A Scamp Coloring Book

I thought I had my mind made up with paint colors, but as time goes by I keep changing my mind.

I sat down at my computer with images taken from the official scamp plans and came up with a couple of coloring book pages.

I've used the pages with colored pencils but still haven't completely decided on colors.  But the family has had fun with the pages.

Scamp Coloring Book. (PDF link)

I asked Josh for permission to redistribute these. I put his copyright on them since they are derived from the plans and he owns the copyright to those.
I would have posted this to the official forum, but it won't take very big files.

She's rightside up

We flipped her rightside up today. I was disappointed at how hard the the last flip was, so this time I hung straps from the garage ceiling joists. My buddy Ken stopped by and we flipped her over in a few minutes.

Here is Ken and me after she was over.

She's flipped

 She was suspended for awhile then we let her down on the skegs.

Resting on the skegs.

few from aft

rear view

In the cabin, you can see some of the parts that I picked up from the Chandlery.  I have enough parts now for to rig most of the boat. I went with bronze.

looking aft past the deadlights.

oversize 1/4" holes for the cleats

Slot strip installed

Today the slot strip arrived from the UK. I've had a 3" wide area masked off and sanded for about a week now in preparation for this.

Slot strip kit

I could have ordered raw slot strip material and used 3M VHB like WoodNMetalGuy, but the kit wasn't very much even with shipping from the UK and I've never minded working with rubber cement glue. I think the 3M VHB is good stuff, but it's thicker than I wanted.

The slot strip is weird stuff. Much more rigid that I thought it would be.

masked and sanded a 3" wide strip

Trim the slot strip to length

Acid brushes are just about the right width when turned sideways.

Testing the width

I didn't like the imprecision of just slapping the the glue on and hoping I covered the whole surface, so I used a 1/2" piece of plywood to draw a pencil line for the glue boundary.

You can just see the pencil lines.

The instructions said to apply the glue, then wait for it to dry. Just like regular rubber cement.

Glue applied

 The instructions also said to use a stick to burnish the glue down. I used the handle of a discarded foam brush. Worked fine.

Pressing down the edges.

I had planned on keeping the bottom of the boat glossy epoxy black, so I don't need to paint the bottom.

And I applied the last coat of paint on the interior of the cabin top this evening.

So that leaves nothing left to do on the bottom. This weekend, I'll flip her right side up and start to work on the cabin top and other areas.

Preparations before flipping the boat

Nothing I'm doing right now is very interesting. Mostly cleaning things up before I flip her back to rightside up.
Here are some pictures

Drilled oversize holes and filled for the deadlights

dry fit the motor mount

I also sanded and painted the underside of the cabin top in preparation for priming/painting.

Sanded and recoated the underside of the cabin top

I installed the bronze deadlights just because I wanted to see how they looked. They look better than I even suspected. I put the acorn nuts on the outside because I think it looks cool. I'll have to take everything off for painting.

deadlights!

Inspired by this thread on the scamp message board, I installed 4 plates under the cabin top for mounting blocks and cleats.

plates under the cuddy cabin.

Plates dry fit next to the mast box for mounting turning blocks.

Yeah, that last picture is ugly, I painted the inside of the cabin top. I need to prime and paint it again after I get the plates filleted and coated.

I installed fore and aft footwell cleats to match the current port and starboard cleats. I filleted under them (which is easy when the boat is upside down). I'll have to drill drain holes at the corners to let water into the footwell. I'll also take the corners off the footwell cover.

I'm still waiting for the centerboard slot strip to arrive from the UK. I have the area masked off and sanded ready to be installed. That will be another post.

Major milestone; Hull epoxied!

Today, Quincy and I painted the entire hull in a nice protective coat of graphite epoxy.

She looks great!

shiny black!

Looks great!

bow

This is a major milestone. Now, the only things I have to do are:

• install the slot strip (on it's way from the UK)
• finish sanding the fillets under the cabin top
• prime & paint under the cabin top.
• decide if I want to install Andersen bailers (I don't want to cut holes in that pristine hull!)

Then I can flip the boat back over and proceed with finishing the rest of the boat.

I have decided on paint colors, I just have to re-scribe the DWL with a laser because the black epoxy covered the line we penciled at scamp camp.

Pi for Pie day

We made a pi for Pie Day!

pi

UHMW skeg protection

I picked up some black UHMW from Professional Plastics. I had to buy 12" x 6' sheet, but they cut 1 1/4" strips for me. Now I have extra UHMW, I may add some just under the bow if I can figure out how to mount it.

I laid down the strips on the skegs and drilled pilot holes through the UHMW and into the wood. Then Quincy drilled countersunk holes in the UHMW. That stuff is tough and weird to work.

I also drilled over size holes in the skegs and filled them with epoxy and wood flour.

Black UHMW skeg protectors

trimmed this overhang

Tomorrow, the first coat of graphite powder epoxy will happen.
I also have some slot strip on the way to install.

Skegs glued

Saturday was a busy day; I cleaned up the skegs, coated them twice and did some filleting under the deck and cabin top while she was upside down. It all went well, but I don't have any pictures to share. Pretty boring stuff.

Sunday was a less productive, but at least the difference can be seen.

I started off by sanding and cleaning up the skegs that I had coated on Saturday. I set them on the boat and used the shinto to pare down high spots until I was comfortable with the few gaps.

Then I was completely halted while I decided where to position the skegs.
I bought a trailer with rollers on the back. My plan had been to center the skegs on the rear rollers, which were centered 25 1/2" apart.

Center the skegs on the rear rollers.

However, that put the skegs right where I wanted to put some andersen mini bailers in the foot well.

In the below shot, you are looking up into the footwell. You can see a pencil line near the outside wall. That pencil line was going to be the center line of the skeg. That wouldn't leave much room for the bailer in the little well.

The footwell. See the pencil lines?

I considered getting 5" rollers instead of 10" rollers and rearranging the trailer. That would pull each skeg in by 2 1/2" inches (the second line pencil line above). This would leave room for the bailers just athwart the skegs.

After looking at it for awhile, I decided it was easier to push the skegs athwart by 3/4" (essentially, use the center line as an edge line because the skegs are 1 1/2"). I'll have room to put the bailers inside the skegs, the skegs will still sit on the rollers, I'll have  room to put on a centerboard gasket and the skegs are close to the seat supports for structure.

Once that was decided, then I had the terrible job of drilling holes for the 1 1/4" stainless screws. The screws went through the hull, sole and doubler. Unfortunately, I forgot there were 3 layers there rather than 2. I should have used longer screws.

I measured carefully and drilled down from the bottom of the hull first. Then I drilled countersunk holes from the footwell up.

Two small screw holes

I drove in stainless screws until they just fit into the pilot holes in the skeg.

You can just barely see the screws

Then it was time to butter up the skeg surface. I mixed up some thickened 404/406 epoxy and filled in any low spots in the keg bottom. Then I pumped a couple more pumps to make a slightly thinner epoxy that was brushed on to cover the entire bottom; all uncoated wood surfaces. Then I put on a full bead of 610. These skegs aren't going anywhere.

Flipped them over and drove in the screws. Clamped the aft and weighted them down with tiles and buckets of water. Also ran a gloved finger over the squish out.

Aft clamped

weight added.

Finally this evening, I got a good fillet.

filleted

This week, I'll go pick up some UHMW and may get around to painting the entire bottom of the hull with graphite epoxy.

I don't plan to put the bailers in. I can cut those holes when on the trailer.

This is getting exciting because I'm nearing completion of the bottom.

Building skegs: there's got to be a better way

I thought I had a good plan; laminate 2 3/4" plywood skegs to make a 1 1/2" skeg. Members of the message board encouraged me to use white oak instead. I've worked white oak before; it's hard to work and I didn't relish the thought of shaping it.

I do have some 8/4 white oak pieces that are about 9 feet long from a previous project. I could have cut those down to 1/2" slices and bent them to the hull and laminated skegs, but the thought of weighting those down on the hull and laminating them made me think it would take weeks.

After much deliberation at the lumber store, I finally decided to buy red oak for the skegs. I was able to find 2 pieces of rough cut 6/4 red oak that would work.

I traced the pattern and cut out the red oak with an older jigsaw that I had.  I burned out the old jigsaw cutting the red oak and had to buy another one. Jigsaws suck.

I don't have a bandsaw, but that would have worked much better. I had to cut well outside the line because I've had bad luck with cutting perpendicular.

Cutting the skegs

Skegs rough cut

I attached the template to the rough cut skegs and set up the router with a top pilot 1 1/4" long straight bit. I should have used a shorter 1" bit, it might have been easier to manage.

Cutting well outside the line meant that there was a lot of material to remove.

top pilot straight bit

It didn't go that well. The bottom pilot came loose a couple times and I gouged the pattern and the wood.

Gouge

I flipped over the pattern and removed the other side with a bottom pilot straight bit.

Cut the remainder

After doing the second piece and making a lot of sawdust, I was finally done.

Skegs are done

I didn't get any photos, but I was able to route the finger holds. In retrospect, I should have cut those later.
I also put a 1/8" roundover on the appropriate edges. Again, this might have been better to do after everything was cleaned up and more straight.

I set them on the boat on top of some plastic and cleaned them up by layering on some epoxy thickened with some (relatively) easy to sand 407.

raw cuts.

slathered with 407 epoxy.

I'll sand these when they are cured and get them smooth. I'll have to do some clean up with the shinto rasp, especially on the bottom to get it to fit the curve well.

I don't want to put screws through the hull, so I'll likely use a forstner bit to drill a couple shallow holes in the hull for dowels.

Then I'll fill in the bottom low spots with thickened epoxy about 8 hours before I glue the whole thing down.

This whole exercise was a real pain. There's got to be a better way.

If I were to do this again, I would cut the pattern on 1/4" plywood. It would be more sturdy and offer a better edge. I would also make 2 patterns so that if one did get screwed up, it wouldn't mess up the second cut.

Better yet, 4 skegs CNC cut from 9mm plywood would be just about 1 1/2". Those could be laminated together and glassed.

Afterwards, I remembered that bamboo plywood would probably have worked well. I know they sell  4' x 8' sheets of 1 1/2". A friend of mine gave me some that he was using as stair treads.

1 1/2" bamboo. Maybe I should have used this.