Ellie's got mahogany decked seats

This week I got the glued decking laid on the seat tops.

For the most part, I followed Barrett's article Glued Decking with Beveled Edging Boards published on Duckworks, with some exceptions.

Instead of using ipe or teak, I used mahogany. I don't like working with ipe.  It's extremely hard, very difficult to cut, it sometimes splinters and splits for no reason, it dulls tools in short order, it's very heavy (so dense in fact that it sinks in water) and you have to wear a respirator when cutting it because the sawdust is toxic. Teak is the best choice for this application, but teak is expensive.  Of all the woods that I have available to me, mahogany is my favorite.  It's not too expensive, it's a joy to work with.  Usually just the right density - not too hard or soft. Of course it varnishes beautifully and oils very nicely. Epoxy and paint sticks to it like mad.  Granted, mahogany is not quite as oily as teak, and it's not quite as hard. Without protection, it may not withstand the abuse and neglect that unprotected teak decks normally endure.  But yearly application of teak oil will provide plenty of  protection, especially for a daysailer that will be garaged.  And oiled mahogany looks good....real good.

About two years ago I scored an entire truckload of mahogany for free. A guy in Seattle was performing a major remodel of an old home. He had removed all the wood trim from around the windows and doors, which had been painted over, and was giving the pile away for free as firewood.  He said he didn't know what kind of wood it was, but it looked like it might be mahogany.  It was.  After I got the pile home I scraped off the paint and a good friend of mine ran the entire lot through his thickness planer.  The end result was hundreds of dollars worth of beautifully clear boards with nothing but a few nail holes to fill.

Most of this mahogany has now become a part of Ellie.

One man's firewood is another man's yacht.

Installing the decking

It made sense to me to begin by installing the perimeter of the decking, then fit the interior to it. So I began with the area around the footwell, proceeded forward along the centerboard case, then around the outside edges.

From there I started laying planks from the sides of the footwell outboard. As I resawed the boards in half I  would lay one strip port and the other starboard to keep the grain colors and plank lengths symmetrical.

Here I am using Soda Clamps to hold down the planks. These are inexpensive Soda Clamps made by Shasta, but I find they work every bit as well as the name brand clamps made by Coke and Pepsi, but at a fraction of the price.

The front seat, rear seat, and sections along the centerboard case were easy because all the planks were the the same length.  It's true what they say.  You never have enough clamps. When I ran out of soda clamps I had to resort to using paint cans.

Another deviation from Barrett's guide.
She laid her entire deck down using nylon spacers and then glued it down with sikaflex.
I epoxied my deck down a few planks at a time. I found that two Popsicle sticks gave me just the right gap.  I would cut a few planks and lay them in place using the spacers, then remove them, brush epoxy on the plywood underlayment and the underside of the planks, set them back in place, clamp them with soda clamps and finally remove the spacers and allow the epoxy to cure.

The seats will eventually be oiled with Daly's Seafin teak oil.  The hatch covers have already been oiled.  Now that the deck is laid, the next step is to sand it all flat and fill all the gaps with black Sikaflex.  That will be the subject of my next blog post.

Until then, here are some more photos of the progress to date.

Interior Paint

Not much to report this time.  Just lots and lots of interior painting.

It takes me between 4 and 5 hours to put on one coat of paint.  Each coat requires 48 hours to dry before the next coat can be applied.   Can't really do much else with wet paint lying around so it gets to be somewhat of a grind.

First coat - blech!

But after 4 more coats it's looking much better.

Next, on the agenda, laid decking for the seat tops.

Decking

Before we begin, it's time to play "Guess the mystery object" (answer below)

 
While you're pondering that, I'll go on about decking

This weekend I got the decks rough cut to size.  It felt really good to be making sawdust again, after all that time off painting the hull!

Fitting the deck is exactly the same process as fitting planks.  After beveling the gunwale and cockpit stringers, I fit an oversized piece of plywood on the boat, clamped it in place, and traced the outline leaving a bit of excess all around.

The panel was then cut to the line on the bandsaw

And then test fit back onto the boat.

After confirming the fit, the port side panel was traced to make the starboard side panel.  Both panels were then screwed in place. All the screw holes need to be properly countersunk and ready to go for when the panels are ready to glue in place.

The same procedure was then repeated for the aft half of the deck.

Oversized panels placed and traced

Then cut

And screwed in place

Finally, all four panels were removed and set aside for later.  They will be installed after the anchor well, storage locker, and interior are painted.


And now, back to our game.

What is the mystery object?

It's what's left of a screw that went through the gunwale stringer and the stem a little too high, and then lost a battle with a belt sander.

Ellie's got wheels

I bought Ellie a new trailer this weekend. A local boat shop had several left over trailers from a recent boat show that were on sale for $100 off.

The trailer came in handy as I needed move Ellie out to the driveway so I could make the King Plank and test fit the main mast.  The main mast has to go through a mast partner in the King plank, through a hole in the seat and down into the mast step. Locating the mast step and the mast partner in the King Plank are no problem - getting the hole in the seat to line up with them is the tricky part. I had done some careful calculations earlier and it paid off as everything aligned perfectly (whew!).

I have named my Navigator "Ellie" after the young, brave, assertive, energetic tomboy in the Pixar animated movie "Up".

"Up" is one of my favorite movies.  In it, young Ellie dreams of being a great explorer. She wants to travel to South America (it's like America, but SOUTH!),  live at Paradise Falls and chronicle her adventures in her Adventure Book.  Click here to watch a video clip of Ellie.  Adventure is out there!  I love it!

This weekend I also installed the anchor well floor and the cockpit stringers

I couldn't resist hanging the rudder and tiller on, just to see how they look.  My stand is too low to get the rudder all the way down, but I like the way the transom, rudder head and rudder turned out.  I made the rudder and tiller about a year ago, long before the hull was assembled. At that time I had to guess as to the shape of the tiller, and unfortulately I was way off. I put way too much curve into it and the tiller handle is way too high. It's destined for the scrap bin and I'll have to make a new one.

All in all, a very productive weekend!
Cheers.

Download my How-to guide to make "Lovely Wooden Blocks"

Plans and instruction on how to build your own "Lovely Wooden Blocks".

Click here to download the guide.

  Enjoy!

Rollover

I sometimes wonder how many people dream of building a boat, but never realize their dream because they are intimidated by various aspects of the project.  They may wonder if they will be able to acquire the necessary skills.  Or they may wonder if they have the perseverance to see the project through, or perhaps worry that the costs might escalate out of control.

I would venture to say that everyone has these doubts.  I certainly have.  But one of the many lessons I have learned is that boatbuilding is simply a series of small jobs, and each of these jobs is usually easier to accomplish than you think.  In fact most of them leave you wondering why you even fretted in the first place.

For example, let's consider the job of rolling a Navigator over.  This is one of those jobs that really intimidated me.  How many people would I need?  Four?  Six?  More? Do I need blocks and tackle? Should I build some sort of rolling cage?  What if we drop the boat?  Would someome get injured?

Let's find out...

Hull Paint

The best way to finish a boat is to apply as many coats of paint as you can afford.  So far I have applied close to a half gallon of paint to the hull (5 coats).  I'm going to keep applying paint until I run out. That should be about 12 coats at this rate. That should suffice.

Religion, politics, and boat paint are the top three most controversial subjects in the known universe.  I spent months reading what everyone had to say on the subject. There are a dizzying array of paints available, all with their own sets of pro's and con's.  Every type of paint has its proponents and critics. In the end, I decided to go with Porch and Floor enamel. Porch and Floor enamel is the one paint that most people seem to agree, (more or less),  is a perfectly fine paint to use on a boat.

On my last build I used Interlux Brightside.  Brightside is terrific paint.  I was very pleased with the results. It goes on smooth, levels very nicely, covers well, dries hard, but it's somewhat expensive.

I read numerous times that Porch and Floor enamel is essentially the same thing as Brightside at a fraction of the cost.  John Welsford also recommends alkyd (oil-based) enamel paints.  So I decided to give it a go. Remember, the best way to finish a boat is to apply as many coats of paint as you can afford.

Interlux Brightside paint is a polyurethane alkyd enamel that costs about $110/gal at the local West Marine.

Ace Porch & Floor paint is a polyurethane alkyd enamel that costs $27/gal at the local Ace Hardware.

After using both, I honestly can't tell the difference.