Tom's FS14

[thb]

I have made several posts relative to this FS14. Thought I should start a builders thread with some photos as I have progressed.

I started building this baby about 7 or 8 months ago but like most of us got sidetracked with other jobs around the homestead for most of the winter time. Well summer is upon us in Steinhatchee with a vengence so I am trying to work inside my air conditioned shop in the afternoons after sweating up a storm outside in the mornings.

Recently flipped the boat over and set her in her cradle I made with home sawn pine lumber. If anyone needs any special sawn lumber let me know as my small woodmizer will do the job.

The inside is all glassed with 6 oz biaial tape and 12 oz biaxial cloth in accordance with the build layup schedule. Settled on leaving the seat frames where the plans call for them after kicking around a lot of different variations. Full sole ruled out due to weight considerations. Partial sole from stringers outboard decided upon to keep from tripping on the stringers. Have built a little platform up under the front deck for a 6 gallon fuel tank and have run a pvc line as a fuel hose conduit.

I am buidling this boat for a 2003 9.9 Johnson 2 stroke which I picked up off craigslist in Tallahassee. It is a short shaft so I cut my transom down to 17 inches which is what motor measured. Wonder now if I did the right thing with reports of stern wave overtaking the boat when coming quickly off plane. Maybe I will build a self draining motor well with a hatch in it to access the drain plug. Maybe install an external drain plug like what is in my other two factory boats and then I don't have to mess with a small hatch.

Any ideas on where to put my tackle box and ice chest? Am planning to build simple live well in the center of the middle seat to hold live shrimp. Will fill it up with sea water from a small bucket and run small battery powered aerater with drain overflow pipe dumping into the bilge. Will need small battery if I install a small bilge pump at the back. Trying to keep it simple and light.

Here are some photos from my builder gallery.
Tom in Steinhatchee

[mechdave]

Looks real nice. You are gotta love having an air conditioned shop.

[thb]

Hi Dave,
Yeh when we were building this place a good deal came up on a Byrd 3 ton wall heat pump A/C so I jumped at it. Best investment I have ever made as any shop in Fla is too hot for about 9 months of the year. It really makes your shop space enjoyable to spend time in and do things all year round.
Tom in Steinhatchee

[peter-curacao]

I 'm jealous (in a good way) overhere power is just to expensive to cool down complete houses let alone work shop's. There are the happy few what have a complete air conditioned house, but most people here only cooling there bedrooms. When I think about it it's not so bad we have that cooling trade wind most of the time. I like your build btw looks very clean!

[thb]

Peter,
Admired a lot of your builds.
The power consumption in my shop is typically higher than my log cabin but I am cheating on the house. We have a 24 panel solar PV array which supplies about 25 to 35 KWH per day feeding the house. Also I only run the shop air when I am in there and it gets turned off at night. 3 or 4 hours a day typically so the bill is not too bad.
Regards and thanks,
Tom in Steinhatchee

[dave555]

Hi
Well Ive got the opposite problem, living at the bottom of the South Island, New Zealand. The temperature at nights gets down to -2 to + 8 degrees Celcius ( thats 35-36 degrees for you Farenheit guys) It does warm up a bit during the day. Im waiting 3 days for epoxy to cure hard enough for sanding.
Im also building an FS14 and have the same ideas as you. Partial sole,Fuel tank up front, pvc conduit for the fuel line. Im going to put in a bilge pump to run off a battery, will also power a depth sounder. Im fairing the outside of the hull and looking forward to turning it over and getting on with the interior. I will be powering mine with a 15hp 2 stroke.
Have you decided what type of paint you are going to use? 2pot? 1pot? epoxy?
Good luck with your build
David

[thb]

Hi David,
Yeh it sounds like your temps are a little too cold for boat building with youall going into winter. I am very familiar with deg C after living in Johannesburg, South Africa for 7 years and before that 7 years in Hong Kong. Have been to Oz a number of times but never had the pleasure of visiting New Zealand. My best friend lives in Maloolahbah, Queensland and he did a flying tour of NZ several years ago but we could not get away to come along. One of these days before I get too old. My Dad was there during WW2 for recooperation from a broken back.
I have not decided on what to paint the boat with. One thing for certain, it will not be black in color like the rest of my boats. Yesterday had to sand off all the black paint on the sides of my FL12 after less than one year sitting in the sun as the south facing side started to crack and blister anywhere it was not covered with fiberglass cloth. Boat was pulled up on side of my lake pointing East and the starboard side ( which faced south ) was trashed. I had used Blue Water Mega Gloss gold Black on top of Blue Water grey primer. I am going to lay down some 4 oz or 6 oz cloth on the sides from the chine to the rub rail and then repaint in a light color.
I am not good at painting and fear this part the most. I have tried several different types of paint, have sprayed HVLP, brushed, roller and tipped and I am not good at any of it. The cheap porch and deck paint is holding up very well in the sun and wear and tear on the floors. Water sitting in corners on the floor have not even affected it. Have not tried the Sterling paint which BBC sells. Lots of inputs on the forum on paints.
I may just leave the bottom with the black color from the epoxy graphite coatings and then do something light in color on the sides and interior. I am going to use this little boat up some of the local creeks with oyster beds, rocks and mud. Will also fish the grass flats so it will run thru some chop from time to time. All Salt water operation.
Regards
Tom In Steinhatchee

Scallop season opens in less than one month.

[thb]

A little bit of progress in the past few days. Cypress cleats glued on to the sides and the outboard section of the stringers.

I did something a little different when gluing the cleats onto the sides. Rather than trying to get the cleat to stay in place with masking tape or other tape while the wood flour glue set up, I used a dab of hot glue on each end of the cleat and that held it in place while the glue had a chance to set up. Worked pretty good but you only have 10-15 seconds before the hot glue starts to set up.

The foam mixing and pouring worked pretty well by doing it in 8 oz of A and 8 oz of B at a time and mixing in a third container. Used almost all of the two gallon kit to fill the outboard sections of the floor. The stuff is a lot stiffer than I thought it would be. Trimming it was a bit of a pain but the japanese cut off hand saw worked ok.

Here are some more photos.

Tom in Steinhatchee

[peter-curacao]

Hi Tom,

Looking good! thanks for the pics, I 'm with you although a lot of builders love this part, (the foam pouring) I didn't like it that much either, to much mess

[gstanfield]

that should keep her afloat should anything bad happen