JEM Watercraft

Roger that! Thanks Jack.

Took the decks off last night and filleted the inside. also applied saturation coats.



Early this morning, a quick scrape down to get rid of any little bubbles etc in the glass and applied first wet out coat.



A good thing about this 50" cloth is that there are lots of off-cuts. I use these on the underside of the decks. By correct placement the offcuts also provise a double layer of matt in high load areas ie where the boat will be resting on the roof racks



With the little left over epoxy, started on the end pours for the foot - braces.





My Duckworks cloth came tightly folded and wrapped. It was the only way they could ship it. With a little fore - thought , no problem. Laid flat over the Southwind for when I am ready to cover the decks. Hopefully, this will get rid of the creases. I think it will.

Looking good Mick!

Those creases will come out after relaxing for a bit. "Petting" them once in a while helps.

Thanks mate,

Got a bit more done this afternoon.

another fill coat of resin and installed all backing plates.

Bow carry handle backing plate.



Fore-deck bungee cord backing plates and deck tube.





More deck tube





rear hatch way and bungee backing plates



Rear carry bandle backing plate. I have departed from my normal practice of using a solid piece of timber for backing plates. I think the ply will be strong enough and should be a bit lighter

Hey Mick;
On your deck tube, if you are not already thinking of it, you might want to think about a lip or end plate on the back end to keep things from just sliding on thru and just falling out the other end. Could just criss cross some small diameter bungie cord or nylon strap across the back. Or even some small diameter dowel rod.

Looks great.

DM

I've seen tupperware boaters glue a chunk of PVC pipe up under the decks. Probably easier to glue PVC to plastic than to epoxy?

Being lazy, I might try a small, mesh bag fixed up there. (I've been thinking about getting ready to begin analyzing about wanting to start planning to consider commencing procrastination as a new hobby, but it may be too soon.)

G'day DM.

Thanks for the tip mate. I had considered a lip, but instead, I opted to make the tube a pretty neat fit for Robin's camer in its case. The friction should hold it in place OK.

It is only to hold it up out of the way and to save over-loading her pockets.

Jack, I think they are a pretty good idea (if I do say so myself) though not strictly mine. I borrowed it from somewhere else and just modified it a bit.


Got the decks on this morning.

I do them a little differently to the way Matt advises in that I build them in two halves - front and back. I think this is easier for me, working on my own. Once each section is held firmly in place, I do a butt block jointwhere they meet in the middle. Still a nice tidy joint and less chance of breakage when handling two long panels held together by only two thin strips of ply.

I tried masking tape to hold the decks in place this time - instead of lots of wire ties. seems to work real good.





and is a heck of a lot quicker.



Deck, ply butt block.



Deck tube



Back to work for the next few days. this will give the shear clamp glue time to cure up hard then to start trying to make her pretty.

Deck to hull seams are filled.



Deck saturation coats are on





Tomorrow we glass the decks ! First boat of 2008

Happy new year all.

I think that Robin is going to have a lot of good times in this boat. She's lucky to have a partner that thinks enough of her to build a boat for her.

This 50" cloth from Duckworks is beautiful stuff! It completely disappears when wet out.



1st wet out coat.



I run 2" masking tape about 2" below the deck seams, wet to the tape and as soon as wet out is complete, run a razor knife through the cloth just above the tape. Pull the tape and excess cloth off in one go - presto, a nice neat overlap. - easy.

2nd. or 1st. fill coat is on. You can just see the overlap and cloth edge here. Also fitted the first layer of cockpit coaming at this stage.



I really like the patterns on this ply.

Looking really good Mick. I neglected to put some backing blocks under the top of my stalker and I need to add a handle so I will need to do it as an afterthought. Not a big deal but would have been a lot easier if I had done it before I put the thing together.