Carbon Copy gets Seats, Stringers, Gunwales and a Drain

Finally, I return home but I am left with very little time to work on my project.  Schools have become a time suck this year and will consume a huge amount of my freedom.

I did have a chance to install a few items into Carbon Copy and I will show you my progress in this post.

To add strength, I used 3/4" CPVC along the length of the boat.  The CPVC was not used for the strength it added, but more for the shape that it would make when I applied fiberglass over it.  I thought hard about numerous products, products that would give the shape of a stringer, yet not add too much weight.  I almost used foam piping insulation, the type that would usually be used to wrap exterior water pipes, but later thought about the affect that Polyester resin would have on the foam (testing could have answered that question).  I also liked the thought of having something rigid under the fiberglass, so it would not crush if something hard hit the stringer.  I ran a full length along the port and starboard side and then one down the middle of the craft.  The one along the centerline will also act as my drain between the forward compartment and the aft and then continue to drain under the rear seat and out through the transom.

  

When I came up with the right spot for the transom drain, I made an extremely oversized hole through all the fiberglass and wooden transom which later got filled with thickened resin and covered with more glass.  I wanted to be sure that if water should leak around the drain plug for any reason, it would never get to the wood structure.  Once the resin fill cured, I drilled the correct size hole for the drain plug flange that I would be using.

From the photo, you can see that I had to cut a good sized hole into the rear seat, which gave me access to completely glass in the drain tube under the seat.  Once again, I did not want water to ever get under the seat.  If I had it all to do over, I would have glassed in the tube before putting in the seat (Brain fart).

The drain mount on the back of the boat created a different challenge. The shape and angle of the hull made it difficult for mounting a straight plug flange directly to the transom.

I was able to create a mounting plate by using some 1/4" cut fiberglass strand and resin.  I used a disposable bowl and propped it up on an angle to roughly create the uneven angle that would match the transom angle.  It worked pretty good.  When cured, I ground it down to make a final finish and glassed it over the drain hole made earlier.  To finish it off, I then used glass mat over the entire mount.

When it was all done, it looks like the mount was originally formed into the hull.

The seats installed fairly easily, being that I copied them from the original hull they fit into the new shell like a glove.  I quickly tabbed them in using 4-5" fiberglass cloth tape and resin, this was done just to hold them in the right spot.  I later came back around and added torn fiberglass mat to make everything finish out and have the strength I wanted.

The seats really strengthened the topsides of the boat, what started out rather flimsy turned into a very solid structure.  I then cut 3" holes in the top of the seats and filled the entire seat cavity with a mixture of foam packing peanuts and two part urethane foam.  The closed cell foam should insure that, even when punctured, the hull should have enough buoyancy to stay afloat.  The 2 lb. foam made the seats extremely hard, absolutely no flex when you put some weight on them.

Gunwales were also added during my short stay home.  These were also made of CPVC, this time I increased the size to 1".  When I first started to think about the gunwales, I was thinking about the traditional wood installed on the inner and outer edges of the topsides.  Plastic sounded better with less maintenance.

To install the CPVC gunwales, I set up my table saw to just barely cut into one edge of the tubing and then slipped the tubing over the fiberglass topside.  The tube naturally clamped onto the topsides of the boat while I laid fiberglass tape to make a permanent bond.

One added bonus of the CPVC, it will give me a quick electrical path should I ever need to install permanent lighting.  I simply drill a small hole and fish a tape or blow a string and in minutes I could have wires from bow to stern. 

I made a breasthook from some scrap 1/2" plywood and glassed both sides.  The breasthook and the transom have become the only two structural pieces of wood on the boat.  I did use some 1/4" ply under the seat tops, but that was just to give it a rigid surface and does not have a purpose now that the foam has been installed.

I also continued the gunwales by using a piece of 1" CPVC that has been cut in half.

In the photo, notice the pink foam packing peanuts visible inside the seats? They were repurposed rather than sending them to a landfill.

Just before returning back to work, I pre-drilled the transom and breasthook in all the locations that will receive hardware.  The stainless boat bling has arrived, items such as handles, pad eyes and oar locks.  All of these holes have been filled with thickened epoxy and covered again with glass mat.

Items left to do;

• Make and install blocks for the oar lock mounts
• Grind the interior smooth
• Gel coat the interior
• Add a layer of carbon fiber cloth across the bottom and topsides
• Add the final clear gel coat to the bottom and topsides
• Install the hardware
• Launch it!

It will be a struggle to get everything done this trip home, but I am hoping for the best.