St. Jacques Log 26 May 17 Sea Trials

26 May 17:

Launched St. Jacques for sea trials. Crew of 4. Her paddle and oar systems were checked, as well as trim, weight and balance. She floated on her waterline and moved with ease. Dry bilge. She also fit perfect on the Sunfish Dolly from Dynamic Dollies and Racks.

Now she is back to the boat works for finish coat of paint, rig for sprit sail and final outfitting.

Click here for the complete build log for our Penobscot 14 St. Jacques.

St. Jacques Log 06 Dec 16 Wood Sealer

06 Dec 16:

Decided to go with the Rustoleum series of Marine Coatings for the planking and stringers. We first wanted to see if the planks would take sealer/varnish evenly and there was a slim chance to leave the inside finished bright. Lots of challenges there, with scarf joints and some blobs of excess epoxy in a few places. We also have a fallback plan to paint with some nice colors if the planks didn't darken evenly. Sealing the wood with a varnish was the first step either way.

So per Rustoleum's instructions we applied the varnish, thinned 10% with mineral spirits. And here are the results. As I thought, there are some big variations in the plank colors, as we drew from 3 batches of plywood. The scarf joints didn't bother me, but the eyes stops on too many of those plank transitions. Also the epoxy shows up an opaque amber in a few too many spots.

So we will paint. Rustoleum Marine Coatings Wood and Fiberglass Primer next, then we will use Rustoleum Topside Oyster White, which is actually what is on the outer hull. We like the paint and varnish combo, but we will have to figure out something different for our inner transom, it might get painted as well due to color variations on the frame and plywood face.

We are excited about this combo, thanks to the designer Arch Davis, who sent us a nice photo of one of his favorite completed boats, built by Mr Ahlberg.

(image credit: Ahlberg).

Click here for the the rest of St. Jacques' story.

Zip gets a strip

Our 1953 Sunfish Zip got a cursory glance on the bottom when we restored her in 2013. There is a leak and we had some epoxy runs so we decided to strip the bottom, clean out the seams, recaulk and put on a fresh coat of Rustoleum Topside red.

We carefully removed the old paint with a belt sander and 40 grit, making sure to use light pressure and hold the sander flat. For the seams along the keel we used a putty knife and in some areas an oscillating tool to remove failed sealant.

Paint swatch test, we used Rustoleum Topside marine paint Bright Red, which is the color on the right bow and a small stripe over the Interlux Brightside Fire Red. The oil base in Rustoleum should condition the wood.

Zip had a date at the Bagdad Riverfest boat show. Those streaks are epoxy runs from where I put the West System for the sides on too thick in 2013, they had to go. The peeling seam compound in the keel also had to go, it appears to be polysulfide.

Belt sander with a light touch, 40 grit then 120. The shop vac with a HEPA filter hooks up to the belt sander, plus I wore a mask, goggles, hat, gloves and a long sleeve shirt...and pants. Putty knife to scrape out seam compound and clear a groove for Pettit Flexpoxy.

The seam compound peeled out easy....too easy, maybe the source of our leak.

Found a nice scarf on the port side bottom.

to be continued...

Willow's Boat Lift

The lift we had installed for Willow is working out great. It is rated up to 1500 pounds and makes launch and recovery easy.