PL Failure

Originally I planned to lay cheap outdoor carpet on the boat deck without fastening or gluing the carpet to the deck. But trailering caused the carpet to twist into a trip hazard nightmare so I decided to glue the carpet down.

After hearing lots of good things about Loctite PL construction adhesive, I decided to try the PL375 for gluing the outdoor carpet to the boat deck. 

I was a little concerned about the warning on the label “Not Recommended For Underwater applications.” I wasn’t sure if that warning meant “don’t don your scuba gear and dive in with your caulk gun and try to glue two submerged pieces together,” or, “after gluing two pieces together in the dry, do not let them get wet.” Either way, it doesn’t sound good for boating.

I checked the other PL products and they all had a similar warning. 

PL 3x and 8x - “Not Recommended For Water submersion applications.” 

PL 200 - “Not Recommended For Underwater applications or permanent water immersion.”

The stuff worked great for most of the summer while we picked only sunny days for boating and the only water inside the boat was a few drops off of our boots during beach launchings. I was impressed that it held while trailering and the swirling wind inside the boat did not break the carpet loose. Then we had our first rainy trip.

The boat hung offshore on the hook for two days in what felt like Georgia rain. Just looking at the boat from shore it was obvious she was becoming a large bird bath. When it was time to leave, I paddled the kayak out and climbed into the boat. In the aft corner where the water ponded up to 4 inches deep, the carpet was floating. The PL not only disbonded from the carpet but it also disbonded from the deck and there were pieces of PL free floating in the puddle. Outside of the puddle the carpet was still bonded to the deck.

Disbonded carpet with pieces of PL375 laying loose

My plan was to remove the carpet at the end of boating season and re-install it next season. When the PL was working fine (in the dry), I was starting to worry that I may not be able to get the carpet out. I wondered if I might have to rip up and destroy the carpet then sand PL off of the deck. 

Well, the warning on the Loctite PL label was honest and now I know that a little water will free the carpet unharmed and float the PL off of the deck. 

Summary

The completed boat BW

A Summary of Building the Boat BW

Having built nine stitch-and-glue boats, I decided to build a tenth and I decided to design my own boat using a one-quarter scale model and computerized drafting.

See Building BW Scale Model for more details

With the design complete, I compiled a list of materials. As far as wood, there are only two types of wood in the BW – Hydrotek BS-1088 meranti plywood and clear pine.

Meranti sheets layed out for matching

Hydrotek BS-1088 stamp

See this blog for more details
Meranti and Moose

The meranti plywood is not stocked locally but the quantities are easily estimated so ordering and shipping went smoothly. The clear pine is available at the local DIY store but finding pieces that are not damaged, have minimal warp and are attractive, is difficult. Instead of buying all of the pine at once, I bought a few sticks at a time so I could be picky and get just the right pieces.

One of the challenges in building the BW was limited shop space. Building an 8-foot x 23-foot boat in a 12-foot by 25-foot space was interesting. I knew that once I stitched the hull together, it would occupy all of the shop space leaving no room to fabricate the rest of the pieces. 

I fabricated the bottom panels, transom, side panels, knees, lifting strakes, spray rails and rubrails in advance. After completing each piece, I hung it from the ceiling to make room for more work. With all the pieces hanging from the ceiling, the shop looked like a scene from a horror movie - a jungle of guillotines.

See Biggens Outta Littlens and
Be Sides for more details

With fabrication of the individual pieces complete, it was time to build a boat. The first step was to build the bottom. When I fabricated the bottom panels, I stitched the keel line together. Now it was just a matter of bringing the ½-inch panels down from the ceiling, spreading them open to the desired deadrise along the length, and taping the keel line.

Taping of the keel

At this point, the shape of the keel line is defined and I can fabricate a keel. Sure, stitch-and-glue boats don’t have a “keel” so to speak. Well, this one does. I built it with 2x6 and 2x10 hemfir lumber, joined together with rabbet joints then cut to match the bottom panel keel profile and deck profile. The final keel piece looks like an Nike swoosh stretched to 20 feet long with a maximum depth of 14 inches.

Keel in place

With the keel in place, I installed bulkheads and additional structural members to create flotation chambers and additional connections between the bottom and deck. The keel and five bulkheads on each side create twelve flotation chambers. 

Bulkheads in place

After flipping, the exterior of the keel is taped and the lifting strakes are installed.

Keel tape and lifting strakes

Next step: install the deck. The deck spans from chine to chine, extending past the bottom panels a few inches to create chine flats and is made from a series of ½-inch meranti, with scarf joints. This boat requires five deck panels, plus a few scraps, to complete the deck which provides the lids for the twelve flotation chambers. I installed one deck panel each day, using temporary clamping screws to hold the panels in place until the epoxy cures. I removed all temporary clamping screws, during the entire build process so that there are no metal fasteners in the boat. 

Installing deck panels

After all of the deck panels were installed, the edges of the deck were trimmed to the final dimension, with a 20° angle to match the side flare.

Trimming deck panels

Now this boat looks like a giant surf board. 

See Another lovely bottom for more details

In order to provide support for the side panels, I installed the transom and some transom knees for extra support of the future outboard motors.

Here comes the fun part. I lowered the side panels down from the ceiling, positioned them and stitched them to the transom and deck. The side panels were pre-drilled for stitching and the stem was stitched before hanging the side panels from the ceiling. Temporary spreaders were installed to get the side panels to their final shape and the interior joints were epoxied and taped with biaxial fiberglass. Typical of stitch-and-glue - after the epoxy cures, remove the stitches.

Twenty-two knees, eleven per side, were epoxy-glued to the inside of the side panels for connection to the future sheer deck. The sheer deck is comprised of a layer of ½-inch ACX plywood covered by a layer of 3/8-inch meranti. The sheer deck was installed proud of the knees and side panels then cut and sanded flush with the knees and side panels.

I installed the inwhale and rubrail with the top edges proud of the deck. The top edges of the inwhale and rubrail were then cut and sanded flush with the sheer deck. The cut edges of the inwhale and rubrail were rounded and covered with fiberglass set in epoxy.

The spray rails were installed and the side panels and the boat was flipped.

Spray rails

Flipping

See Hully Cow for more details

After flipping the boat, the exterior chine joints are epoxied and taped with biaxial fiberglass and the bottom and side panels are completed by painting the bottom and varnishing the side. The bottom cannot be finished bright because the heavy biaxial fiberglass tape at the chines is opaque. The paint extends up the side as needed to cover the biaxial tape and fairing. The rest of the side panel is finished bright with varnish.

Time for another flip

Flipping her back upright

Now the boat can be completed

Rear bench seat

Forward locker

Slop well

For more details see The Last 10%

Build the pilothouse center console, put her on a trailer and install the motors and controls

See Pilothouse Console for details

Launch her and go for a ride!

Same location...

...different build...

...25 years later

Other blogs by Mo 'Poxy

Plans for Building the Boat BW

Building a CLC Chesapeake kayak

The difference between course, heading and bearing

Building the boat Lady C

Building a remote cabin

Building a sea scull

Building the boat Nemah

Drill a Hole in the Bottom of Your Boat

Should you drill a hole in the bottom of your boat to let the water out?

So you are building a wood boat. You have slaved to create a beautiful water-tight hull. The hull is plywood. You coated both sides of the plywood with fiberglass set in epoxy to minimize water intrusion. 

You stitched the plywood together at the joints and coated both sides of the joints with fiberglass set in epoxy to create water-tight joints. 

You have probably cut yourself a time or two and more than one bead of sweat has run down your forehead. You once even forget to add the hardener to a batch of epoxy and the next day, when you saw the uncured mess, you shed a tear. You have given the proverbial blood, sweat and tears, along with lots of money, to create a beautiful water-tight hull.

The next step is to drill the drain hole in the hull. You measure and mark the drain hole location. You put the bit in the drill, position yourself and prepare to drill the drain hole. 

Then you pause.

Something is wrong. You put the drill down and ponder. You are about to drill a hole in your hull - the hull that you gave blood sweat, tears and money to make water-tight. If you drill this hole, your hull will no longer be water-tight.

For some silly reason, you think that you need a drain hole. But it doesn’t feel right - drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. It doesn’t even sound right - drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. A hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out - now that is ironic.

The purpose of your boat’s hull is to keep the water on the outside from getting to the inside. If you drill a hole in the hull, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the hull? To which you answer, “But I am going to put a plug in the drain hole to keep the water on the outside from getting to the inside.” 

That, hopefully, will make your hull water-tight again which is what it is before you drill the hole. Except now, you are about to intentionally introduce a threat to your hull – the hole. 

If you drill the hole, you will then need to mitigate the threat that you intentionally introduced, with a plug. After which you get to spend the rest of your life trying to remember to install the plug and hoping that the plug holds.

Even if you drill a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, the hole will not let all of the water out. There will still be a puddle or two that won’t completely drain. So, should you drill more than one hole? Should you drill five or ten holes?

Before you drill that hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, you might ask yourself, why don’t I simply avoid this the threat in the first place? You realize that by not drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, you will avoid a threat to the hull integrity (the drain hole) and you will not need to rely on mitigation of the threat (the plug).

But there it is again. For some silly reason, you think that you need to drill a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. So you ask yourself, why do I need to drill a hole in the bottom of my boat to let the water out? Well, for one, if you do not drill a hole in the bottom of your boat to let the water out, you will have to deal with water inside the boat. Yes, but don’t tell me that you gave all that blood, sweat, tears and money, to create a hull that cannot get wet!

Surely, a little water inside the boat is not the end of the world. If you built a boat that cannot get wet, then by all means, drill a drain hole. In fact, drill five or ten because one drain hole surely will not drain all of the water. And, do not put that boat in the water because if you do, it will get wet. And a boat that can’t get wet - now that is ironic.

Put 'er in the Water !!

Time to put her in the water !!

On the road for a test float

I was worried that she might not float off of the trailer at this flat beach launch site. I untied her completely and left her unsecured on the trailer. As I was backing her into the water enough to start the motors, she was so anxious to go that she slid quite easily off of the trailer before I was ready. She had no lines securing her and she floated freely on the lake. 

The canola oil that I put on the bunks to make her slide on, worked well to let her slide off.

I was quite surprised and contemplated wading into the 40°F water chest-deep to retrieve her when I remembered what I always tell beginning boaters, "Never go swimming for your boat. The water is too cold and someone will come along in their boat and rescue your boat."

I calmed and realized the breeze would blow her back to me.

I parked the truck and trailer and walked back to the beach. There she was, at the beach.

She launched herself

At our picnic site

Great place for a pcinic

In the February/March 2017 BoatUS magazine

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2017/february/best-boating-photos-of-2017.asp

On our way home after a long day at the office

Her first overnight camping trip...

Launchings Section of Wooden Boat magazine March/April 2017

http://www.woodenboat.com/boat-launchings/bw