FS14 In French Polynesia

[Aurator]

Looking real good!
Is that a phone booth in the back ground?

Yes, it is a phone booth. It has not worked in 7 or 8 years now. Actually a good thing for me because I tapped into the solar panels that power it to charge my Makita batteries. Toau has intermittent cell phone service now so the phone booth will never be repaired. It was amusing in years past to go running to the phone booth every time it rang. It is a very popular for visitors to take a photo of now, everyone thinks it is quite amusing. I keep trying to get it converted into a beach shower, but no luck yet.
By the way, I looked at your build thread. Amazing work. It must really turn heads on the water.

Great job Aurator
If all the guys on this forum gathered on that spot of yours fully heavy duty tool outfitted, material + extra, top notch ply and ready to go on any big boat on this site....you would see 500+ bodies on the beach, liquids in hand and a smoke in the other yapping with their butts on the sand all day... "Yeah suuureee the strongback...hmmm well we'll get to that tomorrow Aurator"

Very sorry to hear that, I was just about to offer free plane tickets if anyone wanted to come down and help. But if everyone would just be sitting around.... And yes we have a toilet. I even have an indoor one here in Alaska which is more than some of my friends up here can say.

That glass work looks great!

at the end of it all I split the last beer on the island with him.

Thank you Larry! Really appreciate the sentiment from the reigning Bateau Builder Sensei. I spent days and days reading through your builds, copy and pasting your tips, techniques and guidance on to my ipad to bring along as a reference. I owe you a big "thank you" for sharing your hard won knowledge. Thank You, if we ever meet the cold ones are on me!

[Aurator]

Looks fantastic! Having a helper and a new friend was a blessing.

I really appreciated his help and he was good company. Unfortunately his boat left for Papeete the next morning.

[Aurator]

With the interior glassed I dropped the strong back in with the frames attached and spot welded them in. I settled on using a Ziploc bag to lay the fillet in and then used a 1" piece of PVC pipe to form the radius. Hitting the fillets with some neat epoxy to smooth them out when they were partially set up and then laying the tape on was a great system. Very fast and clean with no air bubbles. Working clean and fixing any problems as they occur before the epoxy sets is saving lots of time sanding. There are no cargo straps on the island so I beach combed a few rope scraps and used them to pull the sides to the frames.

[Aurator]

Pulled the strong back off and filleted and taped the frames in. So while I am doing this a junk sails into the anchorage and drops his dinghy in and rows to shore. In a Prameke! So we had the first Bateau builders meet in the Tuamotus. It was great talking to him he had actually built his junk in his bank yard in France over quite a few years and then sailed it to Polynesia via the Panama Canal. You can just see his boat at anchor in this photo:

[justin_dwyer]

Much better view from your workshop than mine

[Aurator]

I had to get creative clamping the battens for the forward casting platform.

[Cracker Larry]

You've done a serious amount of work in 2 weeks. Looks great. I think you've done this before

Those low cleats take some clamping creativity for sure. I usually kerf the glue side a little so they will make the bends, then use a couple spots of hot glue to tack them in place until the epoxy cures. Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power, but that is an easy solution.

[willg]

Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power...

I don't think he'll need any, Larry. He'll just scrape some glue off barnacles and heat it with a magnifying glass.

Aurator, we're all enjoying your build. Thanks for sharing!

[jorgepease]

add seagull poop to barnacle glue and it makes a good fillet

[Aurator]

You've done a serious amount of work in 2 weeks. Looks great. I think you've done this before

Actual time to this point was about three weeks, but I was putting in some long hours. I have no artificial light so can only work during the daylight. This is my first rodeo with epoxy and fiberglass, the first batch I ever mixed up was to glue the sides together. I must admit I do like working with the materials. Given my lack of woodworking skill the whole "gaps are good" is very good thing.

Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power, but that is an easy solution.

.

Unfortunately, no hot glue gun, but I will definitely have one on the next build down here. The Panga 22 would be just perfect down here. This really is a sickness isn't it? The plans should come with a warning label.