Roller, Squeegee, Or Brush to increase Epoxy Worktime.
Brushes, Squeegees and Rollers all have advantages and disadvantages for boatbuilding epoxy coating. This explains and provides useful tips.
Tools
What is a good boat to build while stuck in COVID virus quarantine?
COVID doesn’t need to end fun things. What simple boats could be built at home during quarantine and social distancing. Here are mine.
Videos Week by Week – boatbuilding videos for a Goat Island Skiff plywood sail boat
Teo’s Weekly Video series building a plywood sailing dinghy – the performance oriented Goat Island Skiff. Domonstration of building methods. He is currently up to week 18 (March 2020)
FAQ Birdsmouth masts – butt joins OK? Scarfs are recommended.
A birdsmouth mast is a nice way to make a simple tapered hollow round mast. But what is the best way to join the wood. We show you how and why.
FAQ – Getting a hull smooth – Torture Boards for strip planking and decks
Torture boards are used for the highest grade of smoothing for visual smoothness of the whole structure. Fairing a strip planked hull.
Fairing a join between adjacent plywood sheets in a hull or deck.
Fairing a composite structure
Fairing deck substructure. Deckframes and deck stringers ready to take plywood.
Repair of old and antique plywood class sailboats for Racing or Cruising
OK … I decided to keep the old racing dinghy and fix it up. How do I put my effort in the right places to get the maximum results? A grab bag of methods for joining plywood, working out sizes, making centreboards and rudders and more.
The Canon – Tools for thinking about sailing and boat design – Books and Articles
One of the most important things as a designer or sailor is to keep an open mind, but also to be able to analyze things in light of real experience and prior knowledge. These are online and paper resources that force thinking in different ways.
This article, after a bit of a spiel, goes on to give some great resources that “opened my eyes” at different times in my life.
They focus on areas of structural design, sailing, sail aerodynamics and touch on a bit more.
What I was busy with last week – building a Quick Canoe
I built the Quick Canoe in a day and a half. This is way slower than some of my customers.
It is the first time I have been disappointed building a complete boat this quick.
The risk of high expectations!
But a day and a half with the problems I had is pretty good.
Minimal repairs to keep an old Mirror plywood sailing dinghy going
Melanie in the UK wrote to me. She has just bought an old Mirror dinghy and started sailing for the first time.
Problem is that the boat leaks and she doesn’t want to stop using the boat until the end of the season.
I have a philosophy of keeping older boats on the water and not pulling them off for months on end until you have the time to do the job.
So the article here is useful to see what can be done with an old leaky plywood sailing dinghy to keep it going.
It is perfect sailing weather at the moment in the UK and it is better she is out there learning but with the worst of the leaks gone.
With a disciplined approach she should be able to get all of this done in a week or so. The general leaks fixed permanently and the rotted area reinforced so that the boat won’t break.
Podcast Online – Wooden Boat Construction by Michael Storer – 2 of 3
This is the second of my talks in the USA. It focuses a bit more on construction and some of the methods that can be used to keep a boat light and simple, but very strong and stiff.
It also discusses how there is a “creep” in boatbuilding and design that increases the weight of boats way over what is really needed for a strong structure.
AlexN’s wonderful description of building a OzRacer and some thoughts
The OzRacer is the first boat he has built and Alex is not necessarily taking the quickest way – But he is reporting daily about his building and his ruminations on different subjects.
Table of Contents for Michael Storer Wooden Boats Forum.
We have moved much of our activity to the Facebook Groups. See the links in the Menu above. But there are so many great questions asked and discussed on the Oz Woodwork Forums..
Index to huge Eureka Canoe building thread
Peter Hyndman has been building his Eureka Canoe forever. I think it is still not finished – however he did document it beautifully
Interviews, Podcasts with Boat Designer Michael Storer at furledsails.com
Interview/Podcast with Michael Storer on why Australian boats are different, why traditional rigs have some distinct advantages.
Q&A Epoxy gluing endgrain for timber and Plywood
The basic problem is that end grain is highly absorbent so it can steal the resin from the join leaving insufficient for good bonding.
Q&A Warming Epoxy Part A And B for good handling make a Lightbox
Just a simple wooden box with a lightbulb inside and a switch on the outside. The swing down lid has slots so the tops of the epoxy pumps are outside the box or a hinged lid you just flip up when you need to pump.
Tips for applying Teak Veneer Decks Using Sikaflex, 5200 etc
Teak and other timbers make great veneer decks. There are a couple of tricks with the sealant between the planks though
Q&A Cordless drills to replace wood clamps and cramps in boat gluing and assembly
Battery Drills (most convenient) with a clutch and variable speed remove the need for dozens of clamps which can be a major cost.