Technological break

October 09, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I finished edge encapsulation late at night (around 2). It was 0 degrees at night so the stove could keep only around 17 degrees in the shed. The day after, at 10 in the morning, the epoxy was dry to touch but fingernail test showed it still not fully cured.

I refilled kerosene and restarted the stove. During the day, with temperature round 15 degrees, the shed kept nice, steady 30 degrees.

I left Louve to fully cure and instead took advantage of the weather to “mess up with boats”. I took Nano for a ride.

Boat-walk to the harbor normally takes me 40 minutes. Today it was double that - many neighbors were out so I was stopping a few times for chit-chat.

Arriving at the ramp, Nano rides into water with ease.

There was moderate Southern wind so I rowed against it at steady pace. Bathing place already prepared for winter.

Upon reaching narrow part of the channel I had to fight strong wind and current. Choppy water was banging on Nano’s flat bottom, splashing a bit inside.

Finally reached a small bay on East side. I hide behind a big boulder which shields from wind and current.

Although coastal waters cannot be private in Sweden it is just a theory. This bay is considered by its owners to be theirs. Every time I am here and someone is around I get asked what the hell I’m doing here. Today was no different. Being friendly usually puts questions to end.

Today I wanted to investigate closer boat sheds around the bay so, of course, I got asked. Being honest helps so I just said that I write a book about such structures (which I do) and I was left alone.

It may not be exactly Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer climate but it’s as close as I can find in this rich country.

This type of “messing around” is my favorite and precisely the reason I sold Meritaten and build Louve. You just miss such small, shallow sanctuaries in big boats.

With eyes saturated by these climates I entered the middle of the channel and drifted with wind and current back into my harbor.

Calm ride, most motor launches are already on land, the sea is empty. Next year, if I finish Louve, I can launch my boat for calm autumn sailing. That would not be possible with Meritaten!

Edge impregnation finished

October 09, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

It’s almost summer weather - 15 degrees, sunny and windy.

I tilted the boat to work on port side strakes and CB-case opening. To speed up the work I used small syringe - flooding strakes edges went quicker. As the hull is tilted garboard and following strake were almost vertical so I could dispense a lot of epoxy along edges. Using it as a reservoir I brushed the glue onto the whole edge.

Boring and tedious job but has to be done.

I cranked the stove to reach 30 degrees in the shed and we went into woods to pick mushrooms.

Later in the evening the glue was solidified so I could bring back the hull to normal position. Remaining strakes got their second dose of epoxy. Finally this is done!

With the stove pumping heat I hope to have cured epoxy by tomorrow so I can start sanding.

I considered for a while leaving the hull bright and varnish it. It looks quite appealing already. However - being again a slave of varnish is not in my plans. Besides - trained eye can instantly say that this is plywood, why pretend? Having the hull painted is not only more interesting but also adds higher level of protection compared to varnish. And is easier to maintain. And Louve shall be my workboat, not a damn yacht!

The hull will be painted black, with just transom and sheer strakes left bright. Interior of the boat will be varnished thou, I like the look of this plywood indeed.

As a primer I will use 2-component Hempel Light Primer. Which is epoxy, in fact. Not that I need yet another coat of epoxy but I happen to have a bucket of it, sitting in my shop since renovation of Motoko. Same as black paint, in fact. I like such synergies!

So it will be a bit of “belt & suspenders” with so much epoxy but “nothing too strong ever broke”. I plan to roll at least 2 layers but to spend the whole bucket will yield even more.

Flooding strake edges

October 06, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I tilted the boat to reach first strakes and CB-case opening on starboard side. They need their doze of epoxy, too.

I’m flooding plywood edges with epoxy until they shine gloss. It takes two such coats, wet on wet, so to keep it within reasonable time frame the stove is running on max output and temperature inside is 26 degrees. Summer!

Not a spectacular yet time consuming job. Essential for longevity of plywood hulls thou. I mix small batches of epoxy (one pump) and keep it in a shallow tray, to extend pot life.

Garboard edge inside CB case, which I pulled back last weekend, got heavily soaked with thin epoxy and then filled with thickened mix. To avoid sagging it was very thick hence not smooth so after it partially cured I coated it again with thin glue. That smooths it out and makes more watertight.

Tomorrow will be port side and touch-ups on remaining strakes. After that I will start priming the hull for painting. If the weather keeps mild.

Epoxy coating

October 03, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I knew it’s gonna be a long day of work. I planned rolling at least three layers of epoxy, to properly encapsulate the hull. Two layers is enough usually but three is better.

Sunday, I started at 6 in the morning. All prepared since yesterday: the hull is sanded and vacuumed, the whole workshop vacuumed and as clean as it can be. The weather was going to be nice but the morning was chilly, with 6 degrees.
I started the kerosene stove and ramped the temperature to 25 degrees. Left the shop for two hours, to allow the hull and epoxy cans to get up in temperature.

Back around 9 I shut down the stove.

Same as with varnishing - if the wood is cooling down (slowly) it stops de-gassing which otherwise would result in small bubbles in epoxy or varnish.

During spring or summer you just simply wait with the paint job until afternoon. In my case I was simulating these conditions with the stove, for each subsequent coat.

First coat rolled out, plywood edges not yet coated.

Around 10 o’clock I was done with both sides. It took 25 pumps of WEST 207 to cover the hull. Per coat! I was happy I have another full set in the workshop because the one used in the shed is getting light rapidly.

While waiting for the coat to cure I was soaking plywood edges with a small brush and small batches of epoxy - to keep constantly fresh stock, as thin as it goes.

Tedious job but very important on plywood constructions. I was flooding strakes’ edges to saturate fibers.

Second coat applied at 14, when the first one was still tacky but left no traces on gloves. This way - painting wet-on-wet - I don’t need to sand the hull before next coat. Instead all layers will blend and cure as one, thick protective layer.

Filling plywood edges with more epoxy.

Mahogany on transom went nice and dark, just as I imagined it. No staining was needed - good, old stock of Honduras mahogany.

The third coat started in the evening and I was working until 01:30 on Monday. Not much sleep before going to work but it was worth it.

If I planned to keep the hull bright - with varnish - I would apply 2 more layers of epoxy, to build up layers. On Meritaten, where I made cabin sole from mahogany ,it got 6 layers of epoxy, resulting in glass-clear coat with no bubbles.

Bottom strakes - garboard and three next strakes - got extra thick layer of epoxy. They lay horizontally now so I was not worried about runs.

With that done I have just a few steps before turning the hull:

further epoxy-saturation of plywood edges, until they become shiny and “glassed”
epoxy saturation of CB-case opening on the inside. Or I will make oak insert to fully shield the garboard’s exposed edges?
sanding the hull for primer coat
painting the hull with one or two-component paint. I don’t know the difference between them, so far I was only using one-component paints but that was on classic plank-on-frame boat. I need to do some reading
bending and attaching brass band, to protect the keel

Bilge keels. Hull sanding

October 01, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Last steps before epoxy encapsulation: bilge keels, sanding, CB-opening trimming.

Bilge keels first. I made them from oak - they will take the beating when the boat will be beached or run on trailer so hardwood is in place.

Starting with a pattern, to get hull’s shape.

My favorite way of patterning such shapes is CADing. Cardboard Aided Design, that is.

Shape transferred to oak. I ripped a bit wider oak planks, to have margins when shaping the keels.

Rough cutting with router, final carving with spoke shave.

Fitting onto hull and final corrections.

Now - this is a mistake from my side. It would have been much easier if I fitted bilge keels while planking. Doing that at fourth strake would allow me easy clamping and drilling holes for mounting screws. Instead, when doing it on the finished hull, I had to hold them in place with tape and lead pigs while crawling under the boat to mark drilling positions.

But it worked anyway. Each bilge keel, apart from being glued, is held in place with two 8mm thick bronze screws.

It ain’t go nowhere!

Dry fitting before taping everything around for epoxy.

For gluing oak I use WEST G-Flex (or Flex, for short). It is of honey consistency, already thickened. Good stuff.

Oak got cleaned with acetone and gluing surfaces got scrubbing with rough sandpaper, to get even stronger bond.

I left the boat to cure for 24 hours, keeping the shed at 25 degrees this whole time. Luckily we have warm week, with night temperatures around 6 degrees.

Next day Louve was ready for next steps.

Sanding!

I evacuated epoxy and kerosene stove from the shed - dust will be everywhere.

Breathing and hearing protection and off I went with orbital sander. Transom sanded with 80 grit - it will be epoxied, too.

Rest of the hull was sanded by hand. I rounded planks’ edges so that epoxy and paint will hold better.

Next thing was CB opening. John Hartmann pointed out that garboard edges inside the CB opening can be a source of trouble due to chafe. He pulled them back and fiberglassed edges before gluing the false keel.

Following his advice I routed these edges so that they are behind timber edges - false keel and keel. Being out of harms way they should not be hit by moving/vibrating centerboard so simple encapsulation with epoxy should keep them protected.

Being certain that epoxy is cured I started shaping bilge keels. According to plans they should have 25mm height along the whole length. When I asked Francois Vivier about them he replied that, if I have enough timber, it would be even better if they have 30mm in the center part and go down to 15mm at ends.

Well, I had even more thickness at hand so I left 34mm in the center part and slimmed them down at both ends. Their role is to support the boat when not in water. I suspect that they, like bilge keels on ships or some dinghies, are also helpful in stopping the boat from rolling so having some more millimeters of height will do good.

Rough shaping with scrub plane.

Streamlining with no.5 and then sanded till smooth.

The whole shed and the boat got proper vacuuming before epoxy painting tomorrow.

If the weather permits.

Trimming, shaping

September 26, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Evening work-out with hand planes.

I started with stem, shaping the false keel to match the stem profile. Plans call for narrow shape, just wide enough to mount brass protective strip.

It went pretty nice, I made a gentle curve so the brass will sit well and the shape is pleasing. Only fish will see that but, heck, they also need some beauty in life, ain’t it?

To plane false keel above the skeg (I made it a bit wider, to be trimmed after gluing) I tilted the boat. She weights a bit now!

After trimming the false keel I started fairing the skeg. Plans call for streamlined shape, reducing thickness up to thickness of the brass strip again.

If I want to be able to epoxy-coat the hull on coming weekend then there are a few jobs to be done during the week:

bilge keels
trimming CB-case opening so that plywood edges (garboards) hide behind false keel (timber) thus will be protected from chafe
sanding the hull, rounding plank edges ( a bit - we don’t want her to look like GRP-boat, don’t we?)

I plan applying at least three layers of epoxy so this will take the whole day. First two will be just WEST 207 but then I will use graphite on working part of the hull, to add additional abrasion-protection.

Ideally I would like to apply five layers. That would build a substantial epoxy thickness comparable to varnish. Much more resistant to scratches. But it will take 20 hours at 20 degrees so it will be a long day.

False keel

September 25, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Sunny and warm day. Relatively warm, of course but I was thankful for these 15 degrees. Anticipating lots of dust I wanted to work outside as much as possible.

False keel plank started as 22x70 straight piece of Siberian larch lumber. Quarter sawn, straight grain and virtually no knots.

Measurements from the hull transferred. Most critical is centerboard opening.

Small area where the keel width rapidly diminishes to match the skeg.

Flat area on garboard top power-planed and fine-tuned with hand planes.

Slot for the centerboard routed.

Lots of wood chips and dust. Good I could do it outside the shed.

All surfaces smoothed with sandpaper. I also rounded centerboard slot - this is the outside face. Sharp edges do not hold epoxy or paint well so it is worth to chamfer such areas.

I drilled countersunk holes for substantial bronze screws, placed in crucial areas of the keel. They will bend the plank into position and hold it tight during gluing. Relying only on weights is tricky on such big jobs - parts will glide as if on wet soap if not positively held in place.

Masking of all adjacent areas followed. For centerboard slot I used wide plastic tape, fastened on both sides of the slot so that epoxy drips will not enter the CB-case. After cleanup the tape will be removed.

It was a big glue-job, I needed to divide it into three batches so that the epoxy doesn’t kick off when I spread it.

And so the false stem is mounted.

False stem

September 24, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

When I was steaming and gluing oak false stem things didn’t go as smooth as I would like to. Slats were gliding under clamps, glue squeeze out obstructed view - it was a mess. I should have used guiding jig to hold the whole company in place.

It turned out quite OK anyway but after rough plaining, to remove excess glue, none of side faces was perpendicular to the front or back face. I had to re-establish proper center line. I marked desired mounting holes and assumed that back face (one which will be glued) is the reference surface. Holes drilled on precision jig in a proper workshop.

I use 6mm thick, long bronze screws. Not only they will reinforce the stem but will act as a guide and clamp when gluing.

Lots of eye-balling to fit the part exactly in the center. Pre-drilled holes in false stem used as guide for drilling into the stem. I was lucky - all four holes landed exactly in the middle of the stem. Dry-fitting raw assembly for marking the centerline and parts to be cut off.

I used screw holes as a reference for the centerline.

After dry-fitting brass protective strip I could draw fore face of the false stem. All the rest will be beveled to create cutwater and match the hull shape.

I was lucky with the weather today so the work could be done outside. Scrub plane followed by spoke shave and smoothing plane as last. After shaping the whole lamination was sanded.

While waiting for the stove to heat up the workshop I ripped Siberian larch plank which will become false keel. I will mark and shape it tomorrow - it needs to have centerboard opening and some curves to nicely land on stem and skeg.

I decided to use my “standard” epoxy (WEST 207 hardener) instead of WEST Flex.

I usually use Flex when I glue oak but in this case the whole stem area is one big open grain - with plywood stem and all planks which land on it. I wanted to properly soak these surfaces with thin epoxy so standard, non-thinned glue was best suited to the task. Flex is too thick - honey consistence.
I don’t know if both epoxies are compatible - so that I can pre-wet the joint with 207 and then use Flex to glue - so I took no risks.

As always - oak got sanded with coarse paper and cleaned with acetone prior gluing. I also sanded all planks close to the stem - easier now, before false stem is mounted.

Masking tape on all adjacent surfaces and I spread the glue.

All went smooth thanks to four guiding screws. Lots of squeeze out which I had no usage for this time… I always feel bad when I waste this expensive goo.

Just as I was finishing it started to rain. I’m glad I used weather window well this morning.

Preparations for false stem and keel

September 22, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

With finished planking I move to the next step: fitting false stem which I laminated from steamed oak slats.

Not very spectacular job but it took me a while fine-tuning the stem shape so that false stem fits well.

Tomorrow I’ll drill screw holes on a proper drill press at work - they need to be exactly in the centerline as the false stem will be heavily beveled to just around 18mm at the fore face.

I browsed through my wood stock and finally chose false keel plank. I decided to make it from larch. Plans specify, among others, Douglas fir as possible material. Siberian larch is much tougher and heavier so for false keel it should be well suited. The plank I chose is quarter sawn, tight-grown straight grain and almost no knots. Heavy almost as oak but much easier to glue and shape.

Before fitting the false keel I need to plain garboards to get 70mm wide flat surface, to accept the false keel. That’s gonna keep me warm on the coming evening.

Hull planking finished!

September 21, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Just about time when it starts to get cold in my area.
Temperature at night drops steadily to 4 C, a bit better during the day with 10-12 C. Warming up my shed with kerosene stove is still an option but it can be just a few weeks from now that the stove will not be able to keep 25 degrees inside.

Sheer strake on starboard mounted and curing.

Next step is plaining flat garboards’ top, to mount false keel and stem.

For false keel I originally planned using oak but I don’t have 4m long timber - it would have to be scarfed, 8:1 ratio or higher. I have such long planks of Siberian larch but this is technically not hardwood so I have doubts.

Another drawback with oak is that it requires special glue. I have it but might be not enough for the whole assembly and before I get delivery of more it may become too cold to use it this year.

Ah well, I’ll fix that!