New build 28

[Sunset]

2

[Travelnik]

Lookin' good!  ;)

She's going to be really beautiful when you finish!  :)

[CharlieJ]

Looking really really smooth. Glad I could be of help.

That Bi-Ax looks like tough stuff.

[Cruiser2B]

Nice progress, looking forward to seeing her right side up!

[Sunset]

Got a pattern for the keel lamination's done, so we will start laying up the keel this week end. The keel is 101 inch's long at bottom of the hull and about 18 inch's shorter at the foot. Also 9 1/2 inch's thick at the widest point.
My brother stays on me about making her a center-boarder. But I want to do a lot of off shore sailing and just don't feel like the four foot draft is unreasonable. Heck his trawler draws only a few inch's less than that.
Anyway we will be laminating the keel now, then on to the rudder skeg.

[Cruiser2B]

look forward to see the pictures...as always!

[Captain Smollett]

My brother stays on me about making her a center-boarder. But I want to do a lot of off shore sailing

A centerboarder can sail offshore.  Certain precautions apply, but it can work.  Too, it does depend on what you mean by "offshore."  Crossing or coast hopping?  One or two days "out" vs weeks/over a month?

and just don't feel like the four foot draft is unreasonable. Heck his trawler draws only a few inch's less than that.

Four feet of draft is nothing compared to the lion's share of sail boats sailing "offshore." The amount amount of keel needed is ultimately up to the designer.

Even if it's CB, it will have to be four feet or more, so I guess I don't understand your bro's reasoning here.  Maybe he means that you can have the CB up while motoring?  Do you plan to do a lot of pure motoring?  With the board up?

Our 18 foot trailer boat has a centerboard.  We almost always have it down.  The boat is a little less tippy with the board down and definitely tracks better.  With the board down, our 18 ft boat draws Four Feet.   ;)

[Sunset]

I have a lot of bad habits I picked up from sailing our Belhaven 19. She drew 14 inch's of water and I got in the habit of not thinking about navigation much other than getting to where I wanted to go. With the board down she drew around 4 feet and I used that board as a dept sound often. That will no longer be the option, we will have to navigate. I think this is where my brother is coming from, along with not being able to back the stern in close to the shore and walk in.
;D With the so called Global warming are the oceans supposed to be getting deeper?  ;)
Heck in another ten years centerboarders may be obsolete!
Also while I'm on the environment, has anyone ever noticed that the so called GREEN chemicals never work very well. If they do you have to use five times as much and ten times as much water. I always got a kick out a new environmentally friendly John that was installed at my old employer. Everyone asked why this new Kolar that uses 1/3 of the water must be flushed 5 times instead of once. If you do the math it used more water than the old one.
Personally if a product brags about how GREEN it is, I know it wont work and keep looking.

[Sunset]

I was intending to get the keel flat installed today, but the barn took all day replacing the plastic front. So I'll start on that today.

While the plastic was off I thought I would get a few pictures that wasn't possible with the barn closed up.

The shear planking is not trimmed to the deck shelf as of yet so that makes the shear look a bit lumpy. Before the planking went on the deck shelf showed the sheer fair and sweet. Cant wait to turn her over and get all these cleaned up so I can see her real shape.

[Sunset]

2 more

[Sunset]

Finally got the keel flat installed. After checking, double checking and rechecking, alignment and position and levelness.

This is the first time I used chopped fiberglass mixed in the epoxy. Some areas were going to be a little thick so I used the chopped glass with silica. The glass fibers were about 1 inch long, don't know if they strengthen epoxy much, but figured they couldn't hurt.
So its on to sanding, fairing the glass overlaps and laying up the keel.

Just about given up on getting this thing turned over by winter, just too much to do, to get there!

[Sunset]

Been to busy to get much time on my boat. I will get some more keel lamination's cut out this weekend.
Out of epoxy again so I'll just keep cutting and shaping pieces for the keel.
The high temperature of the shed really cured the the glass super hard. We will be sanding on it again for a while.
I'll post a picture of the keel flat this weekend from the top of the barn, you can really get a idea how wide she is from up there.
As soon as Graham gets me some direction on cutting the stern I am going to get that cut in.

[Sunset]

The keel flat, the shadows are playing tricks with the pictures, she's right on the money.

[Sunset]

Getting ready to order another batch of epoxy. I thought the 10 NFM ports were expensive, but this epoxy is going to break me before I get to the ports. If I can keep life from getting the way all the time maybe I can get this tub turned sometime this winter.
Visited the designer two weeks ago about a lot of different issues. Graham is very good and patient with me.

[Tim]

Hang in there, it will be such a work to be proud of. Grog ya for perseverance.

[CapnK]

Seconded - both the great work, and the grog! :) She is looking impressive!

[Cruiser2B]

Getting ready to order another batch of epoxy. I thought the 10 NFM ports were expensive, but this epoxy is going to break me before I get to the ports. If I can keep life from getting the way all the time maybe I can get this tub turned sometime this winter.
Visited the designer two weeks ago about a lot of different issues. Graham is very good and patient with me.

Keep up the great work....Roam wasn't build in a day, You are making progress and that is what counts! She is looking great!

[Sunset]

Thanks for the encouragement. I have decided to put another layer of light glass above the water line and a layer of 12oz. below the water line. I'm afraid the heavy 17 oz biaxle cloth is going to print through the finish of the top sides. I don't know how many of you know what print through is, but the heavy glass will eventually show the weave through the paint on a epoxy glassed hull. So my hope is a thin layer of 6 oz plain weave will prevent this from happening. Charlie will know what I'm talking about. As for the bottom I'm not worried about print through, we all know how bottom paint is. I'm just doing it for extra abrasion resistance and hull strength on the bottom. This extra glass will only add about 84 pounds to the whole hull, that's only about 3 pounds per foot.
I do need to be careful not to add to many beef ups, but this one for the minimum weight gain I think is a good one.
I'll be able to cut some weight above the water line by using okoume ply on the inside of the decks and cabin foam core sandwich, but will use meranti on the outer layer. This will give me a more damage resistant deck than the okoume and help me stay within Grahams designed weight.
Graham did surprise me when he told me I would be glassing the decks and cabin exterior with 18 oz glass. I think I'll do a 12oz layer with a 6 oz layer over that for the print through issue. I'll lay them in a time frame where I'll have a chemical bond.

[Sunset]

Well it's been a year now since I started this boat. I read back through my posts and can believe how naive I was about the amount of progress I wanted to accomplish. Although I started out at a full run I have ended the year at a crawl. I started building a house for a customer last month and will have it under roof this week, as for the boat nothing!! Somewhere in the near future I need to get my priorities in place. All I think about while building this house is living on my boat, it's starting to fill like a fairy tale. I even went out to the boat barn to see if I really was building a boat or was dreaming. Sure enough there's a 28 foot boat shell in there. :o :o

[Cruiser2B]

Slow and steady......you'll get there!