Why do boat builders judge their own work so harshly – one reason is that we all get used to looking at the boat construction from a few inches away so we over value both mistakes and an idea of perfectionism.
How much attention to detail is the right balance?
Matt had a problem with bubbles in his epoxy
Matt was epoxy coating his Goat Island Skiff.
He finished his three coats wet on tacky epoxy application – a method for getting all the epoxy coats done in a day without any sanding between.
And he had some air bubbles.
Matt wrote: “Sorry for the glare. It was the only way I could show the bubbles. They occurred applying the epoxy. They feel raised. I am hopeful that they will sand off when I prep for the varnish.
I think they will. But I want to write about the feeling of worry in relation to boatbuilding … or anything really :) I’ll put the technical answer at the bottom of the page. But let’s focus on the emotional journey of building your own boat.
Attention to boat build detail – how much?
Attention to detail can be a time suck. Or it can be a quiet joy for some.
How attention to detail works is that overall it moves the boat to a nice level of quality.
It is not something you have to force. If it worries you enough to do something, then feel good about doing something.
If it worries you, but not enough to do something then feel good about not doing something.
Not everything will be perfect. But enough will be perfect enough that the overall impression of the boat will be very nice to the eye.
After building a few boats you start to get comfortable with your own terms of reference. And you know that small imperfections will happen. And that you will take the option to get rid of some of them.
Other imperfections, you might not care too much.
AND that your own style and decision pathways result in a boat that will Wow other people.
And I only mean “WOW” other people to make the point that our perspective is not the only one.
Of course everyone’s style and decision pathways are different.
In the end everyone builds to exactly the level of perfection that matches their psyche.
There is no choice in this.
But it can change over time or with education.
The Value of Mistakes from a Boatbuilding class
I’ve spent several decades being involved in one type of boatbuilding class or another.
With the multi day classes something really interesting happens.
For the first one or two days everything happens very slowly. As an instructor you are trying to hurry the pace by building confidence and directing people into easier ways of doing the job.
Sometime on the morning of Day 2 someone will swear loudly from the back of the class. They have made an error and can’t see a way out of it.
Instructors wander over and have a look. When they have worked out the strategy to fix they call over all the students, explain the error and then show the fix.
With modern epoxy boat building the fix is normally pretty simple.
Then the interesting thing happens. Everyone goes back to their own project and really get stuck into it – often three times the original pace.
They have given themselves permission to make some mistakes and view them as
- Not serious
- Easily fixed
- Part of a normal workflow
We do the same thing with our boat building groups on facebook and through email support. But the Facebook groups are incredibly valuable as there are usually builders further down the process posting photos and asking questions.
An amazing synergy. Have a look at the groups and scroll down to see the questions and support happening.
Goat Island Skiff group on Facebook
Open (Oz)Goose group on Facebook
Storer Boat Plans group on Facebook (for all other of my designs).
Identifying your personal boatbuilding style
For me, I tend to build fast, so things you can’t see might be less than cosmetically perfect, but the building will be done properly. in terms of the technical use of the epoxy. My woodwork might not be so flash, but any gaps are filled very nicely. I’m also very good with the paint/varnish brush (and the sanding required to make a boat look good) so I do tend to rely on that skill.
So that is a quick summary of my personal style.
Other perspectives than my own
In general experienced builders have faced all this down in their own building so they tend to be not so judgemental of the work of others: “Wow, you got her built”. They know that it is sometimes a difficult journey.
It is my theory that every boat is built to match a person’s psychology most perfectly. That each of us in reality cannot do more or less than we actually do.
So over time we get comfortable with it.
Varnishing in the dark – another boat building story
When we built our first two Oz Racers Peter Hyndman (who was bankrolling them – I was doing much of the labour) came in an asked me why I was varnishing at night in a dim garage (below – it was darker than that though). That he was experienced in varnish and it would be better to wait until the next day.
“How can you do that” as both a practical question and a question about varnish technique.
My answer was that “I don’t care”.
Which didn’t mean that I didn’t care about the result, but that even in those dull conditions that my work would look OK in the morning and achieve the end I intended.
The next coat could be prettier. But this one would be good enough because I’ve done enough of it to know the result will be OK.
The next day the varnish on the interior around all the framing and panels looked OK. Few holidays and almost no runs.
Not perfect, but perfect enough and got the job done.
The “I don’t care” attitude that builds up over time is a confidence that things will just work out OK because we can trust the result of our experience.
And that is what you are building now.
Moving from frustration to Love and the IKEA effect – Dan Ariely
Here is a great explanation of the process from Dan Ariely. Well worth watching or reading anything by Dan.
He talks about the IKEA effect. How something has to be just complicated enough to move it from being a consumer item, to something we are involved in.
The result can be Love
And a little frustration bonds us even tighter.
Video image can take a moment to load.
Technical Answer about Bubbles in Epoxy
How many bubbles – a lot?
The question was whether it being a hot night had created the bubbles.
Quality epoxies are “High Solids” which means no thinners to evaporate. So if epoxy is quality and doesn’t smell of solvents then it is not solvent outgassing. It is OK for epoxies to have a slight ammonia smell. But solvents are not allowed. If solvents … then they will evaporate faster on warmer days.
For quality “high solids” epoxy temperature is not so important.
Significant temperature increases while coating can cause problems
What is important is if the temperature is rising significantly or not.
Warm temperature that doesn’t change much means the air inside the plywood stays at the same volume.
But a sharply rising temperature makes the air expand forcing bubbles to appear on the surface.
It differs from site to site, but if expecting a big temperature increase during the day it can be good to start wet on wet after lunch so the temperature is on the decrease.
Doing it on a hotter day or in a garage that is hot from the previous day is not a problem in terms of bubbles.
It is a significant temperature rise that is the problem. And the result if that happens can be millions of bubbles all over the surface.
A few bubbles like in your photo is not what I am talking about. This photo is paint but shows the intensity of the problem when the timber is warming up.
You can try to keep on top of them by skidding a foam roller or foam brush lightly across the surface to pop them. But best resolution is moving the boat to somewhere cooler … one guy I know put a sprinkler on his roof.
Using a roller to pop bubbles while epoxy is still wet
A roller slid across the surface slowly is the best tool.
More about that on this page linked to at the top – precoating plywood sheets with epoxy.
All our articles on handling epoxy are on this page