Portholes

Chris cut out the holes where he wants the portholes and vents and added a wooden ring around them for more strength.

Inside the cuddy cabin:

Here you can also see the box for the steering controls from inside the cabin:

Chris ordered portholes. Can't install until after paint but they look nice.

Chris also cut holes for vents in the floor of the boat to help dry out the space between the deck and the hull in case of moisture. Here is a covered one in the bottom of one of the storage spaces:

 Here is a vent hole in the deck by the bilge. Don't mind the balloon.

Fairing

Fairing is done to make the surfaces of the boat as smooth as possible.  This can be done a few different ways, but Chris likes using this Total Fair Fairing Compound:

He uses a flat drywall-style knife to smooth on the fairing compound, filling in any low spots.  Then he waits for it to dry, sands everything, and fairs some more. Fairing, sanding, fairing, sanding... you get the idea. Months worth of fairing and sanding. You can see where he has been fairing in these pictures because it is green: 

Chris took his time fairing and did a really great job getting the whole boat smooth. It should look great with paint on.

Bilge and Storage

Chris built boxes along the back for storage and batteries. Every piece he adds gets epoxy and fiberglass as well.

Lids to cover the storage boxes getting epoxied: 

 You can see the cutout for the bilge on the bottom of the back underneath where the outboard motor will sit.

Chris built storage boxes for the sides as well.  Here, you can see where the electronics will go underneath the side rails. 

He cut out a lid for the top of the storage boxes and routed a lip onto it to keep water out. 

Seats, Pedestals, and Boat Interior

Chris ordered the boat seats and pedestals- its not time to install them yet, but he needs to measure where they will be in order to design the interior of the boat.

 

 

 

 

Steering Box

Chris added steering boxes to the outside of the cabin to put the steering controls and other electronics into. Here are the control boxes being fiberglassed:

Way later, after the fairing is done, Chris cut the holes for the gauges.

Balloon Trick

There are points on the boat that need drainage holes.  Cutting the holes is the easy part. The hard part is to keep the epoxy on it until it dries- it is very important that the wood is fully encapsulated by the epoxy to avoid any rotting. Chris uses the balloon trick to accomplish this.

Fitst he drills the hole:

Then he covers the raw edges with a thick layer of epoxy and blows up a balloon in the hole to hold the epoxy in place:

The next day, when the epoxy has dried, he pops the balloon and removes the pieces.

Waterproofed! Its a great trick. The extra lip of the dried epoxy will be sanded off .

Here are some more epoxied drainage holes he did the same way:

Motor

Chris shopped around for his motor and chose an Evinrude 135 outboard. He ordered it used from a boating resort that switches out their motors every couple of years so he got a good deal for a great motor. Can't wait to put it on the boat, but there is still work to be done so it is boxed up for now.

  

Roof

Chris wanted a cantilevered roof and looked at lots of boats and pictures to design the shape. He likes the look of the forward pitched windshield and made a mock up to get it exactly how he wanted.

 

 

 

He epoxied and fiberglassed all the pieces. He will cut out the windows later.

To make the rounded roof he epoxied together 4 layers of 1/8" plywood over a jig.  

Then he adds more layers of plywood to form a thicker edge and clamps it until dry.

Windows cut out, edges rounded over, epoxy, fiberglass, sanding sanding sanding.... We have a roof!

Straps hold the roof up while Chris attaches it to the boat with fiberglass and epoxy. 

 Then, more layers of fiberglass are added to make everything strong and hold it all together.  The shape is there!  But there is still a lot of work to do.