Fitting the Utility’s port side planking — and a little more progress on the Zip

Having previously used the starboard side planking as a template to draw and cut the port side, fitting the port side planking was relatively quick and simple. Busy days full of other obligations have meant that I’ve had to work on the boat incrementally... 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there... but, its getting done.

Thanks to a little help from my daughter, I’m now most of the way through driving the screws to hold the planking down. The new DeWalt titanium drill bits I bought have been a real pleasure to work with, particularly since my older ones had become almost too dull to use.

Dry-fitting the forward port side planking.

February brought with it an unusual amount of snow this year. In addition to school cancellations, there were a few days when I got snowed-in at home. I took advantage of these days to draw out the construction drawings for my Zip on a big sheet of eucaboard.  I drew the frames out as they would overlap one another, based on their shared x,y axis & set-up level. This will be a great reference for checking  the frame parts for accurate shape & for assembling the frames. It is also a very useful tool for checking the relative dimensions of various aspects of the hull.

My Zip construction drawing on a big sheet of eucaboard.

Last Christmas, I received a copy of How to Fiberglass Boats, by Ken Hankinson, along with the accompanying DVD. I finished reading it recently, and I’ve enjoyed watching the DVD. It’s useful information for those, like me, with minimal experience at working with fiberglass. It takes a lot of the mystery out of the process, and its very helpful to watch someone else actually doing it. 

Additionally, the book is very enlightening about precautions to take when working with epoxy.

With any luck, Ill be able to fiberglass the Utility’s hull before summer.

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Look at the bright side It could’ve been worse

The first bottom planking panel is on. 1 down, 3 to go. That is the good news, and that is the main point.

Getting there, however, didn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d hoped.

It was a Sunday night, and the pre-fitted panel was off of the boat. Before it got too late, I figured I’d go ahead and glue it down. After all, I would really like to get this boat in the water this year.

One small step was in the way: I still needed to finish encapsulating 3 limbers on frame #1. That takes a different type of epoxy than the stuff needed for gluing. No problem. I had 3 mixing containers.

Ominous foreshadowing #1: Not wanting to waste time, I’d only cleaned two of the three mixing cups.

The encapsulation part went fine. Just a few ounces of System 3 SilverTip. Quick and easy. On to mixing the GelMagic epoxy for gluing.

That went fine, too. That is, until I spread the last of it onto the final remaining inches of the boat frame, realizing as I did so that I had no epoxy left to spread onto the plywood.

Best practice is to coat both mating surfaces. Best practice is to use a clean mixing cup for each batch of epoxy. Now, I had one cup with still-curing SilverTip, one cup I didn’t bother to clean, and the last cup which I had just used.

Since the epoxy on the boat would start kicking off at any minute, I had to make a split-second decision: Either mix more GelMagic in one of the dirty cups, or hope what I’d put on the framework was enough on its own. With best practice being to coat both surfaces, I hurriedly scraped out the GelMagic cup as best I could & hoped there wouldn’t be a problem mixing more in it.

I quickly poured in about the same amount of resin. (That is, as “quickly” as one can “pour” GelMagic.)

I calculated the amount of hardener needed, quickly grabbed the bottle, opened it & upturned it....

...which is when I quickly found out I’d added the wrong hardener. GelMagic hardener is amber in color, and very viscous. This stuff was clear and flowed like water. It was the SilverTip hardener, not the GelMagic, and now I’d just wasted both.

I calmly murmured a string of socially-acceptable phrases, and pondered my next move.

I had more epoxy, but the last remaining mixing cup was full of junk. It still had hardened clumps of SilverTip thickened with mahogany sawdust clinging tenaciously to its inner walls. There was no time to clean it.

So, I made another rush decision & decided to use it. The clumps started breaking free as I mixed the batch of GelMagic. I picked them out as best I could as I spread the epoxy onto the plywood. That in itself added more time to an already urgent task.

It takes a long time to hand-drive 97 screws. It takes longer when you’re having to bend plywood against its will in the process. It took long enough, in fact, that by the time I drove the last screw into place the epoxy was so viscous I could barely manage scraping it with the putty knife. It was also late by this point. I was tired and exhausted.

I was so tired, in fact, that I forgot something very important. I forgot to reach underneath the planking and scrape away epoxy along the battens, where I will need to fit the butt blocks for joining the planking panels. Ugh...

Chipping away at THAT for the last 3 days has been fun, I assure you.

Oh well. The first bottom panel is on, and it is on solidly. That is the good news, and that is the main point.  

With the forward panel removed, this is how I marked the lines to cut butt blocks from a scrap of plywood.

The Utilitys framework & the Zips stem assembly.

First bottom panel epoxied on.

Fitting at the stem.

Transition joint.

My daughters Hello Kitty mirror was a huge help in chipping away at that epoxy.

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The Utility attaching the last of the side planking

Finally, the time came to attach the remaining 7 feet of planking to the port side. 

I prepared for this on a Saturday afternoon, removing all of the screws and setting aside the planking. That sounds simple enough, until you take in to consideration that’s roughly 80 screws, all driven (and removed) by hand. I don’t bother with the power screwdriver anymore... the silicon bronze screw heads are simply too soft. 

Planking removed, waiting for epoxy.

 

The boat framework, waiting for epoxy.

Stem & bow... drilled and ready.

Drilled holes along the upper part of the chine log.

The port side butt block, waiting for the planking.

On Sunday, I launched into the task of attaching the planking on for good. I had everything staged: Mixing cups for 2 batches of epoxy, kitchen scale, plenty of Silvertip Gel Magic on-hand, mixing sticks, chip brushes, an awl for initial alignment of screw holes, screwdriver, rag, putty knife, extra latex gloves, and of course... plenty of clamps. 

Kitchen scale, epoxy & application tools ready-to-go.

After my previous experience with having to mix a second batch of epoxy unexpectedly, this time I pre-planned to mix two batches: One for the framework, one for the plywood. This worked out nicely, with a minimum amount of waste. 

First, I removed the remainder of the forward supports for the construction form. It would be difficult to access all the screws to do this after the planking was on. If I didn’t remove it now, I wouldn’t be able to take the hull off of the form later. What an unpleasant discovery that would be. 

Next, I lightly sanded all the mating surfaces to remove the “rim” around all the holes that I drilled. I wiped the sawdust off of all the surfaces, and mixed the first batch of epoxy. After applying that to the butt block, sheer clamp, chine log, forward frame, and stem, I mixed the second batch and applied it, (globbed it on), to the plywood. Then, I clamped the plywood roughly into position and aligned the first couple of holes with the awl. I then drove a couple of screws, and satisfied with the alignment, clamped down the rest of the plywood. Then I drove the rest of the screws. 

Once that was done, I used the putty knife to scrape away excess epoxy where possible. I used some of the excess to fill screw holes & threads. 

When working with epoxy, I wear two layers of disposable latex gloves. I change the outer layer frequently to reduce mess on tools, etc. 

 The whole process went very smoothly, and took roughly two hours. 

The rest of the port side planking, finally attached.

 

Butt joint, after completion.

The port side planking — glued, screwed and clamped at the stem.

The next steps will be to fair the overhanging edges of the planking down to the chines, and to add a layer of 1/4” Meranti onto the transom. After that, a little more encapsulating work on some small inner parts. Then I can start planking the bottom.

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