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Hey Guys -
With the forum upgrade, i think my old 23 seacraft thread was deleted. I cannot find it. I will pickup right where i left off. I took the week of christmas off and spent it at my parents house on the eastern shore. The plan was to fish as many days as possible. However, the week started with 24 inches of snow and i knew it wasn't to be. So, i made my way down there anyways and we spent the week working on the seacraft.
The bilge pumps are all pre-wired and the hoses run. In the picture you can see the water witch float switch and 2 x 2000 gph bilge pumps.
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We installed solid bronze thru hulls on each side for the bilge pumps.
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When i last left off, i had just set the front section of the floor in the boat and glued it down. When we glassed the bottom of the middle section, we built a lip on the front and back for the other floor pieces to sit on. Here you can see the lip and 2 4" pvc pipes for rigging, plus a pie plate over the fill/sending unit for the tank.
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We covered the tank with a plastic sheet as to not get epoxy all over it. Here is the middle floor section going down.
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And finally, the 3rd section of floor going down
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What we were left with, was a perimeter around the outside basically a gap. We did this on purpose and we filled the gaps with epoxy/cabosil to totally encapsulate the edges of the plywood. Once we filled all the seams, we ran a piece of cloth tape over all the edges.
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Here's another shot of the tape around all the seams
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Here we go starting the glasswork. We precut all the glass mat and labeled each piece.
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Here are 2 layers all wetted out and drying
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Our first layer of cloth was a 1708 biaxle and folled up with a layer of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat. Once that cured, we hit it with the sander and layed down another layer of 1708 followed by a layer of 1.5 oz chopped strand.
Here's our floor totally glassed in.
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The floor now has 6 layers of glass over 3/4 marine plywood. We did 2 layers on the underside and 4 layers on top. Our glasswork may not be pretty, but it is strong!! I think for the floor alone we used 13 gallons of epoxy resin.
Also - for christmas we bought a brand new custom aluminum I-beam trailer. We got a 7000lb tandem axle trailer with stainless kodiak disk brakes. The trailer should be delivered the first or second week of January. Our next step is to fill all holes on the gunnels, put the boat on the trailer, and then we will have the hull soda blasted. I think we are probably going to paint the hull first because it's easy to tape and control over spray when we paint the interior.
Between the trailer and all the floor materials we have spent alot in a short amount of time. We have all materials left to finish up the glasswork. After that, progress might slow down a bit until it gets warmer. Marine paint is so expensive and i want to be sure we are painting in the right temperature range and not relying on the heat in my dad's shop.
Well - we have turned a major corner and now we have a boat again. The prep and paint work is very tedious and time consuming. We have gotten quotes from Judge and Composite Yachts for them to paint the boat, but i think since we've come this far we want to finish ourselves.
If anyone finds my old thread, please link it and i will add to it and delete this one.
Stay tuned next update should be us putting the boat on her new set of wheels!!!
-Mike
With the forum upgrade, i think my old 23 seacraft thread was deleted. I cannot find it. I will pickup right where i left off. I took the week of christmas off and spent it at my parents house on the eastern shore. The plan was to fish as many days as possible. However, the week started with 24 inches of snow and i knew it wasn't to be. So, i made my way down there anyways and we spent the week working on the seacraft.
The bilge pumps are all pre-wired and the hoses run. In the picture you can see the water witch float switch and 2 x 2000 gph bilge pumps.
We installed solid bronze thru hulls on each side for the bilge pumps.
When i last left off, i had just set the front section of the floor in the boat and glued it down. When we glassed the bottom of the middle section, we built a lip on the front and back for the other floor pieces to sit on. Here you can see the lip and 2 4" pvc pipes for rigging, plus a pie plate over the fill/sending unit for the tank.
We covered the tank with a plastic sheet as to not get epoxy all over it. Here is the middle floor section going down.
And finally, the 3rd section of floor going down
What we were left with, was a perimeter around the outside basically a gap. We did this on purpose and we filled the gaps with epoxy/cabosil to totally encapsulate the edges of the plywood. Once we filled all the seams, we ran a piece of cloth tape over all the edges.
Here's another shot of the tape around all the seams
Here we go starting the glasswork. We precut all the glass mat and labeled each piece.
Here are 2 layers all wetted out and drying
Our first layer of cloth was a 1708 biaxle and folled up with a layer of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat. Once that cured, we hit it with the sander and layed down another layer of 1708 followed by a layer of 1.5 oz chopped strand.
Here's our floor totally glassed in.
The floor now has 6 layers of glass over 3/4 marine plywood. We did 2 layers on the underside and 4 layers on top. Our glasswork may not be pretty, but it is strong!! I think for the floor alone we used 13 gallons of epoxy resin.
Also - for christmas we bought a brand new custom aluminum I-beam trailer. We got a 7000lb tandem axle trailer with stainless kodiak disk brakes. The trailer should be delivered the first or second week of January. Our next step is to fill all holes on the gunnels, put the boat on the trailer, and then we will have the hull soda blasted. I think we are probably going to paint the hull first because it's easy to tape and control over spray when we paint the interior.
Between the trailer and all the floor materials we have spent alot in a short amount of time. We have all materials left to finish up the glasswork. After that, progress might slow down a bit until it gets warmer. Marine paint is so expensive and i want to be sure we are painting in the right temperature range and not relying on the heat in my dad's shop.
Well - we have turned a major corner and now we have a boat again. The prep and paint work is very tedious and time consuming. We have gotten quotes from Judge and Composite Yachts for them to paint the boat, but i think since we've come this far we want to finish ourselves.
If anyone finds my old thread, please link it and i will add to it and delete this one.
Stay tuned next update should be us putting the boat on her new set of wheels!!!
-Mike
