Wacko Ways to Build a Boat

The long finishing process has begun on the CLC Annapolis Wherry.  First, let's talk about amine blush . The MAS epoxy that ships with the kit claims to be blush-free. It may in fact be much lower blushing than other epoxies like WEST System, but all epoxies blush.  Do this if you don't believe me. After your final epoxy coating of the bottom, but BEFORE you sand it, take a bowl of water and a clean sponge and wipe down the hull. When you are done, you will clearly smell the amine blush in the water and you will see that the water has turned a slight color.  Amine blush is water soluble. Wiping the hull down with soap and water removes the bulk of it. I wiped mine hull down twice and could still slightly smell the blush in the water bowl. After a third time it seemed to be gone.  Why does this matter? Most primers and paints will not stick to, or cure on, amine blush. Think of amine blush as you would a coat of wax. You wouldn't consider painting over a coat of wax knowing

The CLC Annapolis Wherry manual says to drill through your hull and secure the skeg in place until the epoxy dries. I don't want any visible holes in my hull, so I am only epoxying it in place. It will be plenty strong.  I clamped my 4' level onto the skeg as a straight edge, and then used blue tape to securely hold it. I also used large pushpins slightly pushed into the hull to keep the edge of the skeg where it meets the hull from slipping out while the epoxy cures.  I used clear epoxy on the edge of the skeg that meets the hull, and then added a lot of silica to thicken the remainder of the epoxy and spread that on the hull.  The next day I removed the tape, level, and push pins, and then epoxied on the wormshoe and added a nicer fillet. The day after that I sanded the fillet and skeg, and added another skim coat of thickened epoxy to the fillet. When that was cured and sanded, the fillet was good enough. So that's it! The construction phase of the this build is complete

This boat is for my wife, and she wanted the seats dyed. She picked a "Vintage Cherry" from General Finishes. They look great. I dyed them a couple weeks ago and have since added two coats of epoxy to all of them, sanding between coats. They're ready for varnishing.  Today I installed them, but I'm doing it in a few steps instead of all in one shot as the manual says to do. I am first just tacking them down and using weights to keep them in place. Tomorrow I will sand those "spot welds" and then run nicer looking seams. The weights will be out of the way by then and it will be easier to make the seams without the seats moving.  For the thwarts, I first sanded a line down the middle of the underside of the thwarts so that epoxy would stick well, and then also lightly sanded the top of the bulkhead too. A small bead of thickened epoxy was added to the top of the bulkhead and then the seats were set down on top. When cured, it will be much easier to then add

For the past week (yes, WEEK!) I have been working on the outwales and spacered inwales. The inwales and outwales are such an obvious part of the boat that you really want them to look as good as you can possibly make them. And doing that takes a lot of time and patience.  The spacered inwale kit is an addition to the basic wherry kit. The kit includes the OUTwales, but does not come with INwales. We like the look of the spacered inwales and find that they have some function too for securing things to the hull. They look nautical.    The spacered inwale kit comes with inwale rails, sticks you cut to make the spacers, a replacement breasthook for the bow, and replacement quarter knees for the transom.  They leave it up to you for how long to cut the spacers and how far apart to space them. The manual that comes with the kit is extensive.  I like the look of rounded spaces. No, it's not the normal look of spacers which are supposed to simulate the ribs on a wooden framed boat. To mak

For the past few days I have been tinkering on the outwales, spacered inwales, and the seats/thwarts.  At the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival this year, I saw another Annapolis Wherry that had a lovely bow treatment along the outwales at the bow. Instead of ending the outwales near the bow, this builder brought the inwales all the way around the bow. I'm trying to do the same thing, although I think that other builder is a better woodworker than I am, based on how it looks so far!  I used screws to temporarily hold the assembly in place while the epoxy cures. They have now been removed.  The assembly is made up of cutoffs from the inwales and outwales. I screwed up on one side but luckily had enough cutoffs to make another one. The center accent strip is Alaskan yellow cedar. It will look a lot better once it has been shaped. I'll do that after all the inwales and outwales have been installed.  I've also now epoxied on the first two outwales, one on port and one on starb

Today I spend time sanding the seams that I filled yesterday, as well as the rest of the bottom of the Annapolis Wherry hull.  Then I taped off the bottom planks and fiberglassed the bottom.  Read in my earlier posts about how I do the fiberglassing.  Later I used a sharp utility knife to cut along the hardened epoxy at the edge of planks #1 and pull up the tape and excess fiberglass. If you only wait 2 - 3 hours until the "Green Stage" when it's still slightly sticky, it will cut easily and still come up easily. If you let it cure, like the manual says to do, it'll be like cutting through rock! Trim the excess during the "Green Stage" when it's still slightly sticky and pliable.  Here's how it looked after the tape was pulled up.  Next I will need to work on shaping the bow around the fiberglass I just added, sanding the entire hull again, and then adding the first coast of epoxy coating.    Stay tuned for more!