Ski Bum Living: Vacuum bagging the hull

One of the reasons the boat build went on hold was due to lack of helpers to pull the hull layup. With weather getting warmer i asked everyone i kew to help spread resin. There was way too much for me to do on my own. Michelle, my roomate steve, and my old roomate billy who is a wood boat nerd came to help glass the hull. It drank a full 3 gallons of resin.

Layup is:

9oz e glass at 45degrees against the foam

5oz poly

17oz biax

5oz poly at 45 degrees

10 oz s glass

17oz biax tape on the chines

This over the side layups which wraps the chines

12oz biax against the foam

5oz poly

9oz e glass

Which is over the the chine tape

5 oz kevlar tape against the foam

12 oz biax tape

Thats over 100 oz of glass on the outside chines. Hoping this will keep the rocks at bay.

I pre tack taped the hull and then ran masked newspaper a few inches above. When i was done with the layup i pulled the paper and had a great clean surface for tacking...no epoxy or glass fibers messing up my seal. My pleats came out good. Getting the hang of it after all these layups. Pump pulled about 21" of mercury...my best bag yet. Thanks to all my helpers. Couldent have done it without you.

My favorite boat building helper

The next day i got right to it. Pulled the peelply to reveal a nice surface. Chine line looks a little rough where the bag squashed att those overlapping layers of glass. I hit the high spots with a longboard, and will fair out the low spots and even the chne tape line so it looks good. Its pretty fat, so ill just make the line look tight rather than trying to fair it all out. Its gonna be the point where paint meets graphite epoxy so it doesnt need to flatten that much. In my exhuberance i never took any pics of the finished surface. That night i got my buddy johnny to come over and we rigged a 3:1 off the cieling and some bow and stern loops and promptly flipped the boat back over. It was surpisingly easy but thats because the hull only weighs about 100 lbs right now. Its stupid light. I know its gonna. Get heavier with decks, but i am really amazed at how easy it is to pick the boat up and move it

This panoramic kinda skewed the perspective, buts hard to get the whole boat in the frame otherwise

Prior to all this i got a jump on the interior by glassing some full size bulkheads 80" wide and 24" tall. This is way bigger than any bulkhead i need, but it allows me to just trim to shape and slot in the boat. It will make the center of the interior come together quickly.

Once the boat was flipped i needed to establish the deck line. I took my jig and marked 1 1/4" down the the sheer to mark the bottom of the gunwale line. I then found the lowest point on the sheer at about 9' on the sheer line. I marked 1 1/2" down from the bottom of gunwale line in that lowest spot the get my deck height. This will give me a bit of space between the decks and gunwale for running anchor rope, and provide space for 1 1/2" pvc tubes for rod holders later in the future. Even though this boat is almost a high side (26" at the locks) with all the flair, the gunwale line isnt much higher than my current boat, and it seems i wont have cavernois hatches. My rowers bulkead will have an 18" tall hatch. Just big enough to squeeze a engel 80 cooler in the hatch with 1/2" height to spare. Only yeti that would fit was a 65 and thats small. Hoping to buy the cooler soon so i can double check the height and clearance. To establish the deck line i made a super ghetto rigged lazer level. $1 from the dollar store. Unfortunatly the camera tripod i intended on using was too tall even in the lowest setting, so i stacked a carboard box with a plywood top and stacked cardboard, wood, and bricks till i had the lazer pointing at my low point deck mark. I aligned the lazer on the center line of the boat length and width wise and pointed heights onto the side panel making sure the level was one. The points didnt come out prefect, but i was able to get my eye on it and sight the flat fair curve. I used a stick to connect the points disregarding clinkers and then faired out the line so it looked good to the eye. I then marked the sheer line every 3 inche. i took the 90 degree corner of a carboard box and measured prependiculaur to the sheer line marking the carboard on the deck line. I then took the cardboard to the other side of the boat and used my marks to scribe the heights every 3 inches and connected the lines. Looks good. I reused my chipboard bulkheads to make a 24 spreader for the bulkheads that will ensure the bulkheads are vertical and that i have a 24" spread in my hatches. It also allow me to easily visualize the 3/4 height of the plascore on the decks. Makes finding heights easy. Ill use this to set all the bulkheads, cutting the bulkheads as i get further twords the skinny ends.

$1 lazer level

Here's some random shots of the hull and curved stem and transom

The curved line you see is actually the flat line of a traditional stem cut. You can see where the 1 1/4" deep arc adds volume to the bow, kick rocker right at the tip, and a slightly taller stem. All good things in my opinion