Wood replacement questions

[sclapsaddle]

https://www.grainger.com/product/BULLARD-Bib-Hood-6AT82
Helmar,
The fresh air hood I've been using for 20 yrs is discontinued, but the one above is similar. I couldn't easily find the headband air line assembly, it does list the parts individually in the description. The steps in the posted pictures make more since now, I've seen those pictures on here and liked what you did, that may givee some ideas. Thanks i look forward to seeing Kelly's version.

[Kelly]

I'm doing something similar to Helmar's idea... just modifying it for my personal touch. My son actually came up with the idea and I'm in the mock-up stage now. Looking good sofar..

[Helmar]

The fresh air hood I have always used is a Grainger unit. It has a plasic head strap with a plastic hose that supplies air, a replaceable hood covering and when painting replaceable tearoffs like dirtbike googles. It also helps with the dirty googles as soon as grinding begins, I would highly recommend one again if your planning more nasty grinding jobs.

Ya more horse power is usually better, I agree. Except in this boat I know no matter what I put on it it is only going to so fast, and that is not the point of the boat for me, however I do want enough power to get myself out of most situations I may find myself if need be and cruise at lower power levels for fuel and longevity purposes.

Good idea on the fuel gauge, less room required with a switch.

I am curious about the techniques for boarding and unboarding these boats, if you happen to have a picture I would be intersted in what the throw cushion in use looks like. A Dock doesn't seem so bad but dealing with boarding on a beach seems difficult to me.

Stephen

I would be interested in the model number of that Grainger unit. I am not done with the glass work yet. I still have at least two of my own boats I want to try and finish. I might be able afford one of those units. I know the 3M one was out of my price range.

One of the things with the motor we used to come up with Way Back When, same times we came up with the NMB which I always got confused with meaning Need More Boats other than it was supposed to be the 12 step program for No More Boats . Also same time we came up with people that had property and would come up with what we called Park-n-hides for stashing them until the good wife was in the right mood. We used the excuse my best friend keeps breaking down and I need the extra power for towing them

Here is what I came up with for boarding steps that works well, someone could design off of this. Pics attached.
These are unfinished of course and they would support me jumping up and down on them at 200lbs.. The idea behind this was my customer was afraid with replaced hips, he might end up over board. Make his way to the rear of the boat were a fold up ladder on the starboard side (could be port but the kicker motor was on the port side), fold the ladder down, using the motor and step get up and unlatch the engine hatch cover (spring gas shocks would take them up out of the way), release the two twist locks and the splashwell door drops down and he crawls his wet butt in..

Normally once you come out of the boat, you put the step down so its ready for the next time to board.
There is a little hidden oak slider with a notch in it that once the step goes down, slide the knee out and it drops into the notch to hold it in place. The top of the step was two pieces of 1/2" Mahogany paneling that was epoxies together and screws on the bottom side hidden with filler to help keep them together, always.

If underway, fold them up for more cockpit room, down and throw a coast guard approved cushion on them to set on..

You can also see the holes I put in for the fenders and whatever to go into as it blocked off how much water was able go over the transom into the splashwell. Batteries and fuel went forward to help balance out the boat and not have to work the engine (fuel economy) as hard keeping her up on plain.

I never had a chance to test this one but did up another one close to this design and it worked well. So always tried to move that extra weight as close the cabin bulkhead (or balance point) as I could.

[sclapsaddle]

The fresh air hood I have always used is a Grainger unit. It has a plasic head strap with a plastic hose that supplies air, a replaceable hood covering and when painting replaceable tearoffs like dirtbike googles. It also helps with the dirty googles as soon as grinding begins, I would highly recommend one again if your planning more nasty grinding jobs.

Ya more horse power is usually better, I agree. Except in this boat I know no matter what I put on it it is only going to so fast, and that is not the point of the boat for me, however I do want enough power to get myself out of most situations I may find myself if need be and cruise at lower power levels for fuel and longevity purposes.

Good idea on the fuel gauge, less room required with a switch.

I am curious about the techniques for boarding and unboarding these boats, if you happen to have a picture I would be intersted in what the throw cushion in use looks like. A Dock doesn't seem so bad but dealing with boarding on a beach seems difficult to me.

Stephen

[Helmar]

Thank Kelly. Us I don't usually get anything done during the week, I'm tired by that time and after dinner it's about bed time. I hope your able to make some progress on your latest project also.

You know now how long it takes for the finish work, glad your doing it and not me I will have to go check out progress pictures

[Helmar]

Thanks Helmar! I've gone through almost a gallon of the fiberfill. I didn't use it on the gas tank boxes, just left a small gap with popsicle sticks and tabbed the three pieces to the hull and floor then removed the spacers. That's what I've been using to make the pattern, I'm on my second large box of the popsicle sticks and lots of hot glue.
I think with practice the Windows could be made very well, but I didn't want to spend the time or money practicing. I'm not sure how strong they are with a big wave hitting them, I used 1/8" probably should be a bit thicker.
My ideal plan for an outboard is either an Evinrude 90 or 115. Those two units are where they switch from 3 cyl to a heavier 4 cyl, not sure if the extra 25 hp is worth the weight or possible price difference, the evenrudes are the lightest I've found. I'm open to more input on power, allthough I'm sure it's a lot like the makes of truck as to what's better, opinions.
When I do fiberglass work at work and when I did the boat I wear a disposable hooded tyvex suit and an old fresh air hood with supplied air. It is almost pleasant and I get very little glass on me with the positive air pressure. I have an old diving compressor for home that I use, so it is breathable air.

The gas tank boxes I do plan to make some cushions for extra seating. Thanks for the coast guard regs I've found them online.
Thanks for the feed back!

Can't use too many popsicle sticks to nail the pattern down. Saves Many many trips in and out of the boat too. Always can take a tad bit more Off but hell to put it back on. Good Job that !!!

I may have mis quoted, anything over about 30mph they become unstable on the water. Some of the smaller boats with the V8's, like the Skimasters were really wild on the water. Scary in fact. You can have all the power you want to get you up and out of the water but like most of is its in our heads, No such thing as Too Much Power . That goes with guns, cars, trucks too

Something I never did replace when I left Island Boat Shop was that hooded air system from 3M. Also never stepped up to the plate for the Festool system. Pretty all my stuff is porter cable and all I did was hook up one of those power tool switches to my Ridged shop vac so sanding, most of it got sucked into the Vacuum.

What hood system are you using ?? I am still taking on jobs and use the bunny suits but the mask I have is just the one you mash on your face which in heavy fiberglass dust, clogs up way to fast. I go though enough filters I should just upgrade to the forced air one.

Every once in a while you will get the coast guard with a wild hair to view the tanks so yeah got to have them to were you can open them up. Plus if you have fuel gauge senders, those only last a coupe of years now. I will normally put those on a triple pole, triple throw switch mounted horizontal. Double throw double pole works, left for port tank, right for starboard tank. I have electric powered trim boards on my 59 Skagit and due to how much all that Oak cabinet work they did in it she is heavy and those trims work real well for me. That is because she is a old I/0 that you can't trim the outdrive up and down other than a pin.
I remember on one of the bigger boats I installed that automatic trim system with the gyro in it. Move to the port or starboard and it automatically trimmed for that.

The little design I came up with for boarding and seating, you just pitch a Coast Guard throw cushion on them and its a done deal. Once boarded and fishing, crabbing or just don't want them down, folds up out of the way. Seems as that was something the factory never put into the designs back then. Boarding step, stool or even storage for the most part.. I see you designed yours for stowing gear which was a good idea on your part

Looking good !!!!
Helmar

[sclapsaddle]

Thank Kelly. Us I don't usually get anything done during the week, I'm tired by that time and after dinner it's about bed time. I hope your able to make some progress on your latest project also.

[Kelly]

Nice work man! It's definitely time consuming when it's not your full time job. By the time my 2nd wind kicks in to work on the boat my day is nearly over and momentum plummets.
I'm just glad to see this one get a second life.

[sclapsaddle]

Thanks Helmar! I've gone through almost a gallon of the fiberfill. I didn't use it on the gas tank boxes, just left a small gap with popsicle sticks and tabbed the three pieces to the hull and floor then removed the spacers. That's what I've been using to make the pattern, I'm on my second large box of the popsicle sticks and lots of hot glue.
I think with practice the Windows could be made very well, but I didn't want to spend the time or money practicing. I'm not sure how strong they are with a big wave hitting them, I used 1/8" probably should be a bit thicker.
My ideal plan for an outboard is either an Evinrude 90 or 115. Those two units are where they switch from 3 cyl to a heavier 4 cyl, not sure if the extra 25 hp is worth the weight or possible price difference, the evenrudes are the lightest I've found. I'm open to more input on power, allthough I'm sure it's a lot like the makes of truck as to what's better, opinions.
When I do fiberglass work at work and when I did the boat I wear a disposable hooded tyvex suit and an old fresh air hood with supplied air. It is almost pleasant and I get very little glass on me with the positive air pressure. I have an old diving compressor for home that I use, so it is breathable air.

The gas tank boxes I do plan to make some cushions for extra seating. Thanks for the coast guard regs I've found them online.
Thanks for the feed back!

[Helmar]

Looking good for sure !!!. I like the tank covers, throw down some life throw cushions and extra place to set someone down too The inside of the cabin sure looks nice too.
Things I have learned is the Epoxy resin does not stick worth a darn to the fiberglass or resins so that is why the fiber filler for voids, but didn't see any in your pictures.
When it comes to making patterns, I can sure go though the Popsicle sticks and glue. Little tricky when you have to conform to the bow curves, but you nailed that too.

Its always wise to Wow the coast guard guys as they get a wild hair and will dig deep. I have even heard them wining about the wiring code colors but most tend to skip over that.
I think I still have the current coast guard code if you don't already have it. When your running a Outboard most of that is wired factory so not much they can say about those.

Windows, yes, a pain for sure. John Nelson and I were able to make up some out of I think 3/16ths using a couple of propane shop heaters. Held them over the plastic and watched it lay down but the all looks good until things start cooling down. We totally failed with 1/4" as trying to get it a even temp was just not working, but again, the 3/16ths turned out totally acceptable, maybe not show quality but darn close. We even tried the propane heaters on both sides of the 1/4 inch plex but the cooling off part killed us. Some cooled faster than other parts and it just buckled up and well, was not acceptable for the boat I am working on.
One thing I was hoping for is if we ever did come up with a fiberglass mold for the cabin and helms, the club would own them and we just passed them around to whatever shop that was willing to take on the window jobs.
The Lexan stuff is just too weak and if you were to take one over the bow like I did coming out and around Whidbey island heading back up Port Townsend, it would have punched them in and that would have been the end of things. As it was, it almost knocked out my helm glass window.

I think most of the Skagit molds would take either the rubber or aluminum frames were as this bigger boat (21 Bell Boy) I had to do a bunch of dremel and router work so fiberglass was Everywhere. That dust even got into my bunny suit and plugged my full face mask filters way to fast.. So, yeah, not fond of the window part at all and glad you got yours in and acceptable.

I didn't go back though the thread to see what power you were going to use. Pretty much anything over 115 is a waste of money. That hull was not designed to go much faster than around 30 or she will start bouncing all over the place.
Mine has that B-18 Volvo in it with dual weber carbs and with all that Oak they used it it for the cabinets making her heavy to start with, loaded and two of us in it she would do 28mph at 3K rpms.

Anyway, blab blab blab, she is looking Great !!!!

[sclapsaddle]

Its been a year since I posted anything on here!! Summer time is slow to not existent work on the boat, 2-3 months of decent weather is not being spent working on the boat, usually. I managed to get quite a lot accomplished over the winter. It just keeps going and going.

The cabin is a similar layout to how it was, except I made storage compartments with latching lids. I painted it with Petit's cabin coat odd white. Where the toilet used to be I made lifting lid so I can put a small cassette toilet in there if I decide to. The front bow compartment is a built-in insulated cooler that will fit 2 wine bottles for my wife.

On the inside of the roof I ended up filling in the depressions between the structural ribs with 1" foam and then glued Hull-liner material to that. I made the door and door frame from Mahogany deck boards I found at crosscut hard woods here in Seattle. I made a small mock portal window out of 1/8" brass sheet and tinted acrylic.

Gas tanks were an issue, I didn't want to go through the expense of aluminum tanks, so ended up with Moeller plastic tanks. Trying to incorporate them in to the boat with out them being visible this is what I came up with. The front section under the front seat pedestals are storage compartments with latching doors same as in the cabin except on the side of the compartments. Above the boxes there are 2 small compartments that will have fold down doors on each side. After ready the coast guard regs on gas tanks, I decided I needed easy access to the fuel fittings/connectors for inspection and maintenance. The tops of the boxes will be able to be taken off and gas tanks removed in the future if required. After all this the regs require venting of the boxes due to the permeability of the tanks, so that will be one of the next things to do. Luckily only passive venting and not power. I am going to continue the plywood down the side to the rear bulkhead with a few more storage compartments, eventually build and install a rear bench seat.

I ended up making the windows out of 1/8" tinted Acrylic formed with a heat gun. Its not perfect but satisfactory for me for now. Making molds and having them made is more then I want to deal with at this point.

Moving forward slowly. I hope all is well out there! Stephen

[sclapsaddle]

John, yes we are planning to attend the show in La Conner.
Helmar, Bruce's boat is looking good and thanks for the info.

I've been making some slow progress, a little work here and there and its starting to look like a boat again. I tabbed the rear bulkhead in, made the splash well epoxied the wood blocks to the transom and the bulkhead with screws, then epoxied the plywood to the blocks with screws. its a bit more structure then what I cut apart but I was trying to tie it all together as securely as possible. I then layed up two layers of 1708 and one layer of cloth in the splash well and to the sides of the boat. I had some left over industrial polyurethane enamel from work that is a close grey color that seemed to be used originally. This stuff is super durable I use it for all chassis and suspension components at work.
Then I installed the cabin wall, epoxied and screwed the backing board to the lower section and the cabin wall. I ended up tabbing the upper cabin wall in exclusively with epoxy resin due to the amount of stress I feel that wall undergoes during rough water. The lower section I used polyester resin and the rear bulk head was epoxy on the front side and polyester resin on the splash well side. Floor is next!

[John Nelson]

Yes thanks, I don't want to reinvent the wheel here just do what works and use others advise. Pictures this afternoon.

Are you going to the La Conner show?

[Helmar]

Helmar- great info on the process so far.
The pvc layout is similar to other posts I'd seen and someone in the past had drilled the top of the tubing in a few places (maybe 5) from fore to aft so that if there's a buildup of water in the foam it could collect that, and by not drilling the sides or bottom still allows water to travel aft without re-introduction back into the foam.
Are there athwart ships holes through the stringers to direct water to the center channel ? Don't remember if anyones mentioned that. The deck surface has two holes near the aft to take water off and direct it to the bilge, but they're forward of the aft bulkhead. In your de-construction, did you find holes just forward of the aft transom bulkhead sideways through the stringers ?
All in all, the work on the hull and tubing looks sharp. Always love seeing those beefy fiberglass stringers that the Skagit factory made. They were forerunners in fiberglass technology.
Thanks for the pics and info !

Hi Bruce
We had a foam job blow the floor up and had to do the tare down and that is a job I Never Never want to do again. Not enough expansion holes were drilled in the floor.
We found that 2" holes every 16 to 18 inches apart seem to work best as if you pored in too much it would blow though the hole.
Not sure if I have pictures of some of the, Too much foam in the hole, jobs but it would come up out of the holes quite fast and make a big mess.
After doing several, you kind of get a knack for it. Poor a little less then you think and wait for it to stop expanding. Takes longer but with the bow up in the air as much as possible you are pretty much rest assured that you will have no voids to collect moisture.

The floor we blew up and had to take back out like I said, was a nightmare. We used the Fiberlay closed cell Adhesive flotation foam and because the hull was cleaned of any oil's and dirt, it was stuck to Everything. We had to cut the floor in 1 to two inch strips to get it to let go of the foam. We started to dig it out but found it was almost impossible. We just used the sanders and I had setup the laser to bring the foam back down to a new floor could go back on. We only had a few chunks missing that had to be filled but I we knocked the foam down enough to cause a void between the floor and old foam so we did the process again filling the voids and making sure it was stuck to the floor again.

I did play with that Fiberlay stuff and have a pot here that I had 8oz, Eight Ounces! that I had left in the pot.
I also had some blow's that I had floating around in the shops rain barrel for about 3 years and soaked up, No moisture. So, I am sold on there product.

Next to the hull between the frames, I will make a box out of 1/2 inch plywood that is adjustable or a adjustable mold. Then use to pour any excess into it for floating on the sides of the hulls. You can also just board up between the frames and pour in up to whatever level you want. Of course having foam on the sides will help not let the boat do what I hear is called Turtling or rolling over if for some reason to get a big one over the sides of the boat.

I did see the slots on the bottoms of the fiberglass stringers to allow any water to works it way to the keel stringer on all that I have been into. It must of been a common practice for them.

[bruceb]

Helmar- great info on the process so far.
The pvc layout is similar to other posts I'd seen and someone in the past had drilled the top of the tubing in a few places (maybe 5) from fore to aft so that if there's a buildup of water in the foam it could collect that, and by not drilling the sides or bottom still allows water to travel aft without re-introduction back into the foam.
Are there athwart ships holes through the stringers to direct water to the center channel ? Don't remember if anyones mentioned that. The deck surface has two holes near the aft to take water off and direct it to the bilge, but they're forward of the aft bulkhead. In your de-construction, did you find holes just forward of the aft transom bulkhead sideways through the stringers ?
All in all, the work on the hull and tubing looks sharp. Always love seeing those beefy fiberglass stringers that the Skagit factory made. They were forerunners in fiberglass technology.
Thanks for the pics and info !