I spent probably 20 hours, give or take, to get to this stage: My hull is no longer a collection of plywood in the back of the shop, it's 3-dimensional!
That's the BullDuck on its side. You can see the side air chambers pretty well; they'll help keep her afloat when/if she tips. Each one is supposed to have 300-some-odd pounds of bouyancy, so you can basically fill the cockpit with water and it'll still float while you bail. The more astute reader will notice that the bow and stern are both flat. This boat was designed to be easy for the first time boat-builder. Which is a Good Thing. I've build many many scale warships (some as big as 6 feet long), but this is a LOT bigger (8 feet is barely more than 6, but this is about 3 feet wider than the models). And hey, I'm going to be out on the water in it! So I want something that I can learn on and make it back in. The small size is a plus, too, because I can throw it in the bed of my pickup for transport.
This is a view of BD, bottoms-up. You can see the curve to the bottom, and the flat stern. Flat stern also good for ease of mounting rudder. The dark line that looks like a massive crack is just a stain or somesuch. I promise. Remember, I'm the one going out in it! Tomorrow, I will be rounding off the edges of the bottom, preparatory to fiberglassing it. I already had some medium 'glass cloth from a previous project, and I have a big gallon jug of West Systems marine epoxy resin. They make big boats out of it, it'll do fine here. The fiberglassing is to help the bottom take some abuse in handling. I will also be hitting the corners with fiberglass tape to seal the edges of the big box store plywood.
Now, I must go back onto the back porch and get domestic. Because my VERY understanding wife would really love it if there are no wood shavings and junk back there. The boat gets to stay, because she likes to come check on me (and the cat) while I work :)
No comments:
Post a Comment