JEM Watercraft

I've been lurking around for a while reading and studying as best I could. I've been dying to pickup fishing again but where the fish are I can't get to without a boat and I can't justify a boat/motor/trailer purchase nor a high dollar sit on top kayak. On top of that I've been itching to do some woodworking so all of these factors have lead me here.

Here's where I'm at after 4 or 5 hours worth of work. I have all the panels cut out and have the bottom halves sanded and ready to glue together. With the sides I need to get access to a work bench so I can clamp all four together and work on sanding the cut ends so they are all even. I may have made more work for myself but when I cut everything out I cut outside the line to make sure if I made a mistake cutting I wouldn't cut to far inside the line. I bought 1/4" Birch Plywood from Home Depot @ 19.xx a sheet. I haven't decided on fiberglass yet. My neighbor's father owns a fiberglass business and said he could get me as much resin, tape and cloth as I needed for nothing. I have my doubts about this being successful so I figured I would glass the whole pirogue in cloth and poly resin. I know the consensus is epoxy is better and more forgiving but I am trying to do this as inexpensive as possible. I know what everyone is saying to themselves... you get what you pay for and I'm aware of this. If this pirogue comes out decent and floats then I will rebuild another one using epoxy resin, in fact, I may skip doing a second pirogue and work on one of those laker 13s.

Disregard the poor shape my garage is in. Here is what I have done with 4 hours worth of work.

Disregard the poor shape my garage is in

Nice start. But your about to get a lot of flac on how neat and clean you work area is!!!
Richard

Crkd.,
You need to be my best friend. My boosom buddy. Now that your totally intergrated into my life, maby you'll come over and make my shop look like yours. HINT, go through the build post and look at most of the shops and you'll get the message. To build a boat ya gotta have a messy shop.
Yours does look great.
Bob

Your progress looks good so far. Don't worry about having to trim the panels, I found the ply is easy to trim to shape by sanding. this also allows good symmetry as you can put opposite panels together for final shaping.

Regarding your plan for glass and resin I don't know what the recommendations for your specific boat are but offer the following comments for consideration:
- The thickness of your ply would probably allow you to build a sturdy enough boat without full glassing (taped seams only). Do your plans have options? My Laker is made of 3.6mm ply, yours is 6.35mm. If you still want glass for long term protection against checking you could get away with a very light grade eg 2 1/2 oz.

- If you only tape the seams you can probably afford to use epoxy because the quantity will be much less. Personally I would rather use a cheap epoxy than polyester. There are probably personal preference factors involved here (odour for 1) and others may say the opposite. Bear in mind that the term "cheap epoxy" is relative and it still needs to be good quality.

Don't sell youself short - it's not a case of "if this pirogue comes out decent" it's a case of "when"!

Oh, and can we have a name to address you by? Doesn't even have to be your real one - Jim, Fred, Tom - anythings good.
Otherwise we'll start to call you "Neatfreak"

Good luck with it.

Given the consensus I will most likely catch flack when I throw up pictures of the shop when I cleaned...which I will be doing instead of going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

I go by Stuckey which is where I get CrkdLtr from - Crooked Letter.

Having since made the initial post I have heard lots of negatives about the Poly so I will definitely hold out for epoxy. Just going to hold out and hope my neighbor pulls through for me.

CrkdLtr wrote:
Disregard the poor shape my garage is in

Mine not that clean when it's clean (which is never). Your making fine progress. As far as epoxy check out US Composites. They have great prices on epoxy and glass.

Darrells wrote:CrkdLtr wrote:
Disregard the poor shape my garage is in

Mine not that clean when it's clean (which is never). Your making fine progress. As far as epoxy check out US Composites. They have great prices on epoxy and glass.

Thanks for the heads up on that chief - All the material I need minus the wood flour is half the cost there over other places. I would assume the 635 Thin Epoxy System should be sufficient for this project?

I've used 635 in the past with pretty good results. Stronger odor than other brands I've tried but it's tough to beat that price.

G'day Stuckey (can I call you that?)

Don't stress ya messy shop mate. One day your shop will look as immaculately clean as mine.

I wouldn't worry too much about the poly thing. Tx River Rat uses it all the time to good effect. If you can get it at the right price- use it mate.

Your pirogue will make a superb fishing craft and, I would argue, superior in many ways for fishing than those high dollar plastic sit on tops. It will paddle at least as well, should be about half the weight and be able to carry more stuff. The single biggest draw-back to building your own is the "Wow" factor. EVERY TIME, you put in or take out, people will come up to you with 100s of questions. It helps to have a Jem sticker on your car as well as on your boat.

I am certain you are going to love your boat and looking forward to your buil progress.

635 is what I'm using on the Stripper. They must have changed to formulation because it has no odor now. I've been working in a 12x24 building with the door closed and a heater running and cant smell it at all.