The backyard building and adventures of a small shanty/houseboat based on the "Dianne's Rose" design by Roy Schreyer. The designs can be found at https://www.roydesignedthat.com/
I've done the best I can with the 1708. The bottom and sides are ready for an initial primer of paint...
Getting the bottom painted... could be faired up a little more... but overall I'm ok with results so far... a couple low spots..and more sanding and filling would work.. but I just don't have it in me... 1708 is hard to work with... a couple coats on...
Now that the weather has warmed it's time to complete covering the bottom of the hull... this time with 1708...over the top of the seams. probably not the best choice since the hull is so flat and has such a wide surface area. It has taken alot of resin, sanding and effort to get things glassed.
Its tough stuff and I do like how it is coming along on the build but is a real pain to fair and sand. Very labour and material intensive. I don't recommend for those reasons. Fortunately I only did the bottom and up to the water line.. the rest is lighter fabric. Anyways, got the runners on and I see the light coming at the end of the tunnel.. should be ready for paint and a flip very soon..
Oh my! What have I gotten myself into... I don't think the 1708 was such a great choice of cloth, although I was sold by the merits of its toughness! Hopefully, I will never need to test the strength!
The oak runners are bedded down and screwed into place with Sikkaflex waterproof construction sealant.
There are a ton of roof beams, and supports that need to be made. In our case we decided over the winter months to make a mould to laminate strips of oak together, rather than cut each beam. The mould was cut based on the beam shapes in the plans, and was then pressed together with each strip being glued in place.
The result was a "glue" up of laminations to make up a beam. We used reclaimed oak strips for the beams. These are all the middle beams - we also need to make beams for the sides of the roofing using a different template.
This is the process that we used to make the beam form.
While the weather was still cool out, complete the cabin framing for the port & starboard cabin sides.
Time to tape up all the seams. For this task we purchased 12oz biaxial tape from Gulf Stream Composites. This will later be feather and covered with another layer of glass.
Biaxial fiberglass is a type of non-woven fiberglass fabric. Instead of a conventional weave pattern, biaxial cloths two layers lie at a 45-degree fiber angle to each other. The two layers are stitched together with sturdy polyester yarn.
More progress. I have the joints taped and now will need to do the edge seams...I have not used bi-axial tape before but I really like it.
The next step is to get the sides made up and mounted onto the hull. This was a moment of truth, would things match up?
It wasn't easy to get the sides aligned with one person.. the use of "milk crate" jacks helped to get the sides hung. They are held in place with thickened epoxy and screws.
After the sides were mounted, then whole hull was sealed in a base coat of epoxy.
Completed cutting and placing the the rest of the bottom panels. The are "stitched" in on the angle by using blocks as a "butterfly" clamp to since the sides into the gap. They are permanently held in place by screws and thickened epoxy.
Once the bottom sides are attached, the wooden block clamps are removed, and the holes filled.
