quickfair.

[cracked_ribs]

Well, I did fill the weave with wood flour, then do several weeks of epoxy/filler mix. I only use QF after I prime. The big work is all out of the way before I put a coat of paint on.

If you added up all the epoxy filler mix I slathered on it would probably be more like 40 oz or something. I try to get everything to lay flat but sharpening the chines alone probably took six ounces, I'm no miracle worker or anything. It's more just that I really don't like to prime until I don't think it'll need much work afterwards. In theory, I'd like to prime, sand to 320 or so, then paint, with no filler at all.

In practise...even after I've gotten it pretty good and primed it, I still find a few flaws to fix. I'll sand this round tomorrow or the next day, probably find an ounce of screw ups to fix, QF them, then sand, prime, sand, and hopefully start the top coat next weekend.

[cracked_ribs]

Finally something worth photographing: rather than just layer after layer of primer as I prep for paint (I used 3/4 of a gallon of kilz to get it where I wanted it, so however many coats that is, maybe a billion?) I was finally satisfied with the surface and rolled on some blue. It's not done, I'm doing thin coats of a single stage enamel so bear with me as it evens out.

Here's one coat:



And here's two:



I'm blocking it with 320 between coats. It's sitting nice and flat. I just wanted to get a couple of coats on her to seal up the primer nicely, and then I can roll it out of the garage for an afternoon to get everthing vaccuumed out. I don't really care that there's dust in the first coat or two, A) because they're getting sanded between coats, and B) I'll probably put another five on top of these two. At this stage I'm not even tipping the paint, I'm just rolling it on and walking away.

Still, you can see it's sitting pretty flat after a couple of go-arounds:



I mean yeah, there's orange peel to deal with, but it doesn't take much to buff it down with 320. A couple more coats and it'll really start to get smooth, I think

So far I've used about one pint of paint. I have a gallon, so no shortage here. Actually, I might have 5 quarts, I'll have to look. I forgot I had this paint, but it was the colour I wanted to this boat anyway, so I figured I'd use it up.

Bit of "mahogany" (presumably sapele) trim, now that it's nicely saturated in epoxy. I loaded on a pretty thick coat and heated it with a paint gun until it was 90% absorbed into the wood. Should pop pretty nicely once the paint is done and the stem is all varnished up etc.

[Cowbro]

That is going to be beautiful. The mahogany and blue are perfect.

[TomW1]

I love it! It is gorgeous....

Tom

[Fuzz]

Nice!

[cracked_ribs]

Thanks guys! It's a work in progress, of course, but I'm happy with how it's starting to look.

Looks like decent weather today so pretty good chance she'll see some sunlight for once.

[VT_Jeff]

I don't really care that there's dust in the first coat or two

At this stage I'm not even tipping the paint, I'm just rolling it on and walking away.

I mean yeah, there's orange peel to deal with, but it doesn't take much to buff it down with 320.

Man, I need to work with this kind of confidence! All makes perfect sense but it's the kind of stuff that I wouldn't consider on my own. Painting takes me eons because I treat every coat like it's the final coat, I need to adjust my thinking.

Looking great.