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