FS18 on the double!

[Jacky Chan]

Nice one Ilker, thanks buddy

Not much to update as I've had to do a bit more actual work and have had some sickbugs kicking around the house which makes for a lot more laundry!

I have been messing around with some more rod holder layouts, for trolling for bass (the original bass, same as your WSB Americans ) and pike or bait fishing

And have got 3 of the 4 coats on for the hatch lids and platform. I think I have juuuuuuuuuust enough kiwigrip to do them all but need to go and buy and anchor, ropes, a fender or two etc anyway so can re-up

I am looking forward to building my next boat in a hermetically-sealed vacuum to avoid all this dust and debris that flies around whenever I start painting! Absolute nightmare for the finish though I can't really do it indoors as apparently these 2-part polys are about as toxic as you get paint-wise and theres too many babies around!
Not sure if this will show up but it is caked

[Jacky Chan]

Going to try hosing the floor down to see if that makes an difference and hope that I can gently sand the debris off first

[icelikkilinc]

Boat is looking great and like the wine glass. used to do the same when I was pondering on layouts or design etc
If I was building a boat on 15-18 range, I would really search for a auto paint booth.
After all the prep work, on the trailer, take the boat to the shop, mask the trailer and paint within sealed booth, drive back off with the trailer

[Jacky Chan]

Now that does sound like the way to do it Ilker - very Pimp My FS18 Luckily the debris was all sanded off very happily and I managed to find an area that had some wind but no dust. Very happy with the results This yachty paint really is the mutts' nuts - I was heaving the platform around (with all the rod holders etc it is pretty unwieldy) to mark up the screw holes when I bashed the transom fairly hard with the sharp base of the platform... I looked down in horror to see how bad the damage was.. and there wasn't even a scratch!! FG + epoxy filler + yacht paint is an impressive combination

So I spent most of yesterday morning fiddling around with all the little washers, split washers, lock-nuts etc to finish off the platform and all its jewellery. With most of it being fitted underneath, I remembered towards the end how to do the technique where you put the nut, split washer and washer all inside/on top of your socket wrench so they all stay together... (after spending most of the morning picking up tiny bits of 316 Stainless off the floor

I went for the loopy goopy kiwigrip roller for the platform as I don't want to be slipping off and landing in a crumped heap in the cockpit! Or on the prop for that matter

Then today it was more fiddling around with drilling and filling all the screw holes for the platform, hatch hinges, hatch latch catches ( ) and bow cleat. Obviously I wanted to get the biggest screw possible into all the holes, which meant wrapping some tape around the drill bits and generally bricking it about punching through the paint on the other side... Everything went well apart from the furthest-in of the hatch lid screws, where it seems I put the extra little blocks in slightly the wrong place, which was doubly bad given that I was drilling the holes with the lids in place, so ended up taking little gouges out of the inside gutter walls

Its all been properly wetted and filled so it shouldn't be an issue, and hopefully not too visible after a few blobs of paint, but certainly added a bit of work and a few oaths!!

Another big job ticked off, very few left now

[Jeff]

Very well done!!!! Jeff

[VT_Jeff]

Wow, really nice work. Boat is looking amazing and I have yet another budget-busting benchmark to contend with! I learned a lot from your pre-build research as well, i thought I had come up with a pretty good list if things to look out for but yours was far more complete, nicely done.

I've been thinking about the SeaSlug hatches and had the same idea as you, I think, to start with a dado blade to remove a lot of material. I was thinking of running the whole 4X4 piece through the dado to create a channel at it's final width, then cutting it down into the 4 sections at the correct mitre angle for a trapeziod, so when I joined the 4 pieces I would have a channel already dug all the way around, be interested in any thoughts you may have on this approach. I realize this will leave some work to get the corners radiused, though I'm not convinced they actually need to be for any reason beyond aesthetics.

My other question about those hatches is if there is any concern about the inside lip of the gutter carrying the load of an angler standing, or possibly jumping, on the hatch lid and the torque that I imagine this putting on the gutter.

Keep up the great work!

Jeff

[Jacky Chan]

Cheers Jeff & Jeff

Jeff sorry to only just catch this, your idea to pre-gutter and then mitre the joints is genius!! Rounding off the inside corners might be fiddly, definitely worth adding some putty to beef up the inside where you are about to whittle the edges off - the whole thing would have been so much easier with a big boy router - I only had a trimmer at my disposal and it did get pretty fiddly. With a big router you could just make a jig piece in the centre to work around and bobs your uncle

The corners were the fiddliest bit, so I like your idea a lot as it would mean 95% of the corner material is already gone! I would also recommend picking the straightest timber you can find for the gutters - mine had a bit of warp to it, which meant the gutter trapezoid was a little wobbly, which meant that when the top decks went on, the lid didn't sit evenly and needed filling to make it look flat with the rest of the top decks.

Regarding strength, to be honest you have got me a teeny weeny bit worried, though previously I hadn't been at all so I think it probably is solid. I havent tried standing on it properly as my makeshift yard is too low, but I have sat on both and they feel as solid as you would hope. If you jumped up and down on it and tried to break it then you probably could, but then if someone did that on my boat they can swim home I think its strong sideways, as any real force would probably just tip the boat, my only worry would be cracking the bottom of the gutter if you stamped on the corner...

Right thats it, only bare feet allowed on her from now on

All jokes aside, I think you can go relatively thin on the material as its a tippy boat so people wont be charging around the place - just dont jump off the poling tower with too much gusto!

4 x 4" would be plenty big - I think mine was something like 2 3/4 x 4", and that was with lots of material left on the outsides to act like joists. My gutter walls are around 1/2", bottoms a little thicker, plus with about 3/16" of epoxy puddled at the bottom (great way to smooth things off down there!).

Best of luck with your build, I for one have never seen a boat in the flesh that has such a long sleek shape (as far as I can tell, this is the first fs18 or similar hull in the UK, maybe europe) - to say I am excited to find out how she performs on the water would be the understatement of the year, and thats putting it mildly

[Jacky Chan]

Speaking of tippy boats and things to watch out for, does anyone know if these boats are likely to actually flip over? Im thinking if two people happened to be right over to the same side of the boat

Or indeed are there any other mishaps that someone might like to keep an eye out for during the first sea-trial..?

[Jacky Chan]

Still slowly creeping towards the finish line - I've now done every single bit of painting, including under the gunnels and the touch up areas inside the compartments. The lids have got kiwi'd and look much better than the other bits of white kiwi because I put a layer of undercoat over the whole thing, not just where the gloss was going to go. Should have done this all over for sure... I'm going to see what its like in direct sunlight first and then probably do a second coat at some point, maybe summer 2021

I've got some fenders and generally kitted out the poling platform so it really is ready to go now. It wont see the boat now until we've lugged it over a few fences into a field where I can drive the trailer to (if the rain ever eases up..!!)

All thats left is to oil up the iroko rub rails, fit the pipes under the gunnels (and some £8 lets strips to the pipes), and finish off fitting the hatch lids

[icelikkilinc]

I haven’t been on one but I remember this pic which is a nice display of stability. Considering you won’t be standing there to fish, You will be fine unless you are 2 guys weighing 300 each

But breaking the gunnels will be the first issue if you are that heavy not flipping