Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Very nice ! Looking forward to seeing her in the water

The first attachments at bat are the ventilation hatches. The boat has to sit outside for a while so there's room in my shop to make the other attachments. Need to seal those big holes in the bulkheads so critters don't move in!

Common six-inch plastic deck plates.



No white plastic for this boat, thank you very much. Spray painted them brown.



And then set them to dry for 48 hours just like the directions on the can says.



They look like mushrooms.

You would think a spray paint manufacturer (Krylon) would sell a clear coat that was compatible with their spray paint.



No such luck. The clear coat was almost as good as paint remover.

Got to start over again. Second time I used common spar varnish as a clear coat and that went fine.

Hatch rings are installed.



And, after the silicon sealant sets, so are the hatches.



Not visible: one of the hatch plates has a 1/16" hole drilled in it to let air pressure inside the hull equalize with the atmosphere during barometric and temperature changes. Only one hole, though. Don't want all the air to bubble out when someone capsized the boat.

Got the hull out of the shop.



A Sunfish mast fits!

Then I had some fun crawling around on the ground under the boat adjusting the dolly. NOT.



Didn't get it right - the wheels are too far back and the tongue weight is too high. But it'll do till it comes back to the shop.



Now hibernating under the trampoline which doesn't get much use in winter.

Next "attachment" is the daggerboard. The owner of a local business did a CNC daggerboard for his father's Sunfish. So I commissioned his shop to do another one for me with a Moonfish handle.



Misread the Moonfish plans and made the part of the daggerboard that passes through the hull two inches too long. Got to spend a day with a belt sander, block plane, and sanding block extending the foil up another two inches.

Someone on the internet suggested wrapping an extra layer of fiberglass over the tip for abrasion resistance.



As you can see, there was no way the fiberglass (6 oz) was going to adhere to the tight radius at the tip. I had to cut it, creating a seam, so the 'glass would stick to the wood.

I was more successful draping the fiberglass over the leading edge:

Next I rounded off the corners of the handle and cleats with a 1/4-inch roundover bit in the router. Then glued the cleats to each side.



Here's the whole board coated with epoxy. Three layers of fill on top of the fiberglass and two layers of encapsulation on the raw wood.



Varnish to come, after I get the splash coaming done.

Absolutely beautiful work!!! Jeff

Nice! Looking forward to the splash