Trent's FS14 LS Build

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Mojosmantra
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Mojosmantra »

Mojosmantra wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:29 pm
Dan_Smullen wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 6:20 am Nice work, indeed.

Your attitude about the foam is the best way to deal with it. Spend a great deal of time thinking about what will work best, then go for it!

Of all accomplished, the small recess for the bilge drain jumps out at me as a smart feature. The bottom of the recess is the top of the butt block. Right?

Also, great fish! Did Dad catch them all, or did you get on some too?
Thanks Dan. Yes - the bottom of the cockpit drain is the top of the butt block. Can’t take credit for that - think I first saw it here but I’m forgetting the posters name at the moment.

Dad caught all the big ones and I focused on making sure he got them to the boat…and on dinner since I promised my wife some snapper. We ate well.
Just remembered - Seaslug

bamaguy0
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by bamaguy0 »

Mojosmantra wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:35 pm
VT_Jeff wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:38 am "Thinking about a keel/skeg - not convinced yet, but thinking this would be the layout - tapering from bow to stern, stopping short of the transom by 18" per plan suggestion. I like a boat that tracks, but also don't want to lose 1.5" in draft. Any thoughts on that?"

Thoughts on that: My boat has no skeg and last time out I did notice it would slip side-to-side a bit at speed. Seems to corner fine. Cameron and I worked out that you should be able to add a tapering skeg up to about .85 inch without adding any draft due to the low point at the bow being .85 inches lower than the transom low point. If I were back at that stage, that's what I would do. Cameron may be able to give you the offsets for that skeg from his drawing/model.
Thanks Jeff - good to hear some real world experience. I was leaning towards a keel - but now that I’ve probably cost myself some draft with extra weight, skegs may be the way to go after all. I’m about 2 weeks out from flipping and will need to make the decision then.
I can draw something up if you want it to hug the shape of the keel. Just let me know if your hull is built to the plans or scaled.

Mojosmantra
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Mojosmantra »

bamaguy0 wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 6:18 pm
Mojosmantra wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:35 pm
VT_Jeff wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:38 am "Thinking about a keel/skeg - not convinced yet, but thinking this would be the layout - tapering from bow to stern, stopping short of the transom by 18" per plan suggestion. I like a boat that tracks, but also don't want to lose 1.5" in draft. Any thoughts on that?"

Thoughts on that: My boat has no skeg and last time out I did notice it would slip side-to-side a bit at speed. Seems to corner fine. Cameron and I worked out that you should be able to add a tapering skeg up to about .85 inch without adding any draft due to the low point at the bow being .85 inches lower than the transom low point. If I were back at that stage, that's what I would do. Cameron may be able to give you the offsets for that skeg from his drawing/model.
Thanks Jeff - good to hear some real world experience. I was leaning towards a keel - but now that I’ve probably cost myself some draft with extra weight, skegs may be the way to go after all. I’m about 2 weeks out from flipping and will need to make the decision then.
I can draw something up if you want it to hug the shape of the keel. Just let me know if your hull is built to the plans or scaled.
That would be awesome Cameron. The hull is all to spec.

bamaguy0
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by bamaguy0 »

Check your PM's.

TomW1
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by TomW1 »

You only need a small skeg 3/4 x 3/4 x 5'' would be more than enough. on an FS14LS. Good luck on what you decide.

Tom
Restored Mirror Dinghy, Bought OD18 built by CL, Westlawn School of Yacht Design courses. LT US Navy 1970-1978

Mojosmantra
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Mojosmantra »

bamaguy0 wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:43 pm Check your PM's.
Much thanks Cameron.

Mojosmantra
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Mojosmantra »

Another long post…last update was painting my inside lockers. Since then, I’ve installed my insulated locker/livewell in, test-fit the motor, flipped, faired and am now in the middle of painting the hull. I’ll make a separate post on the painting since I want to go into some detail on that and probably need some advice.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics and some brief explanations:

Insulated locker – The bottom and fore and aft sides are "sandwiches" of ply and XPS foam. This is the outer shell. The four holes are for drainage should any water make it's way into the sandwich. The fore side got two layers of insulation just to give me enough thickness to route my cockpit drain. I filleted and glassed the inside and followed that up with fairing, primer and pigmented neat epoxy. I had a couple of issues with the pigmented epoxy. First, I ordered the wrong color blue. Second, I ordered a pearlescent pigment (My wife says it looks like a bowling ball). More importantly, the first coat of epoxy fisheyed like crazy. The pearlescent pigments seemed to have some big granules in it and I didn’t think about sifting/straining it until the later coats. It all worked out in the end but made it a bigger sanding job than it needed to be. Lesson learned.

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Dryfit the motor and took some measurements to ensure my grabrail design is right. Most importantly, I got a good look at the cavitation plate height relative to the hull. Didn’t get any pics of that, but I think it’s going to be a couple of inches too low. So I ordered and dryfit a Vance jackplate.

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Where my rubrail wraps the transom, I fit “deck” pieces on top of that, which will eventually be flush with the deck. Since I’m aiming to paint the hull, I wanted to get that in place now.

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I fit two temporary bunks on my trailer to assist in the flip but will also serve as my trailer. I don’t have space for another trailer and she will be hung from a davit. Theoretically, the only time I’ll need a trailer is for some significant maintenance or for hurricanes.

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Flipped her – and she’s much heavier than the first time.

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Lobster season is here :D :

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After the flip, the first order of business was to get the underside of the rubrails sanded, filled and filleted. I wanted a large radius which took two passes of EZ fillet.

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Then it was time for the final fairing, which has been a 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of process. In hindsight, I’m glad I flipped early. I don’t think I would have had the patience to stick with fairing and painting in one shot for that long. One of the steps back was using a powdered guidecoat over the quickfair. I read somewhere that that was a good idea. For me, it made more mess than it was worth. Perhaps the spray can method is a better approach at this stage.

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After getting the fairing to a good place, it was time for the skeg. Thanks to Cameron for sketching it up for me. Rather than struggle with cutting a skeg and figuring out how to adhere it to the hull, I decided to pour it in place and let gravity do the work for me. I made a quick form, tacked it on with hot glue and then sealed it up with plumber’s putty. Then I poured neat epoxy in small “lifts” while sprinkling in some shredded glass. I still ended up with some rough edges (should have packed the putty a bit more) and had to fair it in, but I think it came out well and if I ding it, I won’t be worried about rot or anything like that.

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Finally ready for priming. I started with two coats and then blocked it with 80-grit. After that, given how much I had sanded through (maybe it wasn’t as fair as I thought), another two coats. For me, this is where the powdered guidecoat shines in exposing roller marks and other stuff that you can otherwise see or feel. Unfortunately, it took another pass with 80-grit to get it all level out again. I think I laid the primer too thick, although it certainly didn't seem like that when I was doing it. So, another coat of primer, which I was able to get level with 220 and finally 320. Still some sand through, but decided to roll with it.

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Gave her a bath. She’s ready for paint, which is happening now and going really well. Will post that process later this week.

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Here are some shots of the first coat of paint...she actually has four coats on now, but more on that later...

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bamaguy0
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by bamaguy0 »

She looks great!

Fuzz
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Fuzz »

Very nice!

Mojosmantra
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Re: Trent's FS14 LS Build

Post by Mojosmantra »

Thanks guys. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out - but there are some flaws that I'm pondering what to do with. She's certainly not perfect, but looks pretty good.

This is a longwinded one, but I thought share my paint materials, process, and things I've learned along the way for future builders - and then point out the flaws:

Paint: Alexseal 501; Brush Converter (Catalyst); Brush Reducer; and "No Tip" additive (5018). The color is cloud white. I've gone back and forth between Ice Blue and White for months. Grey was in the mix early on. In the end, I like white boats - so that's what I went with.

Paint Mix: 2 parts 501 + 1 part Converter, let rest for 20 minutes, then add 1 part reducer, mix, then the "no tip additive", which is 1% of the overall mix. I found that 16 ounces of the paint mix is about right for a single coat. The reducer at 1 part is maxed out (Alexseal's recommendation is 1/2 to 1 part) given that I'm painting in 95-degree temps. Calculating the 5018 is a matter of converting your overall mixture from Ounces to Milliliters and then multiplying by .01. In my case, 16 ounces = 473ml x .01 = 4.73ml, which is pretty easy to measure with a medicine dropper. I mixed everything and then strained it. The whole process of mixing takes about 30-minutes, so it's good to plan how your going to use the in-between time.

Rollers/Brushes: 4" high density foam rollers and a small 3/4" natural bristle brush for tight corners like the skeg. I found that 99% of this hull can be done solely with the roller. I found that with the foam roller, it's all about how much pressure you apply. It takes a little while to find the sweet spot and it depends on how "loaded" it is. I will say that it is not a great idea to start each new coat in the same place on the hull. There is less paint "loaded" in the roller at the beginning, and starting in the same spot over and over makes for less coverage in that area. I made this mistake on the first two coats.

As far as my final prep/cleaning process, I considered wiping down with acetone and denatured alcohol and read all of the pros and cons on both. I've seen is stated that Alexseal recommends denatured alcohol, but I didn't find that - they just say to clean, but not with anything specific as far as I can tell. In the end, I just washed the hull with a mild detergent, dried it with a towel in one clean sweep let it air dry for an hour or two. Just before paint (while the paint is "mixing"), I went over the hull very lightly with a tack cloth. I've read to use caution with tack cloths because some can leave a problematic residue behind. I used a 3M "wood refinisher's" tack cloth that worked just fine. In the end, I had zero issues with fisheyes, solvent pop, dust, etc.

I expected coverage to be an issue for me and it has been. I think multiple factors play into that. First, I'm painting white over grey primer. Second, I had some sand-through-spots on the primer, and third, at 1-part reducer, my paint is pretty thin. I expected 4-coats and that's where I'm at now. I've also sanded between each coat - after the first coat with 320 and then the rest of the coats with 400 (Alexseal's recommendation is 320 to 400). I finally got full coverage with the 4th coat. Ideally, I would have laid down 2 coats initially without sanding, but I couldn't get the timing windows to work for that. Due to bugs, low light conditions and artificial lighting were out of the question. I learned that with the primer.

So, she looks great from a distance, but there are some flaws that I want to fix. I figure that I've got this much time and effort into it, why not get it as good as I can. The first two coats had virtually no orange peal, but it started to show up in coats 3 and four. There are also a couple of roller marks where I'm guessing I overdid it on my back rolling. I think I am going to sand one more time with a guidecoat and hope I am past my coverage issues. I've also been researching wet sanding, compunding, polishing, etc. - but it seems best to go with another coat. Curious if anyone has any thoughts on that.

Here she is after the first coat sanding:

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After the second coat - you can see the some of the coverage issues although the pics don't do it justice:

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And some of the orange peel in this reflective photo. The transomn is the worst, which I can't figure out because the sides have a lot less. Perhaps a bad sanding effort on the transom. If I hadn't seen the first two coats go down without any of this, I'd be happy as a clam and call this done:

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This is from the side, where there is very little orange peal:

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And the most bothersome spot where I "over backrolled". There are actually two of these spots, but I couldn't get the other to shoe in a photo:

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