Boat Update V

I've finally started painting the boat. Allthough the deck is far from perfect, I decided it would be nicer to show the wood instead of hiding it with paint. So the deck and coamings are in clear varnish. Interior in grey. Before that I reinforced the cockpit bottom with some slats. Still working on some deck fittings, the cleats mainly. Plan is to launch the boat in two weeks!

DIY USB Anchor Light and Foldable Anchor Ball for a Small Boat

These little side projects are so much fun. By law you need a anchor light for the night and an anchor ball for the day, if you're using the anchor. But since my boat is just a small one it becomes very important to keep these things light and easy to stow away.

The anchor ball was quite easy to make. It's two black plastic holes with a slit cut to the center so they join together to make a ball. It folds flat and I've drilled holes in them to attach it to my flag pole.

The anchor light was a bit of a headache. First I looked around for quite a while to find a small but bright light in a housing that allows the light to be seen from 360 degrees around. I finally found such light on Ebay. It's powered with a standard USB connector, 5 volts. Which is handy cause I plan to take powerbanks and a solar charger with me on the boat.
I then cut a wooden rod in half and hollowed out the center for the power cable. Glued back together with epoxy and I have a mast with a small light at the end.

Now all I have to find out is where to put this mast on the boat. It should be removable and not permanently on the deck but I am also very hesitant to cut any holes in the deck. Need to think about that some more.
In the meantime check out the photo's of the build and the result.

Boat Update IV

I'm currently working on the coaming top, half round wood to protect the plywood. I totally underestimated this, it was really hard to bend this half inch piece of wood into the half round shape. Have lots of sanding and filling to do. A better and faster result was creating the anchor locker. I was so pleased when I actually made the hatch and it fitted perfectly. First I made the frame that covers the anchor locker deck frame and then made a piece of plywood to fit exactly into that frame, no small feat for an amateur like me. But I was cheering when it came out so nice. :)

I am already thinking about some kind of boat tent or cover for spending the night or protection from rain. I need to hold some cloth around the cockpit. And I would need some small hooks on the outside of the coaming to hold bungee cord that holds the cloth down. I couldn't find any of this sort of hardware anywhere. The closest I found were these small plastic J-hooks that are fitted on kayaks. So I decided to make my own out of aluminium. And then it got me thinking, what else can I make out of aluminium? So I made a deck vent, I don't really need one, but they look cool. I hammered a wooden pole into a sheet of aluminium and bent the edges in a vise. Drilled holes, sanded it and polished it. Looks like the real deal with a sort of homemade quality to it.

Soon I'll be starting to think about paint.

Boat Update III

Winter is slowing the work on the boat a bit down. Epoxy doesn't set in low temperatures and the shed I'm using doesn't have heating. I did use a small electric heater but it's difficult to get the temperature up. As you can see I have all the main work done, side decks, fore deck and coaming. It's all a matter of fairing and filling up holes now. After that, paint and varnish :) In the second photo you can still see what the old boat used to be (the blue parts) and the new part set in between. Also, the outboard fitted to check it's low enough in the water. Can't wait to try her out.

Boat Update

The weather is getting colder here, autumn is upon is and thus limited time to work with epoxy. Managed to get a lot of work done, the outer hull is sealed and ready for paint, the interior needs one more coat of epoxy. After all the itchy sanding I finally had a chance to start working on the cockpit coaming, the edge around the cockpit and I like how it looks :)

Boat Work Update

So I've cut my boat in half, added a new middle section, and now I'm working on making it one piece again. It's taking much more time than I expected, as usual. I made frames to support the new construction and recently started to add supports for the deck that will cover the front of the boat. The main part of this covered area will be used as flotation in case the boat get's swamped. Between the open cockpit and the flotation area is room for storage and you can see the opening for an access hatch I made.

The cockpit will be surrounded by a coaming, or a ledge, lean against when you sit. And I've made a new transom, a thicker one that can support the outboard engine. Still a lot to do, sanding, epoxy and fiberglass on the outside of the hull, paint, etc etc. And I will be making my own navigation lights. I hope to make some video's about those in the next couple of weeks. I'm making all of this up as I go, so tension is starting to build, I have no idea how this new boat will behave. For instance, it is quite narrow at 110 cm. It will be interesting to see how the length of the boat, 360 cm (12 feet) will behave with an outboard on top of the transom. Keeping my fingers crossed until launch day :)

Is Cutting a Boat in Half a Good Idea?

I built a small sailboat some years ago but it wasn't very usefeul. Cause it was too small for me. So I was thinking of building a new boat, from scratch. But then I thought, wait a minute, why not just make the boat I have a little bit bigger? There's all sorts of issues with that idea but nevertheless I'm going to try it against better judgment :) Here's the start of that project, after I had cut the boat in half, using stitch and glue technique to extend the boat by 4 feet. You will see in this blog in the coming months wether this was a good idea or not.