Hatch mold

Quick update. Molded the first hatch skin. Came out ok. Had some air bubbles at the bottom of the lam. Any that are flexy will get ground and filled. I think the way i let a cabosil thickened coat kick and came over the top later contributed to this. Prob that and the fast hardenenr. Ill be more patient and wait for slow this next time. Ill get some paste wax too. I had to take two sides off the mold until i could get enough purchase on the skin to break it from the mold. Well see if wax helps it release. If not, my modulaur mold worked as planned. Results of the first one are pretty good. A little work and it should clean up well. This peice will most likely become the removable rear passenger footwell cover, and ill try and do a better job making the one for the front hatch lid. Then one more big skin  for the rear drybox and i can cut the mold smaller and make molds for the side box tops and the front and rear bulkhead boxes.

Bottom hatch lid skin in the mold and in the vac bag.

The form looks pretty good. Ill try form better next time but this is usable with a little work.

Still not really sure this is better than tacking strips of wood on the edge but well see. Pretty commited to the process at this point.

I also got my engel deep blue 80 cooler. With a bit of creative engineering i should be able to fit this in the rowers drybox. Looks well built and supposedly holds ice a really long time. I hope so considering it costs about 4x what an igloo or coleman does

Slow progress

Been working like crazy but still have managed to get a few things done on the boat

Side gutters with top molds in the bag

U can see how i bent the hard corners. These are part of a gutter an hatch rim landing seal and will get extra pieces tacked on the side and fillets and more glass

Rowers footwell vertical support filleted and taped

Some bulkheads are filleted and taped to hold the shape.

Some plywood i thought was marine grade but has voids.

I experimented with some tounge joints for hatch lid trim but didnt like the wood i had, so i decided to go all glass with the hatch lids.

Deck plates in the bag

Foam in the bag to make pieces for gluing coamings

Hatches and coaming mocked up in place

Mold for the big hatch lid. Melamine with 2x4 edges to define the bottom of the hatch lid and rim. Covered in packing tape. 

 

Molds need filleted edges to release cleanly so i tried playdough

It actually came out good. So good i could see imprints from my fingerprints in the finished fillet. However the playdough is hard to spread and move  Due to its consistency. I better better playdough would work better than my doller store stuff, but i went and found some oil based modeling clay at the center for the arts. This stuff smears nice and makes nice tight fillets.

Middle fork

Just got off the middle fork of the salmon. This was my second trip down, both at high water. Level was 6.8 ft when we launched and slowly dropped to just below 6 ft by the time we got off. It was myself and Johnny although we met up with our friend Jo and a couple of her friends who were also doing a self support. Great fun, high water, hotsprings and camping. I love coming preseason when the river is running fast and cold. Nary a gaper in sight and we only saw a few parties the whole time. Current is cooking at this level so it is easy to make miles. We did 43 on our biggest day.

En route

Sweet old school Idaho rig in Stanley 

I made this sweet breakdown firepan for the trip. It's 1/8" aluminum with steel baking sheets on the bottom. 12x15 with 3" sides

Johnny at Marsh Creek Putin

Boundary creek after a successful descent of Marsh Creek

Joe bump camp

Hiking to sheepeater hotsprings

Sheepeater hotsprings

Evening hike back to camp

Late night campfire loungin

Sunflower hot springs

Loon creek

Wollard wall camp

Waterfalls creek

We stopped at the big creek confluence, ditched our gear, and proceeded to hike 4 miles up the canyon to paddle this seldom run whitewater gem. It was a brutal hike but the whitewater was worth it. This creek is hundreds of miles from anything and the only other way in is to fly up to an airstrip up the canyon. Being skids we opted for the free albeit it painful shuttle up the creek. Amazing fast paced iv+ creeking. We ran loon creek gorge last trip and I have to say this run was every bit as sweet. Gotta love side creekin. Still have a few more I wanna check out next trip like the bottom mile of class v on camas cr, and the rapid river. Tributaries in the middle of nowhere are fun!

Otter bar camp was pretty washed out but our original camp upstream was a flooded sloping cobble bar with tons of poison ivy and only one tent site. We snagged this little beach to make our last camp

Amazing fun! Can't wait to go back. High water in Idaho has become a yearly ritual for Johnny and I and it's great to crash thru huge waves with good friends