JEM Watercraft

That seat looks pretty cruisy
Don't worry about the size she'll look and feel lot smaller in the water, especially when there are beady eyes watching from water level. I'd be using a paddle with a really, really long handle.

I'm waiting for Matt to put some details on the web site but I am curious! How wide is the beam

Rob

Thanks Fellas,
Mick- cheers for that info Mate, I will for sure look to getting better materials in the future. After the effort people need to put in to make these craft, it's just not worth trying to cut corners. This time 'round, if it blushes well I'll just be living with it also. Mate, if you want one of these, you're gonna need a bigger shed

Matt- she's bloody perfect Maaaaaate! You know, it's funny how things come about. Electric motoring down a gorge in a tin boat with the Missus when she says "This would be lovely in a canoe....You should make one!" …and right then you can see the thought balloons appear over our heads. In her’s there is something neat and dainty, about 14 foot, just enough for her and I, a picnic basket, blanket and an esky to hold a couple of bottles of wine or perhaps some Bubbly. In mine however , it’s big. Long, wide, able to hold the swags, camping gear, tucker box, bow boxes and arrow cases and maybe a few salted hides. (You can almost see the fringed Buck-skin jackets and the ‘Coon skin caps….) Well, I got my wish. Guess you’ll just have to send another set of plans so I can build what she wants.

Col- I’ll take the dancin’ girls, um, and the grog. Leave the footy players behind…

Rob- Hey! I made a paddle just like that recently . Mate, this baby is 18’ long and 36” wide. With all of us humbugging him all the time, Matt’s probably been too busy to up-date the Trapper site.

Mate, this baby is 18’ long and 36” wide

Sweeeeeeet!

Well, the scraping is DONE, thank _______(enter deity of choice)… That bloody knife blade has left grooves in my fingers and it’ll take ages for the feeling to come back. Finally got the sh!+s with it and made a two handed job

Lump of wood cut to make a tight fit for a piece of steel sharpened and honed on a stone. Push the timber end and blade in one direction along the panel, then tip it back and draw it for a reverse scrap. Worked like a charm and took off stuff I thought I’d already cleaned up with the knife blade.

Sanded and washed down the hull and ready for glassing. The glass I have is not wide enough to cover the hull in one go, so half at a time.


(No one said how scary the first time wetting out a big sheet of glass can be, as in… Is-this-batch-of-resin-going-to-make-the-distance-or-is-it-going-to-go-off-part-way-though-(especially-in-this-heat-)-ok-that-one’s-done-quick!-get-another-batch-mixed-roll-it-out,-roll-it-out-oh-crap-why-didn’t-I-check-the-time-when-I-started,-that-first-brew-must-be-starting-to-go-off-by-now-AND-I’ve-got-at-least-one-more-to-go-oh-Bloody-Hell!)

I tell ya, after that last fiasco, I was like a mother hen with new chicks, getting my fingers sticky by checking so many times to see if it was going to harden, and when it did and I could run my hand over it, well I was a happy chappie again. So blasé in fact, that I cleaned up the edges and then did the other half


So, while I wasn’t clucking around waiting for resin to set, I ripped down that 6 metre length of hoop Pine into strips for my gunwales and made up a bending jig

So now it’ll be more resin coats until I can turn her over and start on the inside. Would like to graphite the bottom first, but fat chance of that, as I don’t have any here and we are still cut off. Been about six weeks now and last week’s mail plane was the first in four weeks. Hopefully this rain will start easing up soon.

Rob, (tucked up in your work space as the tropical rain thunders down, the smothering humidity and the smells of sawdust and resin mingled with the wet bush) Yes, it’s exactly like that………

It is always scary doing the first one...But the epoxy is so nice to work with compared to polyester (which dries super fast).
On the inside I like doing 2 short pcs. on each end and one big pc. in the middle, but on my kayaks the decks at each end pretty much covers where the splices in the cloth are.
I also like brushing on a coat of epoxy on the inside of the hull and then lay the cloth on and brush on more epoxy, it works really well.
Lookin good....

Thanks woodman, was really just a bit apprehensive after the last brew failed to set. This ‘International’ stuff is nice to work with. I’m using the Standard hardener and it gives quite a long working time compared to the last lot of resin I was using. Can’t comment on Poly, as I’ve not used it before.

I’ll be glass taping the seams on the inside. I don’t have enough glass sheet for the job anyhow. I have enough to do the bows, and the rest will be taped. The ply is 6mm, so with the outside glassed and all the seams inside taped and everything resined, it should do the job. Well it’ll have to as that is what I have to work with. Next time (yep, next time, already thinking about another build and I haven’t completed this one. Thinking a bit shorter perhaps) I’ll either go with 4mm and glass in and out or SS&G, glassed inside and out. I like the look of what Ron’s doing with his Northwind.

But first- lets get this big baby on the water……

Well it’s been slow plodding along. Have filled the ends with a strip of resin. Used cardboard covered in tape as a dam and then taped in place and the resin/wood flour mix poured in behind. Worked well on what I’m thinking of as the bows and then it was time to do the ‘stern’. Well, bloody Murphy was sitting in the rafters watching on wasn’t he, the little magical git. All the gloop syringed in and looking good, then....Dam burst!..sonuvabitch! Couldn’t do much more than stop the leak and spread the stuff along the bottom seam. HEAPS of sanding to look forward to .

Have built the ‘Decks’ fore and aft, but need to do the insides, at least the ends before fitting them. The Missus came in on a charter flight the other day and amongst other things, she brought more sanding discs, rollers and other bits for the boat. The painter’s tape however is still in the vehicle, which has been taken back to Darwin , so another couple of weeks before I can mask out the seams inside. May come up with another solution before that.

So, figured I’d fit the gunwales in the mean time. Had built a jig previously and bent the strips. Decided to try for full length gunwales, so made the jig to suit. Cracked and creased some pieces to start with, but got there in the end.





Now I’ll work on a way to get the seams in the ends done, so I can glass those areas and then fit the decks and continue with the inwales.

Cheers for now,
Whirly

You don't "need" to mask the seams. Masking provides and easy way to get a clean finish but if you're careful, you can do the work without masking.

Ah, very good. Thanks Matt

You can do it without masking but the masking does make life simpler...... It cuts the sanding down to almost nothing and offers nice crisp edges to the fillets when you pull the tape......Plus if you put the tape down and keep the distance uniform then when you pull the tape it ( the fillet ) stays that way.

Most of all I like it since there is no worry about the spillage ( out run ) out on the sides.... That is collected off the tape and moved forward to where you want it. With the tape you can do it quicker and have it finished the way you wanted it...........Without the tape , slower and a lot more work to keep the fillet uniform......

It can be done either way , that decision is up to the person building the boat. As we say over here ... 6 of a dozen and a half of a dozen of the other.......No matter how you count it .. it is the same.