After a couple weeks of acting like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive, the boat kit arrive last Wednesday, but due to prior plans construction did not officially commence until today! At some point, I hope to post pictures, but seeing as how I lost my camera cable, the pictures will have to wait for another day (sorry!).
So the first step is simply to open everything up and make sure all the components are there. Gunwales? Check! Strakes, transoms, seats, mast supports? Check! Epoxy, thickeners, etc? Yup, it was all there. So, after setting it all out and marveling that somehow all of it would assemble into a beautiful sailboat (hopefully!), it was time to get down and dirty.
Actually, not so fast. The FIRST order of business was to read the manual. I know; I'm disobeying a cardinal rule of manhood by saying that, but the simple fact is that boatbuilding is not something can eyeball as you go... not at all. As I was to find out, something as seemingly simple as gluing two boards together would become its own lesson in chemistry.
The manual's first several pages are pretty much a forewarning about epoxy. To sum it up, it said, "Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up". But its glue! How bad can that be? Well, think of super glue, multiply it's bonding strength by infinity and set it on fire (and that's really quite an accurate description). There are several ways to mess up, ranging from setting the shop on fire to permanently fixing the hull of your boat to the floor. Basically, ll epoxies have two components: a resin (a polyepoxide) and a hardener (a polyamine). Epoxies can vary greatly in strength, and to going further in depth that that would require a little organic chemistry, so we'll leave it at that. As ling as the resin and hardener remain separated, they exist as nonvolatile, happy liquids, but when you mix them together, they undergo a fairly violent reaction and result in an EXTREMELY hard solid. As the reaction occurs, it gives off a good deal of heat, and that is why it is vitally important to NEVER mix a large batch of epoxy (larger than maybe 10oz) because it will literally set on fire. Secondly, because it is an exothermic reaction, the heat generated (and lovely Texas heat) only serve to progressively speed up the reaction, and although the epoxy won't completely set for several days, it will be unusable about 15 minutes after it is mixed, so you have to work fast and plan ahead. Lastly, one drop of the stuff on an unintended piece of wood can be a fiasco. Because it makes a bond that is much stronger than the strength of the wood, if you accidentally glue two mistaken pieces of wood together, you might as well throw them away. Luckily, there is a solution. Epoxy does not stick to plastic, so as long as you put a layer of plastic (a plastic paint tarp works great, but packing tape and plastic wrap are handy for smaller objects too) between the epoxy and something you don't want to become a permanent fixture on your boat, you'll be okay!
Okay, so NOW we can actually start building. Let's start with a question. If wood planks and sheets of plywood only come in 8 foot lengths and your boat is 12 feet long, how do you make one continuous strake/plank/etc? The answer is to use a joint. There are many kinds of wood joints, but for my little Passagemaker dinghy, the only two I had to deal with were scarf joints and puzzle joints. A scarf joint is made by basically whittling down the ends of each plank to overlapping points, and using epoxy to join the two planks. A puzzle joint is pretty much what it sounds like. You basically make the ends of each sheet of plywood corresponding puzzle pieces and join them with epoxy. In theory, this sounds quite easy, and once you get the hang of it, it is, but manhandling puzzle pieces that weigh 20lbs a piece while juggling hot epoxy and making sure nothing unintentionally gets glued together is a bit of a feat. First off, you have to make sure you have a way of applying pressure to the joints once they are glued together. In my case, I used either used spare wood scraps (INVALUABLE by the way) pressed down on the joint by a bucket of water or used a piece of scrap wood as a brace and applied pressure with c-clamps (also invaluable... and so are spring clamps!). All of which had to be wrapped in some sort of plastic by the way.
And just doing this took a good 4 hours to complete. Actually, while seeing it written down doesn't sound like much, I felt pretty impressed with myself by the time I was done, although I'll save the majority of my self-praise for tomorrow when I check to make sure that it all bonded like it was supposed to...
The next step will be to coat most everything in a couple layers of epoxy, which will take about 4 days. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that because epoxy is SO hard, it not only acts as the bonding agent/water sealant, it is also the primary casing of the finished hull. While fiberglass will be added to support some of the areas that will receive the most abuse, the boat will primarily be sheathed in only epoxy because it is THAT strong. In all actuality, the wood is there primarily to shape the boat rather than being the actual support (and it's quite pretty).
Pictures to come!
Workhorses of the day:
Disposable WOODEN "chip" paint brushes-- the epoxy destroys these little guys in no time, but to those who have and are about to die, I salute you.
Epoxy mixing containers-- Those little plastic disposable clear cups work great. The red party cups are too big. Again, I'll probably blaze through 100 of them by the end of the project.
Spring clamps- I am SOO glad I grabbed a couple of these. While c-clamps are great for applying long term pressure, the spring clamps hold stuff together long enough for you to leisurely screw the c-clamps on.
Nautical Term of the Day: By and Large
Today, "by and large" means "generally speaking" or "all in all", and this term is a throwback to the days of the first triangular sails!
"Large" meant having wind approach from behind the boat. In the days of square-rigged sails, ships could only travel by sail with the wind, so having a large wind was a favorable thing. However, "by" was slang for a ship pointing into the wind, which at the time was not of much use.
Over time sailing ships began incorporating jibs, stays, and other fore-and-aft sails, which enabled ships to travel into the wind, and these new ships were said to be able to travel "by and large", or in other words "in all conditions". From there it is easy to see how "by and large" became the generalizing term it is today!
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