Jersey Girl

July 8, 2017. A setback! I took a chance with the weather and finished the faces of two of the bulkheads with a coating of epoxy. The epoxy cured hard despite the rainstorm that inevitably came, but the rain caused it to be lumpy, ugly and clouded. I'll have to sand it down to the bare wood and start over again. Ugh.

Aug. 15, 2017: A view from the bridge. Actually, from an upstairs window. All the framing is in place. Before I can start sheathing the hull with marine plywood, I will reinforce all the frame joints with fiberglass tape and epoxy, and plane down any high spots and shim any low spots. I will also go over all my work carefully to make sure I have not left behind any steel sheet rock screws that I used as temporary clamps. They all need to be replaced with non-rusting silicon bronze screws. Each will be dipped in epoxy before being driven home, to make sure they stay in place over the life of the boat, and to block any possible path for water intrusion and eventual rot.

Sept. 29, 2017: Happiness is an unclamped bottom. Its all glued and screwed, and nothing has sprung loose. I've cut away most of the overhang at the bow and will plane and sand what remains until it's flush. I've sealed the entire bottom with a coat of epoxy, so it's protected from the rain that's forecast for tomorrow. She's starting to look a little more like a boat, and less like the fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric creature.

Oct. 3, 2017: Starting to fiberglass the backs of the side panels -- the sheer strakes. I will want to be somewhat neat about this, because some of these surfaces will be visible from inside the cabin. When I lay out the fiberglass fabric, it is opaque white. As I permeate the fiberglass weave with the two-part epoxy mixture, the fabric turns from opaque to transparent, allowing the grain of the wood to show.

Houseboat update, Thursday July 26, 2018 -- Jersey Girl's aft deck, sealed in fiberglass fabric and epoxy on both sides, is dry fit in place. Before I can glue it and screw it permanently, I'll have to pay attention to all the bottom and bulkhead joints that will be difficult to reach once the deck is installed. I'll have to run a bead of thickened epoxy along each such joint and work it into a running cove-shaped "fillet," then cover each length treated that way with a strip of fiberglass tape set in epoxy. That will greatly strengthen the joints and contribute to the hull's resistance to undue flexing when Jersey Girl encounters choppy water. I'll try to get that done tomorrow, because after that I'm taking a week off to attend a plein air watercolor workshop in the picturesque harbor town of Belfast, Maine. Can't wait! (Maybe I'll post a few pix of some of the paintings, if they're halfway decent.)