Rollin’ Right Along..
22 May 2012 2 Comments
Here is the completed cart ready for use. (click any photo to enlarge)
D’Arcy Bryn upright again after too long and on the cart. Sean and I did this more easily than I expected…
Stern view of loaded boat.
Video Below of how it works!
Un Abrazo,
Bill
From Barrow to Cart/Cradle; Preview
21 May 2012 Leave a Comment
Close to turning her back upright so I can start working on top/interior.
Rain is holding me up. Boat is outside tent and under tarp for now.
Just a quick update..
Some Bottom Paint…
19 May 2012 1 Comment
I got busy with the belt sander and got the bottom and keelson ready for paint; and primed.
Another view. Note Sean working away in the background! WAAAAY ahead of me…
Now the whole bottom and bilges are primed and the bottom paint, a VERY light blue porch paint, has been applied.
I took these two inside the yellow tent and tried to color correct it to MAYBE the right hue.
One afternoon I leveled the boat on both axises, Set up a laser pointer to pass through the stern bilge/side joint (full load water line) and the bilge/side joint at midships. The pointer was on a leveled surface as well and I swiveled it from stern to bow as Sean marked a line in pencil. Then I laid down masking tape in a smooth curve and added some “Lucious Red” to that “Sea Sprite” bottom paint. I have a darker blue to add to this scheme later. Off to Home Depot!
Also corrected.
It is not perfect, but when in the water, I think it will be fine. Only took about an hour or less to set up. I marked the other side by measuring down from bottom/bilge to the paint line every 12″ and applied tape in a smooth curve. Hard to see both sides at once except at the bow and I eyeballed that part more carefully.
Bilge Panels, Sides, and Keelson
06 May 2012 8 Comments
I have not updated as I got things done because they have been so dismally insignificant! But I see by the visitor count on the blog that some of you never give up, so here is a synopsis of recent progress.
Sides Glassed
The first fiber glass cloth I tried to apply to the sides to prevent checking in the SYP ply I use soaked up so much epoxy that after 6oz worth of epoxy mix I peeled it off while wet and ordered something different. The new stuff is GREAT! Went on smooth and only took about 8 oz of mix per side. Above is a shot of the results. You can also see the crescent shaped addition on the bilge panel I have added to complete the glassing of the bottom with 8oz cloth. Yes, I will coat the cabin sides as well, but not till I have her right side up.
Here is the starbord side as well as the keelson upon which the lead blocks of ballast (200 lbs) will be bolted. This assures self righting from a knock down, assuming my weight is in the water, or plastered to the bottom inside the cabin. It also assured a draft of 12″ fully loaded which is more that I am used to, but that is the trade off I have chosen to make.
Bow Keelson
Uncut keelson and view of fully glassed bottom/bilge/sides.
Stern Keelson
A stern view of the keelson and a reminder of the lift bar/legs temporarily screwed to the transom.
Keelson Cut Bow
I grabbed a hand saw and rough cut the keelson at the bow. Note all the nice symmetry in that image!
Bow Keelson Closeup
Nice angles!
I put up more photos than normal so you can see more than I comment on. Sean’s Toon2 live-aboard project is progressing far better than mine, and I will add a quick shot of his boat here.
Sean’s Toon2 May 6th
Un Abrazo,
Bill
D’Arcy Bryn into a “Boat Barrow”
01 Apr 2012 10 Comments
It is past time to start building on the D’Arcy Bryn, but I have been getting my “boat-fix” watching and helping my son Sean build his Toon2. He is planning on living aboard her for 3 to 4 months this Spring/Summer in and around the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Anyway, it’s all his fault!
Here she is freshly uncovered in her golden cavern. 
I need to come up with a way I can get her out of, and back into, the shelter all by myself. So I made a 2×6 “axle” with 10″ pneumatic tires so I could roll the bow around. Here is attempt number one.
Nope, no good! the bulkhead drags the ground; I need some more clearance. Here is try number two;
Much better; the bulkhead is clear, but the clamps needed to hold that 2×6 in a vertical orientation are now digging into the earth! Third times a charm?
I added the wooden guides to locate the bulkhead/2×6 and was able to roll her on out!
But I couldn’t put that long, low sawhorse under the stern by myself
So I added two legs and a strategically placed lifting bar so I can use my legs only to lift properly.
As you can see in the video below, it all works well. She is now a Boat Barrow!
I will try to keep up with this blog as I build.
Un Abrazo,
Bill
Boat Garage
24 Nov 2011 3 Comments
I have long been hampered by boat building out in the open weather. With my latest addition, that no longer holds true. One more excuse blown to hell!
At some time, I will add a dolly with wheels so I can pull her out onto the patio for full access and still be able to put her away safely. It cost $200 and I hope it will last through 2 summers and perhaps a couple of winters. Well worth it to me, anyway.
Bottom Glassing Adventures
25 Oct 2011 2 Comments
So, Sunday morning I found the tape edges cured well enough to use the scraper on to get most of what I wanted off, but not hard enough to sand for final smoothing. Consequently I waited a couple of hours and then finished prepwork. I laid out the cloth I got for the bottom and found, as I suspected, that it would not span bilge panel to bilge panel. I decided to just paint it on as is and fill in the voids later.
You can best see the line in this shot (and even better in the video to come); I had used a marker to make dashes on the wood for alignment, and you can distinguish the darker color of the epoxied cloth.
All four of these stills are taken after all is done. As you can see, the 6ox cloth comes down to cover the entire bow/vee/bilge panel and covers the stem as well. I had to cut a slit right up the vee of the bow to make the cloth lie flat. This also enabled me to over-lap the vee’d edge with 2 layers of cloth, but its only by about 1/2″; still, that cut-water has 4 layers of glass on the outside and two on the inside. I think I can bump into a few things with too much worry!
Here is the flat bottom all done. I squeegeed in the epoxy onto and through the dry cloth. When done, all the slightly “dry” spots showed up nicely whitened. I then mixed up new batches of epoxy with a small fistful of wood flour to give it a hint of body and applied that as a second coat. Weave is nicely filled and no white left.
Here is the video with (obviously) unrehearsed commentary!
Now, a short tale of woe…
I was tired and went to bed very early, about 8:30 pm. At 12:30 AM I got a telemarketer text on my phone that woke me up. Yes, I am on the no call list for what it is worth. I could not sleep after that and started reading to go back under. The book was too good and I was still reading at 2:30 AM when I thought I heard rain! No way, the forecast was clear, (I had checked to make sure I could keep the boat uncovered and avoid a permanently epoxied on silver tarp!), but I cracked a window to make sure. Well, CRAP, it was starting to sprinkle heavily; so down the stairs I ran, sans glasses, bare foot, but at least wearing boxers, to protect my boat! My apologies for the image!
So out onto the patio I rush, grab a painters plastic drop cloth I believe will not stick to partially cured epoxie, and struggle to get it on while the rain gets heavier. Too small! so on goes the silver tarp on top of that. While running back and forth from patio side to lawn side of the boat, barefoot, (remember, we have two dogs and a cat that use that back yard!), I see a blur coming out of the sliding door and going under one of the three boats out there. It is Chekov, the indoor cat who loves to sneak outside when he can and challenge Darwin to a duel!
You can’t catch him, all you can do is try to outflank him and herd him back towards the sliding door.
That’s right, herding cats at 2:40 AM, in the rain, in boxers, half blind with no glasses, and barefoot in a dog laced minefield of a back yard.!
With some colorful verbage of encouragement from me, Chekov finally deigned to re-entered the house. After some careful foot/toe cleaning, I got back to bed, but sleep was not to be for some time to come.
Boat building can be fraught with unexpected “adventures”!
Un Abrazo,
Bill
Two Times Tapeing D’ArcyBryn’s Bottom
22 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
Last weekend I got up early, made myself a Buen Cafe’ (coffee with Brandy!), and uncovered D’Arcy Bryn to try and get the entire bottom taped and glass cloth covered by Sunday evening. I really needed to get this done before the weather turns in earnest so it will be protected for the winter by glass/epoxy in case I spring a leak.
TOO LATE! the flat bottom is wet in several places where the heavy duty silver tarp has been weakened by the Georgia summer sun and water has seeped through. Not a lot, but too damp to apply epoxy. But I can tape the edges as they are not wet and I remove the canopies to let the bottom heat up and dry out for both weekend days.
Here you can see the weave fill and both layers of tape. All exterior taping is specified as double layers. Note the staggered application to spread the mechanical loads over a wider area AND to make feathering/smoothing easier.
This photo shows the thick, 1″, bottom laminated from 2 x 1/2″ sheets of ply. I have centered the tapes on the bottom to bilge joint line, ignoring the thick bottom edge.
Here we have the bottom to stern transom joint.
And to finish off last weekend here is my usual walk-around of work done.
Now lets go on to this weekend, Saturday the 22nd.
Bow, bilge, and bottom tapeing done.
Stern transom, bottom, and bilges taped up, two layers.
You can see how the feathering of the top tapes is facilitated using a cabinet scraper. I leave some small ridges to finish out with epoxy and glass bubbles just to make sure I don’t take off too much and weaken the joint!
And the ubiquitous video!
Lets see what I can get done tomorrow…
Un Abrazo,
Bill
Playing Catch Up
08 Oct 2011 3 Comments
This entry will cover several days past. Progress is sporadic and time to make entries is sparse. I will try to make this sequential.
This Picture shows the countersunk holes for the screws to clamp the second 1/2″ bottom ply to the first. Eight inch pattern as Michalak suggests. 9/30/2011
Here is a 1 minute video of the bottom before cutting the wires and shaping.
And here is another with the 1″ bottom added without shaping. 10/3/2011
10/3/2011 Here is the 1″ bottom after I got out the hand power planer! No rounding yet…
10/3/2011 Above is another shot.
Below a detail of beveling at maximum effect.
Here is another short video of the beveled 1″ bottom.
Below is a photo of the 1″ bottom sanded and rounded off. 10/08/2011
Below is a detail showing the gap to be filled after the inside taping was done. This was the maximum; others were less.
Below, the stern transom to bottom rounding.
Below, after removing the screw “clamps” I taped the bottom of the holes inside the hull with masking tape, then filled them with slightly thickened epoxy and tooth picks.
Also today, 10/08/2011, I mixed up some thickened epoxy and filled in all the gaps on all exterior seams. When cured, I will sand down and apply exterior tapes.
Un Abrazo,
Bill
Saturday and Sunday
18 Sep 2011 1 Comment
Yesterday, Saturday, I got the coamings and cleats glued on, then worked on my anchoring details. The bow triangle compartment is open and serves as the anchor well. 
I decided that I would through bolt an anchor cleat on a small triangular pad at the front of the well. I used a power planer and belt sander to make it nice and flat. There will be a 3/4″ doubler under the top 3/4′ pad to add strength.
Here is a short video showing something of my intentions.
That diamond shaped hole is now filled with thickened epoxy. Lets move on to Sunday.
Having failed to think it through, nor to read the instructions, I promptly removed the temporaty form from the middle of the cabin. Here it sits, leaning insolently on the tree house ladder waiting for me to realize I have to put it back in!
Meanwhile, I did a trial fit of those 1/4″ cap strips for the Cockpit coaming. They are going to work nicely.
I won’t glue them on till I turn her back upright when the bottom is done. 
I had my boating friend Mike (he is 6′; taller than I am) lie down in the cabin. His feet are several inches away from the end of the tunnel, so you can see there is plenty of room!
Finally, here is a walk around showing how she looks so far.
Un Abrazo,
Bill
