Skerry afloat at last

Finally got to put the boat in the water, three months after starting to build it.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Getting the sail ready:



Driving along with the boat on the car:



Floating in the boat:



Sailing off:



Sailing in the distance:




The varnish was not quite dry - apparently you have to wait for more than 24 hours before 'stressing' it too much. I'll have lots of patching to do on the boat and spars.

Also, I managed to swamp the boat and when back home found water in the 'watertight' compartments in the stems. I'll have to investigate where the water came from - hopefully it went through the access holes, rather than through holes in the hull.

All in all, though, I'm quite happy with where the boat is. A lot more finishing left to do and some small changes to the rigging (I want to add a topping lift to be able to furl the sail if I need to).

Skerry build day 53: done(?) at last

I spent about 10 hours varnishing the inside of the boat, the foils, and the spars. Everything got the minimum 3 coats and I'll stop here for now. Boat's going to go in the water this weekend.

The biggest pain is the rudder - when attaching the gudgeons to the boat they got tighter and the rudder doesn't quite fit properly anymore. I'm slowly stretching them out but it's a pain...

Here are some pics.

First the setup for varnishing the spars:

Then the varnished boat:

And then the boat on top of the car:

Time: 10 hours
Total: 165.5 hours

Skerry build day 52: varnish at last

After some quick sanding of the epoxied pieces I wiped down the hull and started varnishing. The process is a lot more painful than I thought it would be - the foam brushes totally suck and it took me 1.5 hours to get one coat on. I put 3 coats on the rails so that I can attach the hardware and be ready for a launch this weekend. I'll switch to a brush for the last bit of varnishing - probably 2 more coats for now.

Time: 5 hours (roughly 50-50 sanding and varnishing)
Total: 155.5

Skerry build day 51: More sanding

Today I pretty much finished sanding the inside of the hull. All's ready for varnish.

Time: 1.5 hours
Total: 150.5 hours

Skerry build day 50: sand sand sand

Today I started sanding the inside of the boat. It went quite well, other than the frames which I sanded with the boat upside down. I also fitted the rudder and am getting ready to get that installed. Next step, more sanding on the inside, then varnish!!!

The rudder upper gudgeon was quite a pain to fit to the hull - lots of bending and hammering. The process I eventually used involved tracing the hull shape on a piece of cardboard then using a vise and a hammer to shape the gudgeon as closely as possible, then repeated trips to/from the boat refining the fit.

Time: 6 hours
Total: 149 hours

Skerry build day 49: 2 more coats of paint

Hurray, painting is done.. I hope. This morning and evening I added two more coats of paint. I carefully wiped down the previous coat with denatured alcohol then added one more. Before the third coat I sanded a few of the roughest spots. I decided against a full sand of the whole hull to save a bit of time. I'm sure the hull would look better if sanded more but the difference is minimal given the amount of time I would have to spend. I ran out of paint quickly so the last layer (especially on panels 2 and 3) is quite thin. I must have put too much paint on earlier in the process. In any case, the skerry is fairly big so I'd go for two pints of paint (1.5 would actually be enough).

Next step - more painful sanding, then varnish at last. Keeping my fingers crossed for a possible launch this coming weekend.

Time: 3 hours
Total: 143 hours

Skerry build day 48: 6 hours of sanding...by hand

Today I sanded the primer and what an adventure it was. I figured I'd do it by hand to minimize errors and just make sure everything is nice and smooth. The process was quite painful, probably because the primer was not fully cured on all parts of the boat (despite being 24+ hours since I put it on). The sandpaper would quickly fill up and so I spend a lot of time cleaning it off. I'll be sore tomorrow.

At some point I decided enough is enough. I could make this $#!*$ thing look a lot better, but it will float and sail even if I don't. So...on to the next step: paint at last.

One coat went down quite well - took ~1 hour to paint the hole hull (roller followed by brush for chines and occasional tipping of bubbles).

And here's the outcome (hull 1 coat, rudder head is on coat 3):







Time: 7 hours
Total: 140 hours

Skerry build day 47: sanding and painting

'Disaster' struck twice today. First, as I was getting ready to prime the boat this morning I found a bare patch of wood I missed last night. I epoxied it but that was the end of the morning painting drill.

During the afternoon I continued to sand the inside of the boat (some parts will be easier to do once the boat is upside down) and drilled the various holes in the seats (for the main sheet) and the frames (for my fancy rope).

I then decided to just go ahead and prime the boat - the epoxy from the morning had cured enough. As I started doing it rain started so I frantically put up a tarp. In the end, though, hopefully it will all be OK. Tomorrow I should be able to sand the primer and possibly start painting.

Time: 2.5 hours
Total: 133 hours

Skerry build day 46: sanding and more sanding (and epoxy)

Today I got to sand for hours trying to get the hull ready for primer + paint. The process has been fairly easy though I punted on some of the most difficult parts ('clear' spots around the bow/stern and near the chines. I hope these will hide quite well once the primer goes on. Enough is enough.

Here's the final result:




During the sanding I also ran into the wood on a couple spots. I thought it would happen on the chines (and it did) but I also got a few bare patches around the beam smack in the middle of a panel. Here's a nice example:



So...some more epoxy went on and my work will be delayed another day. Here's where I stand right now:



Time: 3.5 hours
Total: 130.5 hours

Skerry build days 44,45: start sanding

First things first, I've sanded and added another layer of epoxy on the foils. Then started the difficult part of sanding the hull to be ready for paint. I've been following the CLC instructions (sand 80,120,220), but reading the Interlux instructions for the primer I might be OK with just 80. I'll probably just do that next.

Currently the bottom is done and I just need to do the sides. Lots more sanding once the primer dries too...

Time: 2 hours
Total: 127 hours

Skerry build day 43: more fillets, epoxy on spars

Despite having the eyes dilated from an eye exam, I managed to do a decent job on the interior fillets (the underside of seats) and patched a few holes in the daggerboard trunk. The mast partner also went in, and fillets went around it (just in case).

The last bit of fun was sanding the spars and coating them with one layer of epoxy. I'll probably stop there (perhaps one or more layers on the bottom couple of feet of the mast, where it will bounce around in the partner and step) and let the varnish truly protect them.

Time: 4 hours
Total: 125 hours

Skerry build day 42: daggerboard holes

A quick bit of work in the morning turned up to be a bit painful: using the router to cut holes for the daggerboard. The squeezed out glue on the inside made the cuts all wavy and then I spent a whole hour sanding the holes straight. As usual, nothing's simple with this boat.

Time: 1 hour
Total: 121 hours

Skerry:watertight

Rain came through this evening and my trusty tarp failed. As you see below, I found the boat full of water. There are two good pieces of news, though: 1. the boat didn't leak; and 2. the saw horses did not break.

Cleaning up the water was a bit of a pain but since the boat's already epoxied I shouldn't have any other problems

Skerry build day 41: seat fillets

Today I've filleted the tops of the seats. The process went a lot faster than I expected, though the corners and the areas with really wide holes were quite a challenge to deal with. I used 1/2, 3/4, and 1 1/2" radius fillets depending on how much filling I had to do.

Once I put the fillets on the bottom of the seats and cut the holes for the daggerboard the boat is officially finished. Just painting left.

And here are the beautiful fillets (well, not so beautiful at spots):





Time: 2 hours
Total: 120 hours

Skerry build day 40: mostly seats

Today the seats went in. There are some quite big gaps at spots but I'll fill them up with thickened epoxy once I get to the fillets. The fillets will be a bit challenging - I'll probably have to go as high as 1 1/2" at spots where the gap is really large. Hopefully it will be strong enough in the end.

Also I started cleaning up the spars. The sprit is all ready now and it seems like the other spars will be pretty easy to get ready. I've decided I will give them all one coat of epoxy, just in case...

Finally, one more coat of epoxy on all the foils. Some creative sanding coming up, then one last coat.

Here's the status so far:




Hiding in the front compartment is a beetle that had the misfortune of getting stuck in the epoxy. I moved him to the stem and had him encased in epoxy for ever. Hopefully he'll watch over the boat.


Time: 3 hours
Total: 118 hours

Skerry build day 39: fillets, rudder, daggerboard and mast holes

Today I've filleted the inside of the boat. Worked quite well, and due to the heat I was able to smooth the fillets within about 1 hour of putting them in the boat. Cleaning up the epoxy has been a bit harder: the bulk came off easily with a squeegee, but the thin parts left behind solidified too quickly for me to get them off with alcohol. Hopefully they'll sand invisible enough.

Mast step got fillets on the inside as well, and went into the boat.

Rudder, daggerboard, and rudder head all got a first coat of epoxy all over.

Also, I rounded over the holes in the spars using the router (the bearing is just under 1/2" which means it fits in the hole). Some of the holes don't look too great given that the drill ripped up parts of the wood. Oh, well. I might patch the breaks with thickened epoxy or just pretend they are OK. That's work for tomorrow.


Time: 5 hours
Total: 115 hours

Skerry build day 38: mast step, daggerboard, and rudder

Today I sanded and epoxied the mast step, and added fiberglass to the leading edge of the rudder and daggerboard (the idea being that they'll better survive groundings... We'll see how well that works.

Browsing the internet a bit I found a scary mast step story: http://www.clcboats.com/forum/clcforum/thread/16140.html. I'm definitely going to put epoxy fillets on mine.

A second coat of epoxy on mast step and one side of dagger board/rudder completed the day. Weather's in the 100s so it's not much fun to work on the boat now.


Time: 2 hours
Total: 110 hours

Skerry build day 37: light gluing and shaping

I've started putting together the mast step. It's all glued up now and roughly shaped to fit in the boat. Some additional shaping will need to happen after I fillet the forward bulkhead. Also, I've drilled holes in all the spars and glued the pegs in the sprit.

Time: 1 hour
Total: 108 hours

Skerry build day 36: starting the fillets

I started with the fillets in the bow and stern. I think the epoxy was a bit too thin which caused a bunch of voids. Probably if it's thicker it will make better fillets. The temperature outside was nearing 100F which meant that I really only got ~1 hour of workable time with the epoxy. Good thing I didn't mix up too much of it. The big problem was that 2 hours later, when I went back to smooth the fillets, they were already too well set. Oh well. At least most of these fillets will be invisible, and the visible parts should sand smooth fairly easily.


Time: 1 hour
Total: 107 hours

Skerry build day 35: daggerboard trunk and daggerboard

I finally got the daggerboard trunk in the boat. Worked out quite easily, though my countersink makes holes that are a bit too big and the bottom screws did not pull the trunk very tight. I should still be OK given that I'm adding thick fillets around the daggerboard. The whole process took about 1 hour, mostly to make sure everything is square. Of course, as soon as I drove the screws, the trunk moved 1-2 mm so it's no longer as square as I would have liked. Yet another one of those imperfections I'll have to live with.

I also spent an hour sanding and rounding over the daggerboard itself. This was quite painful as I couldn't easily get inside the handle with sandpaper and there was quite a bit of epoxy goop in there. Again much work could have been saved if I'd been more careful when gluing. A bit more sanding left and I can epoxy it.

Time: 2 hours
Total: 106 hours

Skerry build day 34: one last coat of epoxy

Hurray. Today I added one last coat of epoxy on the inside of the boat. Took quite a bit of sanding to get everything smooth as there were many runs from last night. Also, the edge of the fiberglass was sticking up and it took a bit of effort to clean it up. Again, would have been easier to do while the fiberglass was not yet fully dry.

All's good now, took some pains to get everything coated evenly, went over a few times with rollers and the brush, and with the sponge brush. All looks fairly well, though I'm starting to see some 'dry' spots. Not sure if these are truly dry, or if the epoxy had started drying there faster.. In any case, if these give me troubles later I can patch them up as I go.

Daggerboard trunk is done too. If all works well I'll install the daggerboard trunk tonight so that I can start working on the fillets and seats over the next week.

Woohoo. I'm almost there.

Time: 4 hours
Total: 104 hours

Skerry build day 33: inside fiberglass

Finally I got to the inside 'glass. I had to spend another couple of hours sanding, then went on to put the fiberglass in the hull. By now the process was quite easy, except for cutting off the fiberglass at the end. There was always the one strand that wouldn't cut and ended up pulling the fiberglass off the hull as I was trying to remove the scraps. Eventually it all worked out and it's all done for now.

The only other small project was to start epoxying the daggerboard trunk. If I'm lucky that will go into the boat tomorrow evening and I'll be all ready for the interior fillets next.

Second coat of epoxy went on as well. The hardest/most time consuming part was getting rid of the masking tape I was using to protect the #2 panels while laying the fiber. I should have taken this out as soon as I cut the fiberglass.

Time: 8 hours
Total: 100 hours

Skerry build day 32: sanding, sanding, and more sanding

Today was dedicated to getting the inside of the hull ready for the glass. I thought it would go faster but still spent most of the day sanding and have probably another hour to go. I tried to clear most of the lumps of thickened epoxy using a scraper and a chisel, then moved on to the sander. The hardest part have been the stems. My orbital sander does not fit in and I had to use the mouse sander. I'm using the mouse sander for the frames and frame-panel joins where the orbital sander can't reach.

I also took the opportunity to fit the seats. The process wasn't too bad - I had a bit harder time in the stern but I was done in ~30 minutes using the rasp. I then marked on the hull where the seats sit so that I remember not to sand too much below. I rough sanded the 'hidden' compartments so that I don't have surprises when I lay up the fiberglass but I'm not worried about any stains or dents. Regarding the seats, I'm not sure if they are perfectly horizontal (probably not) and I've decided I won't care. They won't be once the boat is in the water anyway, and a bit of a slope towards the center of the boat will keep water from collecting in the stems.

I also sanded the rails smooth.

Next step: more sanding and then inside fiberglass.

Time: 5 hours
Total: 92 hours

Skerry build day 31: some light gluing

Today I got to glue to tiller to the rudder head and the chocks to the daggerboard. Not much to say here other than getting the chocks lined up quite right took a bit of fiddling. By now I'm quite accustomed to cleaning up after myself and it seems I won't have much sanding to do before I epoxy all the remaining parts (I should not forget the daggerboard trunk which will go in sometime this weekend or next week).

Time: 1 hour
Total: 87 hours

Skerry build day 30: sanding and shaping

Today I flipped the boat over and sanded the rails. My trusty block plane made quick work of evening out the rails with the top of the boat, then I followed with the sander. It's amazing how quickly the sandpaper runs out of steam - I've used about 3-4 disks for the rails.

Next step was rounding over the edges. This was quite painless with the router, though my dewalt is a bit heavy and was tricky to keep flat. A trim router might be a better tool. Once the router was out I also rounded over all the spars and the tiller. Now it's all ready for epoxy/varnish.

Rounding over the rails I noticed that the top panel had delaminated on the aft port side. This panel had delaminated before and I'd thought I had fixed it but now another bubble had appeared. I filled the hole with ligthly thickened epoxy and now it all seems fine.... If it delaminates again I'll have to figure out a better solution, especially as by then the boat will be all epoxied. Hope I don't have to figure this one out.

I also got the chance to shape the rudder and dagger board. Now I can epoxy those and call that part of the project done. I'll probably put some fiberglass on the bottom and leading edge of the foils just to make sure they don't get too dented during the inevitable groundings (which I hope to 'enjoy' not too far into the future).



Time: 4 hours
Total: 86 hours

Skerry build day 29:more epoxy

Today I sanded down the rails and skeg and added two more coats of epoxy. It's not the worlds most perfect job, but will have to do. I might patch some of the worst spots before painting, and hopefully sanding will take care of the most egregious runs.

Time: 2 hours
Total: 82 hours

Skerry build day 28: rails and skeg

All's done and glued now. Time for a first layer of epoxy on everything. I first plugged the screw holes in the rails using plugs cut from the rail endpieces. My smallest plug cutter is 3/8 while the countersinks were about 1/4 or perhaps 3/16. I tapered the ends of the plugs with some sandpaper and they ended up roughly fitting into the holes. Then it was on to peanut butter epoxy in each hole, on the plug, then bashing the plug into the hole.

Once the plugs had set (overnight) I planed and sanded the skeg and rails smooth. The plane does an excellent job in evening out the rails and cleaning up the extra epoxy. The hard part, though, is figuring out the direction of the grain. I ended up ripping up several chunks of wood when I was not careful.

Then it was on to one layer of epoxy (~5 pumps were enough for both rails and skeg). I only did two parts of the rails (bottom and side) as the third part (top) still needs to be cleaned up and rounded over. This way I won't need to clean up any epoxy that happens to drip off the edges (hopefully not much).

I would have liked to do a second layer soon after the first, but time is not on my side. I'll do it all about a week later, which means part of the day will be spent sanding the already epoxied parts smooth and cleaning the dust with alcohol. It might be OK anyway as debris fell on the wet epoxy and also the skeg 'outgassed' a bit (despite my best efforts at popping bubbles with a foam brush).

Time: 3 hours
Total: 80 hours

Skerry build day 27: more fillets

I glued on the wormshoe - this process is really easy by now.

I also made thicker fillets around the skeg. On second thoughts I should have just done the fillets now rather than trying to do fillets on top of the already wet glue that was holding the skeg together. Having to fillet around the duct tape holding the skeg in position was a pain.


Time: 1 hour
Total: 77 hours

Skerry build day 26: gluing the skeg

Overall it's been quite a pain to get the skeg to match the boat closely enough. But all's done and off to gluing the skeg on the boat. Getting it exactly perpendicular has been difficult and it appears to perhaps slightly curve (about 1mm off over the whole length of > 40", not bad I'd say). Hopefully the boat is tolerant to such errors.


Time: 2 hours
Total: 76 hours

Skerry build day 25: sanding and shaping

Shaping the skeg continued. This was a multi-hour process, probably because I've been too conservative about it. With the leftover time (probably 1-2 hours) I cleaned up and sanded the rudder stock. All should be ready for epoxy soon.

Time: 4 hours
Total: 74 hours

Skerry build day 24: sanding and shaping

Ok, now the rails are all done, the next step is carefully rounding over the front and back. I've opted to leave a bit hanging out (about 1/8-1/4") at the stems rather than filing flush to the stem. Just to make my life easier I started by marking out the shape I wanted using a flexible ruler. Then I used a series of straight cuts with my trusty Japanese dovetail saw to get rid of most of the 'waste'. Then on to the rasp to get it all cleaned up. The process was easy and quite quick...

The hard part started next - get the skeg shaped so it fits the bottom and stem just right. The shape in the kit is nowhere close. The process I used was to fit it as well as I could, then mark out the 'thick' parts using a pencil held against the boat (a compass helps at this point especially for the larger gaps). Then a painstaking process started to slowly file and sand away the big parts. I guess you could use a coping saw to do the bigger cuts but I am always worried about cutting too much or getting the bottom off square.

Cleaning up squeezed out glue and straightening the bottom of the skeg works quite easily at an improvised shooting board with the block plane:

Time: 1 hour
Total: 70 hours

Skerry build day 23: second layer of rails

While I'd already figured out how to do the rails and what can (and will) go wrong with the first set, I expected the second set to go a lot faster. Not quite... It took me roughly 1 hour per rail to dry fit, epoxy, then glue and clean up. Seems like it should be easier, and go faster, but I haven't figured out how...

Time: 2 hours
Total: 69 hours

Skerry build day 22: gluing rubrails

Today I got out of a work meeting and ended up doing more on the boat than I originally expected. I managed to actually glue up the first set of rails!! The process was not too painful - I expected to have difficulties bending the mahogany rails but they bent quite OK. The main problem is the usual 'you can never have enough clamps' issue.

So here's the first picture with 32 spring clamps and 10 C-clamps.


That was still not enough as in some places the edge of the plywood was not quite tight against the rail. My solution was to take a 3 hour break between gluing the two sides of the boat. Once the glue has set a bit I could borrow some clamps from the other side...

Note that it takes ~ 1 hour per side just to glue it and clean after yourself. I'm sure one could do it faster, but the first time you do it it pays to be careful. I used my trusty credit card to carefully clean up the rails. Also, I froze the chip brush in between rails (freezing essentially stops the curing process so you don't have to throw away to brush...not yet). Just for reference, it took me ~5 pumps worth of epoxy to cover one side. There's a fair amount of squeeze-out but still some spots where I'm not sure there was enough glue. I'm still not sure how much epoxy to put down, hopefully what I did was enough.

Here's another look at the new rails



I also got a few minutes to start working on shaping the rudder and daggerboard. I tried using a block plane but it turns out that the process works better with a sander. I only have an orbital sander and that's not too painful (~10-15 minutes/edge). A belt sander would likely make this job a lot faster.

Next step... patch the screw holes then install the next rail. I'm getting closer to the end product.

Time: 4 hours
Total: 67 hours

Skerry build day 21: breasthooks and rudder

Today I got a lot less time than I had previously expected and did not manage to do much. First of all, my trusty drill bit with countersink had gotten dirtied by epoxy at some point earlier in the process and I spent a fair amount of time trying to clean it up. I ended up leaving it alone and slowly drilling the pilot holes and countersinking them by hand. Took a lot longer, and the kicker is... the silly contraption unstuck itself without any help as soon as I no longer needed it.

Clamping the breasthooks to the stems was quite a pain as I was trying not to damage the boat too much... It all worked out in the end and now they are all nicely glued as you can see from the picture below. I also used a bit more of the 'mustard' epoxy to glue the strengthening parts to the rudder stock. I'm not fully confident I put down enough epoxy as there was not much squeeze-out, but given the large surface area I'll probably be fine.

I also figured out that the best way to clean up squeezed-out epoxy is with a putty knife or an old credit card. Works much better than a rag (with or without alcohol on it). You can always follow up with alcohol if you want it really clean, but simply scraping the half-gelled epoxy with a credit card leaves you with a clean enough surface.




Here's the stern with my two helpers. The more I stare at the boat the more it looks like it's a bit off kilter (perhaps twisted). I imagine part of it is an optical illusion due to the the reflections off the epoxy. Even if it is slightly off, I have to remind myself that the weight of a backpack off-center will have a much bigger impact on the boat's attitude in the water, so it should all be fine in the end...




Time: 2 hours (you should be able to do it much faster but I spent a lot of time fidgeting with my countersink bit and the stem clamps).
Total: 63 hours

Skerry build day 20: Sanding, gluing, and more epoxy

Today was quite productive. I spent the afternoon shaping the edges of the seats and prepping the top of the rudder for gluing. Late afternoon I spent about 1.5 hours sanding the hull. The process was fairly smooth except for the spots where I had globbed on epoxy that was too thick. I guess the trick is to work with small amounts and just live with the fact that you'll have to spend a fair amount of time mixing batches in between spreading the stuff. If the weather's warm, don't listen to the '24 oz' recommendation in the manual. Start small (< 16 oz) and you'll be fine...A second coat of epoxy went on quite easily so now the outside of the hull is all done and ready. I might paint a bit more epoxy on the chines where the sander broke through to the wood in a few spots. It might not matter much given that I'll have one coat of primer and 3-4 coats of paint on top of it all.I used the leftover epoxy (plus a bit more) to glue together the top of the rudder. What a mess. The rope that I put inside to clean the line channel had gotten stuck between the pieces so I had to take everything apart and pretty much start again... Cleaning the inside was a pain, but then I remembered I had some flexible plastic tubing from a curtain project a while back. I simply used that instead of the rope to push paper through the channel. I've hopefully cleaned everything out fine, otherwise I'll have a lot of fun coming up with creative ways of cleaning the inside of the rudder.

Here's the final outcome. Looks pretty good, I think.

Time: 4 hours
Total: 61 hours

Skerry build day 19: sanding and a second coat

The water did a number on the boat - the hull was quite wet and I couldn't do anything to it in the morning. Once it was dry, I quickly sanded some of the high spots (the wood swells when wet and needs to be resanded) and added a second coat of epoxy to the fiberglass, and a first one on the rest of the boat. The process went quite well, hopefully no more disasters this time.

Time: 1.5 hours
Total: 57 hours

Skerry build day 18: fiberglass at last

Today I thought I had found a patch of sunshine and I'd start fiberglassing over the boat. The process started quite well, slowly squeegeeing the epoxy in the glass and things were progressing fine until I noticed that my epoxy was getting hotter and hotter (and also thicker). I started to work quicker but got to the point where the epoxy wouldn't squeegee well anymore.. Disaster 1. The second batch I mixed worked fine but had a hard time going through the almost cured stuff so I'm afraid there are some insufficiently glued patches in the boat. I tried cutting the glass here and there to let the epoxy through but I'm not sure how well it worked...

Disaster 2 occurred soon after: a storm started and the boat was open. I frantically build a tent around it but in the morning found some water had made its way through. Hopefully it won't permanently damage the boat. Needless to say, more work for me in the future...

Lessons learned: stop using the epoxy as soon as it starts getting thicker (maybe thicken it and glue something else so you don't waste it).

Time: 1.5 hours
Total: 55.5

Skerry build days 16 & 17: Sanding hell

I just spent a ridiculous amount of time sanding and sanding and sanding to get the outside of the boat ready for fiberglass. I rounded over the bow and stern and carefully sanded all the chines. Now I really understand what the manual means by "working carefully". A lot of this sanding (possibly ~50%) could have been avoided if I carefully made the fillets in the chines and if I cleaned up the mess I had made. Scraping, filing, and sanding hardened epoxy is a pain even with power tools. Also, as food for thought: while I always feel bad about throwing away the chip brushes (~$0.6/piece), the sanding disks cost almost as much... It pays to save there by working carefully so you do not need to sand.

Time: 6 hours
Total: 54 hours

Skerry build day 15: sanding and shaping

Today I start sanding and sanding and sanding getting ready for the fiberglass on the bottom panels. I've started easy to make sure everything works out and it seems like it won't be too much of a pain. One of the skerry blogs suggested using a cabinet scraper on the glue and that seems to work quite nicely. Now I have a whole routine - start with the rasp on the really chunky pieces, then move on to the cabinet scraper, then finish off with sandpaper.

I also got to shape the bow and stern stems. Seems that my gains were cut fairly well and I didn't sand too far into the ply (with the usual few exceptions). Now the bow and stern have a nice flat cut into them and look fairly smooth. There's a bit more work to be done rounding them over, and I also have to patch a few small holes in the bow, but looks like I should be ready for the fiberglass in about 2 days. I started the shaping with the rasp, cleaning off the edge a bit, then followed up with the block plane. I was a bit skeptical that the plane would work but it did beautifully, probably much better than the rasp would have been able to. I think I'll round everything over with the sander...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 48 hours

Skerry build day 14: cleaning up scarfs

Today I spent a bit of time cleaning up all the squeeze out glue from the mast, rails, and the sprit. I used a mix of rasp, block plane, and hand sander, but if I had to do it again I'd just go with the rasp and the random orbital sander. The block plane worked fairly well at times but also caught up into some of the more awkward grain and ripped some chunks from the wood that I'll now have to hide carefully when I finish the spars.

I also took some time to taper the rails towards the bow and end. Apparently it will look prettier that way. This was quite easy to do with my trusty Stanley No. 4 plane with a sharp blade.

The rails bend in all sorts of funny ways, mostly due to the wood itself but also due to my imperfect scarfing. I was rushing to get the scarfs done and it shows. If I had to do it again I'd spend a bit more time laying them out, and also use more tape to avoid having to do too much cleanup afterwards. In the end, though, I should remember that this will be a boat, not a museum piece. Any imperfections will be OK and probably pale in contrast to the dents and dings we'll be putting into the boat as we actually use it (which I thoroughly hope we'll do quite soon - July maybe?).

Hopefully next week I'll get the outside cleaned up, fiberglassed and epoxied, and the breasthooks + rails in. Should need a full day of work and a couple mornings to get it all done.

I'm hopefully past the halfway point, though now the projects will be less fun and more sanding.

Time: 2 hours
Total: 47 hours

Skerry build day 13: bow and stern fillets

Today I had a chance to play with fiberglass. After flipping the boat over I put in thickened epoxy fillets in the bow and the stern and overlaid them with fiberglass tape. The process worked quite well despite my original fears that the tape will bunch up. The weave is loose enough that once you've wetted the tape with epoxy you can stretch it out smoothly along the boat.

One of the fillets had about 30-45 minutes to 'dry out' and was a lot easier to work with than the second which was still a bit too soft. I'd strongly recommend waiting about 1 hour between making the fillets and laying out the tape. You can use up most of that hour using the leftover 'peanut butter epoxy' from the fillets to glue the frames and patch up any wire holes throughout the boat. I was a bit concerned that the peanut butter epoxy will not hold the frames well enough (the manual recommends 'mustard' epoxy instead). My fears were unfounded - the frames didn't pop out once I removed the wires. I think the mustard epoxy would be easier to shove under the frames (especially in the middle) however I was able to squeeze the peanut butter under as well, though it probably was a bit more work.




Time: 2 hours
Total: 45 hours

Skerry build day 12: more gluing

Today I added fillets at all the chines using epoxy and wood flour. I used a plastic spoon to carefully round over the fillets hopefully saving me some sanding pain later. The process was fairly painless - it just took a while to keep mixing the epoxy between 'runs'. I used about 8-10 oz. of epoxy + filler mixed in two batches. The result (if you can see well) is in the picture below.



I also started painting with epoxy the pieces that make up the rudder assembly. Some parts will never be accessible once I put the rudder together and I need to seal them now. I might go with about 4 layers of epoxy there just in case.

Time: 2 hours
Total: 43 hours

Skerry build day 11: stitches out and more glue in

I finally got to remove the stitches and thankfully the hull did not pop open. A couple of the stitches had epoxy on them and I was worried about getting them out, however the copper wire easily came out once I tugged a bit. Hopefully this doesn't mean the epoxy is not strong enough...

The stitches on the stems and on the frames are still in. After a bit more gluing in a few days they can come out too.

I then added more glue in all the channels, especially where the stitches had been. When possible I also plugged the wire holes. No need to wait, as far as I can tell.

Time: 2.5 hours
Total: 41 hours

Skerry build day 10: gluing at last

Today I spent a fair amount of time tightening up all the stitches to bring the panels together, then gluing the panels together at the seams. Definitely allow about a whole day for this 'simple' step. You can always run into difficulties that take longer to resolve than expected. In my case, the bottom of the boat was not quite lined up with the panels at the garboard. I spent a fair amount of time banging the bottom up and down and managed to fully pop out the bottom at the bow. Quite the pain to put it back in.

One trick I've figured out is to first tighten the stitches quite well, then tap the panels into alignment. The pressure of the boards against each other will allow small adjustments to be made easily. Also, one way of knowing that you've tightened the stitches enough is to press down with your hand on the bottom/panel. If they move with respect to each other you can tighten the stitches a bit more.

The manual says you should have epoxy thin enough to load into a syringe but I found that it's not quite accurate. The first batch of epoxy was so thick that it wouldn't flow properly in the seams (and was a pain to clean up later) however it worked quite well in the syringe. Just aim for the 'traditional' mustard consistency and it should work fairly well. I guess I stitched everything right since I didn't see any runs inside the boat (i.e., the glue found no gaps to run through).

Here's the view from underneath.


Cleanup was an absolute bear. I came back about 1 - 2 hours after gluing the panels and the epoxy had solidified enough to make it hard to simply wipe off with denatured alcohol. A putty knife actually worked much better - I used it to scrape off the solidified epoxy, then went back with the rag to clean up whatever was left behind.

Here's the final glue job at the bow. Looks pretty good. Hopefully it will all hold together once I pop the stitches in a couple of days.


The last chore for the day was to glue together the various long pieces of wood from the kit - rub rails, mast, and boom. I read somewhere that I might want to paint the scarfs with unthickened epoxy so I did that first. The rest went quite well as I'm already quite handy with the silica-thickened glue. Hopefully the glue will hold - I'll find out fairly soon once I attach the rub rails to the boat. I also read some horror stories about the mast breaking under moderate wind conditions - I hope my glue job will hold.

Next I'll take a break for a day or so, then go back to finish gluing the seams and hopefully get started on the rudder.

Time: 2.5 hours - tightening the stitches, 1.5 hours gluing, 1.5 hours cleaning, 1 hour gluing the mast, boom, and the rub rails.

Total: 38.5 hours

Skerry build day 9: more stitching

All panels and the first frame now stitched. Two more frames, some checks, then on to epoxying.



It's all pretty much done now and fairly straight. Next step epoxy.



Time: 4 hours
Total: 32 hours

Skerry build day 8:stitching

Today is the big day. Finally started stitching the hull. All went well for a while - the #1 panels went in quite easily. The frames were a bit of a challenge as I forgot to pre-drill the bottom panel. Doing it after the fact is a bit painful given that you have to push quite hard to get the frames into place. A second pair of hands would have been useful but I used a simple trick: I made the wires much longer for the middle frame and slowly pushed down, tightened the stitch, pushed down a bit more, etc... until it all went into place quite nicely.







I started doing the port side of the # 2 panel but ran into a problem While the bow is flush with the # 1 panel, the stern is about 0.5" too short.. Not quite sure how that happened. I called CLC and they suggest I use a mallet to bring the panel a bit to the stern (probably need to loosen the stitches a bit). It should be OK if the ends are not fully aligned given that I will be filing them down flat then rounding them over later on in the process. I'll give it a try in the evening and see how it goes.



Time: 3 hours (panel 1 both sides, panel 2 port, frames)2 hours (fiddling with the port side panel 2 and attaching the starboard side as well)
Total: 28 hours.

Skerry build day 7: Sanding and marking

I spend all day today sanding the finger joints smooth. The process was fairly painful as some of the joints were not as well aligned as I thought they were. Also, the epoxy thickened with silica is quite a pain to sand through. But in the end I had some pretty flat boards that will hopefully hold together well.

The next step in the process was to mark the frame positions on the bottom frame, and to drill the holes for the wire stitches. That went smoothly though it takes a while if you doublecheck everything.

Time: 2 hours (sanding), 2 hours (marking & drilling)
Total: 23 hours

Building the skerry day 6: Sailing kit, cutting gains, gluing panels

Today was a busy skerry building day.

Started by going to Annapolis to get the sailing kit. Had a wonderful helper so all went quite well, the only hitch being that CLC did not have the sail itself. Hopefully they'll mail it to me so I won't have to take another trip to Annapolis.



Then I got to cut the gains (tapered rabbets) at the ends of the panels. These are needed to make the bow and stern of the boat flat (the chines don't show up there). I used a rabbet plane that we bought at a yard sale in Normandy. The poor plane needed quite a bit of work to get the rust off and clean up the edge. As I was cutting the rabbets I also realized that the shoe of the plane was uneven. I cleaned it off with one of my other planes and it magically started to work well again. The gains were quite a breeze to cut once I got the hang of it.





Finally got around to gluing the panels together. No rain forecast for the next few days, though it did shower right as I was gluing which led me to frantically run around looking for stuff to cover the planks with. The process was pretty painful as the puzzle joints take quite a bit of fiddling to get together, then lots of pounding to get everything lined up. Good thing I checked - a few of the panels were mis-aligned (i.e., the left and right parts were not quite identical) at the joint and I quickly rearranged them before the glue had fully set. The sanding pain starts tomorrow.



Time: 3 hours (trip to Annapolis), 1 hour (cutting gains), 2 hours (gluing)
Total: 19 hours