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FL14 Started

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:59 pm
by jklett
Up until last week, I was rebuilding a 17' runabout. Last week was when I discovered that the hull was delaminating for some reason. It turned out that the boat was an end-grain balsa cored boat and the balsa was rotting away! I had purchased three gallons of epoxy, a roll of 4" tape, and assorted fillers for this project. Once I got over the initial grief of having to give up on this boat, I had a realization! I have enough materials to build a new boat!

Having built a D4 about three years ago or so, I knew that I wanted to stick with a Bateau design. After looking at all the plans and driving my poor wife nuts, I finally decided on the FL14. From my past experience with the D4, I knew I wanted something bigger than that, but I didn't want to go so big that I would have to buy more epoxy. The other thing that helped me with the decision was that I fell into an old 7.5hp Elgin outboard that actually runs for $20 over the winter and the FL14 would be pefect for it!

I ordered the plans last week and recieved them on Friday. Saturday morning me and my brother demolished the old project boat. After the dust settled a bit and we washed the fiberglass out of our skin, we went and picked up the plywood. Sunday came and my Grandparents needed their yard done, so I didn't get to do much as far as the boat goes. Today, after I got out of work, I decided to mark out the sides and frames and see how that goes. Well, within two hours I had the sides, all the frames, and the butt blocks measured AND cut! I am amazed as to how easy the plans are to work with! These plans make a huge difference over the free plans for the D4 and I didn't quite expect it to go so smoothly. I even double checked all of my measurements against the patterns that came with the plans and it was right!

Anyhow, that's about where I am so far and I will post my progress as I go. I will also keep a tally of how long I work on it and any snags or screw ups I make along the way. I will also put up pictures once I get my camera fixed.

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 4:01 am
by Mike Adams
Great to see another FL14 under way. You will enjoy building this boat!
I look forward to seeing your pics.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:29 pm
by jklett
It's been a busy week at home, but I was able to sneak away for an hour tonight and glued the butt blocks on the sides and bottom panels. Still no camera so I can't post pictures yet. I should have it by the weekend and I will have more time to spend on the boat so it should look more like a boat by that time(hopefully). The only screw up was that I wasn't looking and stepped on a freshly wetted out butt block and tracked epoxy all over the wood for the bottom :oops: . I figure it's getting painted anyway so a few footprints won't hurt anything.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:32 pm
by Mike Adams
jklett wrote:The only screw up was that I wasn't looking and stepped on a freshly wetted out butt block and tracked epoxy all over the wood for the bottom.
Sound like a fun new way to apply an epoxy wet coat! :lol:

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:41 pm
by Dukydo
Good to see someone starting an FL 14. I won't get to start mine until next May but I will for sure keep dialing you in and watching your progress. If you havn't yet seen Mikes Fl 14 you have missed a work of art. Check it out. And use that camera :D

Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 10:14 pm
by jklett
I was able to put in about two more hours on the boat tonight and I got the frames stitched to the sides. Two things that surprised me: one is that my measurements were right and it all seems to fit together nicely, and the fact that this is a BIG 14 footer! My camera should be back tomorrow, so I will take pictures and try and post them. BTW, I have seen the postings for Mike Adams's boat and that is a work of art! I can only wish that mine will come out that nice! To be honest I'm only going for a workboat finish on this because I'm already catching heat for tying up my grandparents' garage. This will have to be a quick build which is another reason why I chose the FL14. Maybe after it's all sealed up I can move it outside and take my time finishing it, I'll have to play it by ear and see what happens.

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:09 pm
by jklett
This past weekend wound up being much busier than I had planned so all I got done was to mark and cut the bottom and stitch it in. I don't know how long it took because every time I started working I got called away to help with something. The fire department was having their annual family picnic at my grandparents house that weekend and even though my brother is the one on the squad and not me, I still had to help out a lot. Anyways, I think I made a bit of a mistake on the bottom. Somehow the forward edge of the butt block for the bottom wound up directly under the forward mid seat frame. It looks like the frame and the block are one peice when you look at it from the front. I know that I've seen the block so that the joint is under that frame with the block exposed, but would it cause any problems where it is now? Personally I kinda like it where it is because I can make the fillet for the frame and you won't see the block at all once the seat top is on, but I just want to make sure it will be structurally sound where it is. If I have to re do it I will, I just need some feedback on it first. I can't for the life of me figure out how I did this. Lesson for the day: don't work on a boat when you're constantly being distracted.

P.S., still no camera yet, the shop said tomorrow for sure(had to order a part)

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:32 pm
by jklett
Here's an update. Throughout the week I spent about 6 hours(broken up an hour or so at a time) and was able to get all the inside seams filleted and taped. About halfway through, I ran out of the West System filleting blend I had left over and sifted some sawdust and mixed in fumed silica. I guess I didn't have it fine enough because it was harder to work with than the West stuff but I managed to work with it and the seams still look decent. One other minor annoyance I ran into was that I used duct tape to hold things together so I could remove the ty wraps and have smoother seams. DON'T use cheap duct tape, it doesn't stick too well :x . Halfway through filleting the transom area it started to let loose 8O . I had to scramble a bit to cinch things up and wound up using a bit more filleting blend than I should have had to. The next day I bought the more expensive stuff and hadn't had any problems since. Tomorrow I will take pictures(with the camera that FINALLY got fixed) before I flip it to work on the outside.

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:14 pm
by jklett
Today I was able to flip the boat(see, it's a boat now!) and fill in some holes and gaps. I also took some pictures and cleaned up the garage a bit. I figure if you don't count the time spent monkeying around cleaning and taking pictures and stuff, I spent about an hour on this. I tried three different mixtures to fill in the spots. The first was sifted sawdust. Went on a bit rough, so I may have to touch it up a bit. The next was fumed silica with microfibers. It went on smooth, but it seemed to kick off awful fast. The last mix was fumed silica with some sifted sawdust mixed in. This worked the best out of anything I've ever used! It went on smooth and was very easy to work with! I wish I would have tried this from the start, but you can't live in the past. Anyways, here's the link to my gallery, I put notes in explaining what I posted. http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=363

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:04 pm
by Mike Adams
Your boat is coming along nicely! I look forward to seeing more pictures as you progress.

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:20 pm
by jklett
Sorry for not having any updates, life has a way of upsetting even the best laid plans. I just got back to working on this boat this week. Since my last post, I've gotten the outside almost ready for primer, glued in the cleats for the seats, and have the rest of the wood all cut out. Hopefully I'll have this thing finished before the fall. I'll put up more pictures when I can.

My daughter helped me pick the colors and it'll be yellow with white interior and brown accents. We even came up with a name. Bunkerfinger. Kind of a play on butterfinger candy bars(I'll letter the aft side in the same font as the wrapper) with bunker being a popular baitfish around here.

Re: FL14 Started

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:04 pm
by bredstein
jklett wrote:... we went and picked up the plywood
Welcome to the unofficial FL14 club! I guess it is one of the most popular boats built on this forum. Good luck, and let us all know how it goes, especially when you'll start using her on the water. If I got it right from your pictures, you are using exterior plywood which I am a strong admirer of :-) Did you have any places filled with something rubber-like?