Glen-L Squirt

The next job is planking the hull. I am using 6 mm marine okoume plywood from Mourikis, the quality of which is excellent (and, unfortunately, twice the price of other imported stock). Unfortunately it is not made in lengths over 2.5 m, so two sheets have to be joined end to end.

For the hull sides I need a length of about 3.60 m and a width of 48 cm. To work that out I roughly cut a piece of hardboard and clamped it onto the boat's framework.

The plywood was joined with a scarf joint. The joint area needs to be about eight times the thickness of the material being glued. So for 6 mm plywood I made the joint 5 cm wide (6 x 8 = 48 mm). I stacked the plywood sheets on top of each other, each one set back 5 cm from the one below, and used a large hand plane to cut the taper. To keep the line straight I also used another piece of 18 mm plywood clamped 15 cm back from the last sheet. The process is shown in the photographs below.

The same was done for the rest of the hull panels, four in total. The joint was made a different way each time, to find the best one.

Heating is something that came up in the last days of January and the first of February, as the workshop is very cold, being old. West System resin with the slow hardener (206) has a minimum temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and the workshop got down to 12.5. Two halogen heaters and a fan heater were used for every glue-up.

First the side panel was shaped and screwed temporarily onto the boat under construction. I found the curves were quite pronounced fore and aft, so I wetted them with towels, either on the boat or off it. When it had more or less taken the shape it needed, it was cut to the right dimensions with about two centimetres to spare.

The plywood must NOT be glued to the frames, only to the boat's framework (the chines and sheers, the timbers that run lengthways). This looks odd, but it is presumably so that vibration is not transmitted into them. Because the areas under the frames cannot be coated with resin after gluing, and not easily with paint either, I gave them two coats of resin before gluing to seal them.

The plywood was screwed back onto the framework in its exact position. The fit where the side panel meets the bottom plywood will work like this: up to about 70 cm from the bow, the bottom plywood laps over the side. After that it changes and has to fit inside it and onto the framework. Look at the photograph where that changeover happens, and later, when fitting the bottom is described, it will make more sense with more photographs and video.

Because the bottom has to fit perfectly at the bow, the fit had to be right there too. My friend Stratos from Livadi in Arcadia (a village next to Leonidio) came to help with shaping and gluing the plywood, and his help was decisive!!!

After that work, the sides are ready to be glued one at a time, once the framework has been checked for errors in the fit.

Plastic washers were used for the glue-up, for two reasons. First so the plywood is not damaged too much by the screw head, and second to reduce the chance of the screw gluing itself into the wood (keeping the resin inside the timber only). Ten to twelve hours after gluing I turned every screw half a turn to break it free (slackened and immediately retightened), before the resin got too hard. I had read that you can use some kind of lubricant (soap, wax and so on) to stop them sticking, and that it is a good idea to use stainless if the worst happens, but none of that is needed if the screws are turned a little at the twelve hour mark.

Then the excess at the bow was cut off so the second side panel would fit. It had not been cut from the start because it helped me follow the curve with a clamp resting against it. A hole was drilled in the plywood where the mooring cleat goes. The hole in the keel had been drilled earlier. It was then sealed with a plastic bag so it would not fill with resin.

The same was done on the other side. A few more photographs, again with Stratos.

While the second side was drying, we cut the first half of the boat's bottom to the right dimensions (the top, as it sits on the base), having first cut off the excess from the side panel so it followed the bevels of the framework.

As written earlier, over most of the boat the bottom plywood laps over the side panel, so on the outside we have no problem, we simply leave a centimetre or two to spare. On the inside, up to the point where the curve of the keel begins, it is a straight line, so no problem there either. The difficulty is only in the forward section on the outside. On the inside I will probably have to follow the line, which gets lost because of the curvature of the keel. Below are some photographs of the fitting and a short video of Stratos with the hand plane. Until the side was properly glued and I could take the clamps off, it was wetted with towels so it would take the curves as easily as possible.

Once the third piece was glued it was shaped at its forward end. The method used is this: from the bow to about 70 cm back, the second bottom panel laps over the first. After that it changes and the two sheets run parallel. The opposite happens between the second bottom panel and the side. At the bow the bottom meets the side flush, while over the rest of the boat it laps over it. Fitting the fourth piece was the hardest, because it had to be shaped correctly on both sides. Some photographs of the fourth glue-up.

This post covers the work done to finish the boat's hull. The screw holes have to be filled with epoxy, it has to be sanded with a sander, and then it has to be covered with fiberglass cloth.

First the hole was drilled in the plywood where the forward mooring cleat will be fitted. I should point out that the hole in the keel had been drilled before it was glued to the rest of the boat, and obviously before the plywood was glued on. That had the advantage that the job was done on the drill press, with a very accurate result.

Once the holes were filled with epoxy and microfibre, and epoxy fairing filler, the boat was sanded with 80, 120 and 180 grit.

The boat is ready for the fiberglass cloth. I chose the dry method: the cloth is laid onto the boat without first wetting it out with resin. Initially I chose West System 742, which is 200 g/m2 and 150 cm wide. I wanted to use two pieces, one to the left and one to the right of the keel with an overlap over it (and one on the transom, of course). The maximum width I need is 115 cm, so most cloths at 100 cm wide were ruled out. Unfortunately that cloth was not available for immediate delivery, so I kept looking. I ended up with Fiberglass fabric G213S from FIBERMAX Ltd, weight 213 g/m2, 120 cm wide, with the following specification:

Areal weight: 213 g / m2 Weaving style: Satin Width: 1.20 meters Warp: Glass EC9 68 fiber, 61%, 19 ends (threads) / cm Weft: Glass EC9 68 fiber, 39%, 12 ends / cm Tensile strength on yarn (N): 48

First the cloths were laid over the boat and cut to shape. The resin was rolled onto one side and then the other. At the keel the cloths overlap by about 10 cm either side of it. When one side had been wetted out, the other had lifted. I was struck by how much resin the first coat took to wet the cloth out. About 3.5 litres, spread with a plastic squeegee. For the second coat 700 ml went on with an 18 cm West System roller (product code 800), which is very thin so it does not hold much resin. Some photographs of the process.

The next coats will go on once the resin has cured. To do that it has to be washed with water and a stiff sponge to remove the amine blush. This is a waxy film that forms on a cured epoxy surface and is a by-product of the curing process. It is water soluble and comes off easily. After washing, the boat is wiped down with clean absorbent paper. It is then sanded with 80 grit and the dust removed.

That process was not needed between the first and second coats, because it is not necessary while the resin has not finished curing (the second coat went on about 8 hours after the first, at around 18 degrees Celsius). The same will apply between all the remaining coats from the third to the last, whichever that turns out to be.

I decided to leave the next coats of resin, making a small skeg, and painting the hull, to a later stage. First because the temperature is still quite low (minimum for the resin is 16 degrees) and second, and more importantly, because I would rather shape the top edge of the boat all the way round first and paint afterwards, so as not to damage painted surfaces.

So the boat is ready to be turned over. To do that a new base had to be made, which will sit on top of the first once that has been cut down a little. Some photographs of the second base, which was made shortly before the cloth went on, though the order obviously does not matter:

Because the long parallel timbers are not square to the plane of the lower base, wedges had to go in so they could be screwed at the right angle. To do that the angle was measured and suitable wedges cut.

On the first base the uprights were cut down to reduce its height. The second will sit on top of it. To turn the boat over I had thought of using a mattress, but in the end I used car tyres. The boat is still very light and the two of us had no trouble at all turning it over. Fortunately it had not glued itself to the first base with resin (where there was a risk I had put plastic bags down before gluing). Cardboard was laid on the second base and foam on top of that. Some photographs of the process and of Stratos load-testing it.

One job that definitely had to be done was cleaning up the inside of the boat where resin had run. Also reinforcing the uprights the plywood was glued to, with resin and microfibre. And finally filling over the carriage bolts with resin.

A very important job is shaping the top edge of the hull so the deck plywood can sit down on it.

The process starts the same way it did with the lengthways timbers of the boat's framework (the sheers and chines), shaping the plywood at the transom and at the frames.

The shaping will carry on once the rest of the boat's parts are fitted (deck beam, dash beam, aft deck beams, coaming, deck battens and so on).

First the lengthways timbers (the coamings) were bent for the internal shaping of the aft section. The steamer was used. They are 1.5 cm thick and 11 cm wide. To bend them to the curve I wanted, the method shown in the photographs below was used. Once the timbers had dried they were wrapped in a wet towel. Small blocks were also cut, to be used when gluing them.

At the same time I started on the forward section, marking where the first deck beam would be glued and cutting it to follow the curve of the second frame.

Once it was cut to length it was glued in place. Then the notches were cut so the forward uprights could be fitted in position. The centre one has to be glued at the bow with its thickness feathered away. Some photographs below. None of the uprights has been glued yet.

The deck beam was glued in.

The aft section of the boat is being worked on at the same time.

With the main framework done on the inside, I decided to make the seat. The reason is that I want to see where the dashboard with the instruments and the wheel will go, and how the seat back relates to the rest of the boat aft (the locker and so on).

I decided the seat should have the coffee holders in it. The cup holders were among the first fittings I bought. The seat is made up of three pieces of 20 mm timber and one piece of 6 mm plywood. The timber will be routed around the edge to a depth equal to the thickness of the plywood. The drawing is below.

The seat bears on the chines around the hull, on the frame, on two blocks that will be glued to the frame, and on 3 pieces on the bottom of the boat glued to the bottom stiffeners. All of these have to be at the right height so the seat sits properly. Some photographs of the work.

A washer and a pencil were used to copy the curve of the boat accurately.

Then the seat bearers were glued to the bottom of the boat and, at the same time, the seat was given two coats of resin.

Work started on the seat back and the remaining uprights of the framework aft. The angle between the seat back and the seat will probably be a little over 100 degrees. The 96 shown in the photograph is probably too little. At the same time the sheerline is being shaped all the way round with a hand plane, rasp and sandpaper.

Some photographs below.

After building the seat I started gluing in the pieces I had prepared for the boat's framework, both forward and aft.

The inside of the boat was given two coats of resin.

Work started on the seat back and the remaining uprights of the framework aft. The angle between the seat back and the seat will probably be a little over 100 degrees. The 96 shown in the photograph is probably too little. At the same time the sheerline is being shaped all the way round with a hand plane, rasp and sandpaper. Some photographs below.