Building a Skerry

Booooriiiing!!!

• Day: Who knows, I lost count
• Total Build Time: Don't know, don't care. See above

I really hate fiberglass and epoxy. What was I thinking building a "wooden boat" that is fully covered in the stuff then? And I was only halfway there or less. Hey, it's only been a year! Give me a break! 

Of course, I actually did have a reasonable excuse. I had shoulder surgery February 7th, and the recovery was just as long as everyone had warned me about. But, I was finally feeling good enough to get back in there and get to work. It was time to sheath the interior in fiberglass and coat it in epoxy.

Sheets of fiberglass are cut to rough size and placed in the boat

Excess will be trimmed off once the epoxy has been wet out and cured slightly

The first fill coat goes over the fiberglass

It's important to try to get as much extra epoxy out of the weave as possible

Here the epoxy has started to cure...

...allowing me to trim off the excess fiberglass.

Once the fill coat of epoxy had cured overnight, I was able to return the next day and roll a coat of epoxy over all the interior surfaces, as well as the gunnels. Because the sides of the boat are so steep, trying to chase down runs was a constant battle. In the end it didn't really matter, the epoxy ran and glopped and in general made a mess. There was nothing for it...it was time to sand.

This is not the face of someone who loves sanding

At this point, the boat is about as ugly as it can get

The sanded epoxy looks chalky and hazy white

The bow and stern are covered by seats making watertight compartments so no sanding is necessary there. 

I found that for the interior my palm sander did a better job than my Festool random orbital

Sanding outside while I still had decent weather

For the final fill coat of epoxy, I decided to hoist the boat up and create a flatter area in the hopes the epoxy would run less. This meant doing it in three stages, but if it makes a better surface I don't mind the extra time.

My method for connecting a strap to the side of the boat

And the resulting finish is going to be much better!

Once the final coat of epoxy cures I can start working on the interior components and start making this into more of a functional boat! I will be so glad to move past this incredibly boring part of the build and on to more interesting things than sanding, and sanding, and sanding...and sanding....and.....sanding......

-Update as of September, 2019- I sold the Skerry as it was at this point. The Seattle housing insanity of 2018 and a landlord who jacked our rent $700 in 4 months meant we had to move, and I had nowhere to finish the boat. The person I sold it to offered to sell it back a few months ago, but was asking too much, so I let it go. Very disappointing not finishing it, but as future blog posts will show, it all worked out for the best. I would much rather sail boats then build them. I had also sold the Duckpunt, but when the person who bought that one offered to sell it back to me...I bought it back!