Damo's Sailing Boat and Tow Vehicle

[h4nd]

Am thoroughly enjoying your build, thanks for sharing it. Here, have some, similar themed surrealism for your shed listening pleasure: 

 

[dmulally]

Had a little country music playing today as it flipped. Colter Wall and Charley Crocket etc. 

Feel free to enjoy the song which was playing as she finally tipped over. About as land lubbery as you can get. 

 https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=79SV4479MMc&si=loaWFChOPOkkmZLo

So she is over and I only missed two screws that were still in the jig. I looked inside and there is no way I would have got them out so Ill have to drill out what remains and plug it with epoxy. It'll be all under the glass sheets anyway so not a big deal. 

A couple of pics of how she sat before tipping with the couch acting as a spotter. So much work to do above decks waiting for me. But that can wait for another day. I have a hundred or so hours awaiting me on the hull to plug, fair, trim, fill, glass, sand, paint. That'll be my spring I think. So the target is 1 December to get the underside done. 

 

[Bearded Baldy]

2 hours ago, dmulally said:

... So the target is 1 December to get the underside started. 

 

 

Thats better. No pressure now.

[dmulally]

Got it mounted on a garage dolly today. Put it together with the bones of the jig. I had grand plans of using the wood on the jig for random stuff but mostly it was junk. 

The tabernacle stops the boat from lowering down to a workable height but nothing a step ladder can't solve. 

Best of all it moves around pretty easy so I can chase the light whilst sanding. Of which there is lots of that left to do. 

[dmulally]

Lots of bog with lots more bog left to go. 

 

[dmulally]

Long day toiling on the boat. Got the glass on the hull then did another coat of straight epoxy and then slapped on (literally as it's goop) some epoxy with fairing compound in it. 

Quite a few runs but I'm not too fussed. I started off by tipping it with a brush to smooth it out but after about the 12 hour mark I couldnt give a shit. It all has to be long board sanded anyway. 

Hopefully it has cured by Sunday so I can get up early and get stuck into it. When that is done I'll touch up any air bubbles by cutting them out and putting in thickened epoxy and then when smooth enough I'll seal it with a final coat straight epoxy. Then sand again and onto the skeg before paint. 

 

 

[dmulally]

On 05/09/2025 at 20:11, dmulally said:

Quite a few runs but I'm not too fussed. I started off by tipping it with a brush to smooth it out but after about the 12 hour mark I couldnt give a shit. It all has to be long board sanded anyway. 

YOU FUCKING DUMB CUNT. THIS IS HELL! 

 

[Tiger Tamer]

Could you use a random or belt sander on it now and then use the fairing filler to correct the imperfections. Much easier to block sand.

[dmulally]

1 hour ago, Tiger Tamer said:

Could you use a random or belt sander on it now and then use the fairing filler to correct the imperfections. Much easier to block sand.

It's too curved for the belt sander sadly but I did use it on the bottom panel especially where the skeg goes as that needs to get roughed up. The final coat I put on was with a fairing filler but not the softest one. I mustn't have used enough to dilute the epoxy as it is hard as wood. These are my weapons of choice:

The best one to use is the long board sander but it clogs fairly easily. Really what happens is whichever tool I'm using I look at the other ones longingly thinking that they are better. Spoiler alert: They aren't. 

I might just recoat the thing and do it properly with smoothing it out whilst wet to as to build it up rather than sand it down. I'm trying not to get too stressed though as I have ordered some Altex high build surfacer and 4 liters of the stuff (5l including part B). Sanding that will be like heaven compared to the epoxy. Speaking of I need to start considering the colour choice for the hull. These are the choices I have to choo choo choose from below. 

Pretty excited that I have got this far to even look at colours as I never thought I'd get this far looking at the plans when I got them. When they came in I sent an email back asking where the rest of the instructions were. 

[Tiger Tamer]

The faring filler is quite easy to sand if you mix quite a lot into it but not to be used at that ratio for strength. But we find out these things usually the hard way,lol.

You are doing really well getting it this far along in really quite a short time especially with all your other projects and life to deal with.

Paint colour, I really like the pic of the boat with the white hull and the maroon side plank. Whie or off white hull would show less imperfections as well I suppose.

[keltik]

5 hours ago, dmulally said:

Altex

Used Altex Regatta on the last boat and found it to be ludicrously thin and a challenge to make it stick to anything. 

I don't know if International Toplac is any better.... Just uhh....good luck.

Burgundy hull with brass bits bolted to it.

[dmulally]

1 minute ago, keltik said:

Used Altex Regatta on the last boat and found it to be ludicrously thin and a challenge to make it stick to anything. 

I don't know if International Toplac is any better.... Just uhh....good luck

Is that with the Altex primer and undercoat too? It was either that or Toplac. I used both to see how it would go on my lockers and I couldn't spot the difference. Pretty shit we have such little choice in NZ as other countries have all sorts of custom suppliers. John Welsford says for a trailer sailer just to use exterior house epoxy and crack on. 

I went to the local Resene and the angry Karen behind the counter argued that they don't sell paint suitable for wood that gets wet so I left. I didn't have the energy. 

I should have the body scuffed by close of play tonight. Tomorrow I want to slap some epoxy on it. Might use some 410 fairing filler in the second coat or a light skim with the bog spreader. That stuff is very easy to sand smooth. I'll tip it this time. 

[Nominal]

8 minutes ago, dmulally said:

Is that with the Altex primer and undercoat too? It was either that or Toplac. I used both to see how it would go on my lockers and I couldn't spot the difference. Pretty shit we have such little choice in NZ as other countries have all sorts of custom suppliers. John Welsford says for a trailer sailer just to use exterior house epoxy and crack on. 

I went to the local Resene and the angry Karen behind the counter argued that they don't sell paint suitable for wood that gets wet so I left. I didn't have the energy. 

I should have the body scuffed by close of play tonight. Tomorrow I want to slap some epoxy on it. Might use some 410 fairing filler in the second coat or a light skim with the bog spreader. That stuff is very easy to sand smooth. I'll tip it this time. 

I know it's a different product line, but I used Altex epoxy everseal and the timbercote varnish on the woodie. If I was to ever refinish it I'd try something else as a couple of areas haven't really sealed very well (including doing it twice in some places).

It is carried in some of the resene shops, but they don't know much about it.

Epic work on the boat build though.

[keltik]

13 minutes ago, dmulally said:

Is that with the Altex primer and undercoat too?

I used the Altex primer but I suck at surface prep because I have the patience of a child. So you'll have better results no doubt.

There's a slightly bigger range when you look at commercial suppliers like link-up paints.

[Tiger Tamer]

This is what I used when I painted the inside of my wooden fizz boat recently. An epoxy that they matched to the outside colour it was already painted. 

From complete paints in Napier.

[dmulally]

6 hours ago, Tiger Tamer said:

This is what I used when I painted the inside of my wooden fizz boat recently. An epoxy that they matched to the outside colour it was already painted. 

From complete paints in Napier.

 

Cool cheers. I'll look into it to see if it will stick to another brands primer. 

Just called them and the lady didn't know what marine paint was but asked if I emailed her she would look into it for me. 

[dmulally]

So I decided to stop being lazy and re-coated the entire hull with light fairing compound. The softer stuff though this time and easier to sand than the other fairing compound. When this is all sanded smooth it'll need another coat or two of straight epoxy and then the primer. Adds another week to the project but I'd rather have more epoxy on it than paint to fill in the troughs. 

Goes on like mayonnaise. I did one row of planking at a time then waited for it to run before scooping it off the next plank and then doing the next plank down. Took some time but at least I wasn't doing the whole thing at once which would have been quite boring. I did tip it but found it was so thick it didn't really make much of a difference. 

 

 

As that'll need a couple days to set, that means tomorrow I can start working on the skeg. Really looking forward to working with wood again. 

 

[Tiger Tamer]

1 hour ago, dmulally said:

Cool cheers. I'll look into it to see if it will stick to another brands primer. 

Just called them and the lady didn't know what marine paint was but asked if I emailed her she would look into it for me. 

It was a fairly mixed bag of different surfaces I went over with the primer. From bare wood to probably single pack enamel paint. I never had any bad reaction from the primer and so far all is good but only been on there nearly a year.

They sell a fair bit of other stuff from paint and have quite a few staff, so you need to talk to the correct people. Always been good to deal with I have found.

[dmulally]

Skeg is now on and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There is a bit of final fairing to do but wont be hard with a block plane and belt sander. It has yet to have a metal rubbing strip over the top yet. 

I went to my favourite place to shop which is the recycled timber place in Upper Hutt. 

I just walked around and found whatever felt the heaviest. It's a gumtree of some sort. Great for ballast and being dragged onto rocky beaches. 

Cut it into as many bits as possible to choose from. 

Made up a small jig that is 2mm wider than the centreboard so as to not cockblock myself down the line. You can see it under the clamp there. 

I put on 600g tape on the stern part and 200g on the fore parts. Peel ply on top of it all to help it set properly. 

Next up is to use some 400g cloth on the very bottom. This isn't part of the plans but I know where I'll be mostly using this boat and it's shallow, rocky and has a forest worth of sunken logs just under the surface waiting to fuck up any plywood hulls that get too close. 

 

 

[dmulally]

The double bias cloth sure does like to drink up resin. The edges were already double taped so rather than drape over and create a fairing drama I just did up the skeg side and close to the edge. 

Put tape over the sides to stop it all running off and build it up. Besides the initial base coat to wet the underside of the cloth, it took three more coats before it was fully wet. If I used the 200g cloth it would have taken one coat. Three coats on the 200g would have seen it begin to float.  

Anyway mission accomplished for the weekend and tomorrow restarts the fairing of the hull.