Skinboat Part 4
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 5
Well I got the coating on! What a bitch! It's
like working with epoxy! No such thing as being neat! Rubber
gloves, old clothes, etc. are mandantory as well as throw away
brushes, reading glasses ,etc.!! You have to stay with this
stuff to keep track of the sags, runs etc. It's thick and will
sag if not flat. It just puddles on the flat! I put on the required
3 wet coats, and instead of yellow like I expected, it's a clear
translucent as you can see! Which also made it very hard for
me to see voids or thin spots when I first started. I found
a 4 inch brush was better than the plastic squeegee laying on
the ground! As time went on it got better and better, and I
was able to tell whether or not I had complete coverage.
It's curing now, so launch date ain't dat many
hours away! To start off with, I don't recommend it for the
first time builder. When I say "IT", I'm talking about
the nylon as well as the coating! I'm sure it will be tougher
in many ways but the cost for a first skinboat will be way out
of line. This is used on those thousand dollar boats! The cloth
is the same price as canvas but then you include shipping and
the price goes up...and the coating averages $1.00 per ounce!
Cotton canvas is available locally most of the time...like Jo
Annes Fabric Store, etc. I used on the 2 previous boats and
haven't had any problems yet. The blue
boat has been all over the place!
When this stuff cures I'll put on a thin keel
strip and rub rails; then I have to come up with something to
make light floorboards from, and I'm off to the lake. I might
not have the deck pieces on but that has no bearing on how the
boat will perform. Damn near anything can be used for the little
deck pieces. I mixed 3--12oz. batches to do the hull-- that's
8 oz to 4oz. same as 2:1 epoxy and have enough left for the
deck pieces.
The process took a little over an hour. I don't
have any data on this stuff as far as curing goes. Even called
many paint stores, etc., and got no help at all. So we'll just
wing it and see what happens. I am excited about getting the
boat wet! Hope it will do the job but at this writing has cost
me more than both of the 14 footers put together! Bugs were
there as usual!! I swear, everytime I work with anything that's
white..."here they come!" so I have a few little black
specks mixed in the coating! I sure wish I could have done it
inside but the shop is full of other boats! Gotta go check on
it! Later,
Richard