Lettering!

I ordered some vinyl lettering from DIYLettering. Lindsey helped me decide on fonts and placement.

It arrived today and I installed it with no problems.
Looks very nice, I think.

Vinyl lettering

I'm currently working on a tent, but trying to get as much sail time as I can (which isn't much, unfortunately). I already had a spare tent pole, I just needed some oarlocks and a way to attach the tent material to the hull. I ordered those from Duckworks.
And certainly I need some tent material, but I'm going to cut a pattern with a tarp.

Making progress; starting to paint

This weekend I took down the garage dust tent. I can roll the trailer and the boat outside and make sanding dust there.
That should help to have a clean dust free garage for painting.

Saturday I spent hours sanding the exterior with 120. It resulted in a nice dull black with just a few sand-throughs. But sand-throughs only went down to the next layer, not down to the wood. I didn't get any pictures of the sanding. It resulted in a lot of dust.

I also painted on the boot stripe

Here she is Sunday outside after I sanded off the slightly 410-thickened epoxy I had painted on all interior surfaces.

sanded and boot stripe painted

The other side

close up of the stern boot stripe.

A view inside.

I really like how sanding with 120 turns the finish dull. It's fairly easy to see where you need to do some extra sanding or fill low spots.

I did sand through some areas on the interior. Tonight I recoated those. I'll scrape and sand them later and then I can start in on full painting.

It was good to paint the boot stripe as an experiment. I need to learn to paint on thin layers. The boot stripe has some areas where the pain cracked & spidered a bit. I believe it hadn't completed curing quite yet. I'll wait a few more days and sand it down before a recoat.

Trailered!

The big news is that I got her trailered!

She's mobile!

Now I can roll her out of the garage and do some messy sanding outside. My dust containment tent in the garage is ripped and raggedy and not containing dust very well.

I also plan to roll her out and use a laser level to strike the boot stripe.

I could paint outside to keep the fumes out of the garage but at the risk of airborne dust. Likely, I'll set up  a fan blowing over a bucket of water to try and absorb most of the dust and paint in the garage.

I started by hoisting her up with straps on the ceiling, then I just pushed the trailer under and dropped.

Hoist her up on straps.

Get ready to push the trailer under her.

suspended

Pushing the trailer under

I'm also excited because I took some time to cut the ipe coaming turn pieces. This had been freaking me out because of the weird angles. I haven't permanently mounted these yet because I'm going to remove the ipe before painting. I'll paint the deck first, then glue on permanently the coaming rails before filling the screw holes and painting the inside of the coamings.

starboard side coaming turn in

port side coaming turn in.

Hull hardware holes drilled

I spent the weekend placing hardware, drilling holes, filling holes with thickened epoxy, then re-drilling holes.

I now have just about all the hardware ready to be installed. I'll have to paint first, but I've drilled pilot holes into the epoxy fill so that I know where to install everything.

I purchased the 2 1/8" wide Davey & Co pintles & gudgeons from the Chandlery, but I had added an extra 4.2mm chunk of plywood in the middle of the rudder, so they won't fix without major chiseling that I didn't want to do.
I ordered a set of 2 1/2" Racelite from Chuck at Duckworks. Much easier to install, since my rudder was 2 61/128" (according to my caliper).

Chalked a center line

First, I installed the pintles on the rudder. I had to make sure that I could clear the copper tubing that I installed for the downhaul & uphaul lines.
That determined the locations of gudgeons.
Aligning all this was kind of a pita. I had to install only the outside screws on the pintle straps so that I could make sure they were aligned with the gudgeons. Then I had to make sure the gudgeons were straight.
It all worked out. I think this was easier than the bronze p&g from Davey & Co.

Rudder dry fitwith 1/2" flat head screws.

Drilled out the 1/2" screw holes for 1/4-20 round head bolts.

I did develop one interesting technique with all these holes I've been drilling. I drill out the correct size for the hardware I am using and make sure everything fits just like I want. Then I use a step bit to enlarge the holes. I usually go from both sides to get it all enlarged.

Then I can fill half the holes. That way I can align everything just like I want.

I enlarged the 2 center holes and filled them. Then I drilled correct holes through the epoxy. Finally, I enlarge and drill out the other set of holes.

Shot of the rudder head with some holes filled.

 I also found the time today to dry fit the cockpit coamings. I screwed them in with 1" #8 screws.

cockpit coamings dry fit

I had planned to go out tonight and glue them in, but it's too cold in the garage and I don't want to leave the heater on all night.

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.

Sanding is nearly done

Five hours of sanding the 410 mix seems to have finished it off. It's amazing to see the nice glossy surface that you think is fair is actually fairly bumpy. The sander really knocks those bumps down and a consistent milkiness is the goal.

After the sanding, I still found some low spots, so I filled those.  

Sanding is done, low spots filled

Couple more low spots. filled.

One more sanding by hand to knock those down and she'll be ready for a coat or two of graphite epoxy.

Then I'll have a simple sanding job to get rid of the stipple on that. But since the underlying layer is smooth, that should go by fairly easy. The point is to sand the easy stuff, not the really hard stuff.

Warning. The 410 generates a lot of dust. Wear a respirator. I have a plastic tent with zipper doors set up in the garage, but the dust still escapes up over the top.
I rigged up a box fan with a furnace filter and that really cut down on the airborne dust.

box fan with furnace filter

I used a nice 5" random orbital sander for the flat areas (that I originally bought for my kayak build). The corners and sensitive areas were done either by hand or with a little mouse sander that I have. Usually by hand.
I heartily recommend Mirka Abranet fiberglass mesh sandpaper. Be sure to pick up a protective hook & loop barrier pad or the abranet will destroy the hooks on your sander.
And when you think the abranet is done or too clogged, take it off and roll it up so you can sand the fillet edges. I went through only about 4 sheets through the whole hull sanding.

L-to-R: respirator, rolled up abranet, abranet, denatured alcohol

A shop vacuum with good filters to clean out the canvas sanding dust reservoir on the sander is good too. I can hook my shop vac up to my sander, but the large 2 1/2" hose makes it awkward to use, so I generally don't. If you have a better sanding vac, maybe you could keep the dust down a bit. Although now that I think about it, buying a long smaller hose and an adapter might have made it less awkward. 

Filling the weave

The weather is indeed staying warm enough to work and I'm taking advantage of it.

This is a shot after I trimmed all the glass edges. 

glass edges trimmed.

Bow

 I filled some of the trimmed edges with 410 to make it easier to sand later.

I filled some of the trimmed edges with 410.

 I also filleted the 1st chine to cover the ragged glass edge.

Bow after fillets

 Here is how the sides looked after the fill and the fillet. On the starboard side, everything looks good.
You'll see the patch right below the filleted chine. That's because the day Scamp Camp finished, I drove the side of the boat into a pole at the Center for Wooden Boats. Yeesh. I guess I got the first bump out of the way as soon as I possibly could.

Starboard fill

 The port fill on the other hand, doesn't look as good.

Port side fill

Quincy and I have worked together to do 3 fill coats so far, one with straight epoxy, then two more with 410 mixed to about 3 tablespoons per 4-5 pumps. Enough to thicken it a bit, but not quite to ketchup yet.

The below are pictures after coat three.  You can really see that the 410 is clouding up the grain. It should be easy to sand.

I tried to clean up the stern with some very thick

Stern 

Starboard still looks good

Port looks a lot better.

bow

Tomorrow, I'd like to get some sanding done in the afternoon. If I'm really lucky (and I doubt that will happen, I may be able to put on the first coat of graphite epoxy.

In some of the shots, you can see the waterline that was so carefully scribed at scamp camp. The graphite will cover that up. So If I decide to paint at the DWL, then I'll have to re-scribe it.