JEM Watercraft

I do love the look of the timber as the boat gets wet out This in my first boat & the first time I have glassed anything.

I never even thought about the density of the two different types of timber making up the ply . . . . . . . . . . but that does sound about right with the weight difference I have

The only glass I can get is 200g so thats what I have to go with.

Yes I have been a member of AKFF for a while know but I think that may have been my first post.

I now have my Hobie Drive & using some plans drawn up by TXCC I have started on the hobie well.

I have the jig made up, all the pieces cut, ready to start to glue things together.

So I stitched the front deck into place & set the seat frame & front panel in place so I could check where every thing fits.



I sat the jig with the "Hobie Well" pieces taped to it in position & it looks good

The clamped on piece is where I am thinking of raising the cockpit floor back up & using the drive well as the front scupper.



I can glue it to the rear of frame 2 & to the sides of the seat frame. I might even be able to put a screw into the wings where the drive will be held down. With that & the base frame that is glued right round the bottom of the hull I would think I should have enough strength.

Got some more done on both Wadefish today. Got the daughter's stern stitched together properly & glued up. (dont know if that sounds quite right )

Glued the pieces of the drive well together & also the rear well.

I decided to use the lighter coloured wells in my boat & the darker ones in the daughters for a bit of contrast.

Did some more today & glued some more of the drive well together & some more of the daughter's.

We had a small bow in hers just forward of the centre.

I didnt get any photos before I did any thing. We ran the jig saw back down where we already had glued the sides together & then did that a couple of times again & the sides came back in & now look like the sides of my Wadefish.

Got a little bit more done on the Wadefish today.

I got a bit more glued up on the daughters. Did the inside fillet on the bow deck of mine & cut out the rudders.



I have to fill the holes in them yet. I was thinking I could counter sink the ally plate each side & then fill them with epoxy.

I have had a good run the last 2 days.

Glassed the inside of my kayak.
Got the daughters kayak all glued up & ready to fillet the inside.
Got my drive well ready to fit in the kayak.
Glassed the inside of my front deck.
Sat every thing in mine & checked how it all fits.



Got the rear cross rails in.
Marked out a hatch in the front.



Cut it out
& got the edges glued in.

Didnt do any work today but did test to see if the Hobie Mirage Drive fitted.



& the lid fits on as well.



The ply of the hatch has warped slightly for some reason. I think I will Glass the top of the deck & then sit the hatch lid back into position with some straps right around the whole boat with a bit of timber near the hatch edge & then reach up inside the bow & fit some braces to pull it back into shape before I glass the outside of the hatch.

Didnt do any work on the Wadefish today but did go for a paddle & got some pics of a Platypus.

They are only about a foot long & float just above the surface of the water.





These 2 are cropped from about 30 pics.

I did some more today. I glued the Mirage Drive Well into the seat frame.



The well is higher than the seat frame as drawn by CC TX, so I plan to remove the frame from the boat once the epoxy has dried & then just sit a saw on the sides of the frame & cut the Drive Well to suit.

I also glued the Rear gear tank onto position.



You might be able to see the fibre glass pipe I made on this jig for the scuppers. Its a piece of 20mm electrical conduit. I then wrapped a sheet of newspaper around it & then some plastic sheet. Coat it with epoxy & then wrap some glass around it as I wet it out. I ended up with about 4 layers of glass. I then dismantled it. The plastic pulled off the newspaper, then twist the plastic tighter & hey presto a fibre glass tube.



I also trimmed up the fillet where the seal is to sit on the front hatch.



& then sat it in position with some straps on it to see if it will come back to shape.



I might leave this there when ever I am not working on that part of the boat.

I love the shoes in the second to last photo . I got a couple pairs and love em. Great paddling shoes even with the epoxy stains i got on them.