JEM Watercraft

Firstly an intro ...
I'm a large guy (6' 5"). relatively new to kayaking and kayak fishing and the end product will become my primary fishing vessel targetting mainly Kahawai, Snapper and Blue Cod off New Zealand's Taranaki Coast. This style of fishing (at times) necessitates the navigation of some fairly serious breakers (the road around my local coast is referred to as the Surf Highway).

After some deliberation and plenty of forum stalking, I have settled on the Wadefish 15-32 as my victim of choice,

One of the lessons that seems to be spring up on this forum (over and over again) is ... FOLLOW MATT'S INSTRUCTIONS ... deviate at your own peril; "we recommend at least some prior experience building a project via stitch-and-glue"
unfortunately I seem to have broken them before even starting

I have been playing with wood for a number of years but this is my first effort at S&G and fibreglassing so there will be some significant learning curves here.
I would like to thank all the previous builders on this forum before I start, I'm sure many of you will see some of your inspiration at work; particularly when it comes to modifications such as rudders, hatches, recesses etc.

Marking up the plywood as per Matt's drawings


Joining the dots


All the jigsaw pieces


I couldn't resist the urge to do a mock-up of the cockpit & tankwell to get a feel for the size and look


Splicing the hull pieces together


My first ever effort playing with fibreglass and epoxy ... I'm happy with the first attempt


Reinforcing the cockpit & tankwell frame


Stitching up the cockpit & tankwell




Cockpit & tankwell chilling in the sun after their first wet-out coat. Overall I'm very happy with the way my first significant attempt at fibreglassing went; I had a little trouble with air bubbles especially around the to edges but that should be easy enough to rectify by overlapping the internal cloth when that gets done.

Looks good, man. I'm loving my Wadefish and it's stability. Have fun with it...

Jon
Wadefish 15-32

Looks great mate. Keep up the good work.

Cheers Roger

BigMal wrote: One of the lessons that seems to be spring up on this forum (over and over again) is ... FOLLOW MATT'S INSTRUCTIONS ... deviate at your own peril; "we recommend at least some prior experience building a project via stitch-and-glue"
unfortunately I seem to have broken them before even starting

I read that bit too Mal but I figured as i was building 2 at once, by the time I had finished the second one I would have therefore built one before. . . . .


I love my Wadefish & yours is already starting to look good.

Time for the next installment;

I completed a test to figure out the best paper to use for my decals.
I haven't been able to source rice paper so I had to settle for paper I had around home.
The selected victims were Baking Paper, Lunch Wrap and Tissue paper (the snotty nose variety).

Before


After


... and the winner is Tissue paper.

The photo actually makes the backing appear more prominent than in real life; I'm pretty happy with the result.

When applying this method when glassing the tankwell interior, I removed the second ply of tissue paper. After wetting out and the next fill layer, the tissue backing is barely viasble.

This weekend I have been busy filletting and fibreglassing the inside of the cockpit and tankwell as well as starting to stitch the hull together. It is certainly fun watching a boat emerge from the pile of plywood panels. I'm suprised at how quickly this all comes together.

The first row of panels with the cockpit frame


Second row of panels


Extra internal frames and third row of panels

Looking good Big Mal, keep truckin...

Finally got the stitching completed on the hull; geez that stern was a (censored) to get together, I still haven't been able to get the #1 panels right at the stern but I think it is now close enough that I can tidy it up with a sureform once it is glued together.

Firstly my apologies to the regular viewers for the lack of recent updates ... with the weather starting to warm up life has been getting in the way . While progress on the boat has been slow, I have completed construction on a toy kitchen for christmas and the house has also been painted.

Now that reality has been dealt with; back to my alternate universe.

After what seems like weeks of sanding (which was probably only about 5 hours worth but spread over 3 weeks), I have finally managed to get the hull fibreglassed ... only the wet out coat completed so far, with 2 or 3 fill coats to come after work during the week.
I have used 6oz glass on the hull; layed in 2 stages so that it overlapped to give a double layer over the entire bottom of the hull. The high wear areas at the bow and stern will also be getting another layer of glass tape to give them a bit more wear protection.



I have also been spending time on minor bits & pieces; finishing off making my scuppers, putting together recessed boxes for mounting my rudder peddles, and starting construction of my rudder.

My rudder blade is currently hanging in the shed drying.

Hey Big Mal,
Mighty fine work and good looking results