A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
After nearly a year of every spare minute going to the project and a wife that swears I left her for a boat , I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. The floor and decks are all in. I just have a little more fairing and sanding to do and then finish the fishbox and livewell. They are the open areas at the bottom of the front deck. I have to fiberglass the styrofoam in. I am looking forward to rigging her and actually getting to open all these goodies that the man in brown has been delivering to the house. My wife says its like Christmas's every day since I started on this boat. My father in law has welding equipment so in keeping with the custom made theme we are going to try our hand at a polling platform. Hopefully she will be ready by the end of June. And hopefully I can go fishing before any hurricane comes and stirs things up.
Rocket, the plans called for two bench seats and a small front deck, it was almost a large John boat. Following the plans she would weigh about 400lbs and draft 2-3", thats with a 25hp at about 150lbs. I didn't stick to the plans very much after the basic hull was in, I added the sole above the stringers and built the front and rear decks. I also added the console for remote steering. The Yamaha weighs about 190 and I figure she should be around 6-700 lbs without the motor. Up until the floor and decks were in two of us could lift it up and slide the trailer under. I think she'll draft about 4-5" now the only constraint will be the motor. Thats plenty skinny for me as I'm not headed to mosquito lagoon anytime soon.
The plans also said it should take around 80-120 hours but I quit counting a while after that. I'm scared to actually estimate how many I have in her. Yes, my wife has been very sweet and patient.
80-120 hours is actual work time, waiting on epoxy to cure isn't in that time nor is the time it takes to gather supplies, clean up, etc....I try to work an hour a day on mine, so far I have only worked an hour this week on it
Thats true, I found I spend a great deal of time getting everything laid out and ready so once you mix the epoxy theres no delay. Organizing waiting and cleaning up are a big part of it. This last week has been real humid and it's been taking everything a little longer to dry or cure. I have to be real clean as I'm doing alot of the work in my Father in Laws garage/shop. And they all make fun of me because I'll stand around for a few minutes just looking at it. Since from the hull on has been custom theres been alot of planning and drawing and picturing everything out in my head. Simple things like making sure a livewell will drain all the way and making the cockpit drain out the back have taken some extra time and thinking.
Oh yea,
The one lesson I've learned from a project like this is to do the best most accurate job from the first step on. It's easy to cover mistakes of the wood with fiberglass and to cover fiberglass blemishes with fairing compound but this all makes the process take longer. By taking your time and making the wood fit the best, cutting your fiberglass cloth to fit perfect you can save alot of time. It takes more time to prepare everything but it saves time in the long run. I find after I've been working a while and I'm tired I might rush a step and that just means the next step will take longer. Like fairing for example, the more time you take to do a really good job of fairing the less sanding you will have to do. At this point the last thing I want to have to do is extra sanding
Did you cut the panels out one at a time? If you build another, use my trick, make one good panel, cut it out, screw it to a piece of plywood, cut the piece out using the panel as guide, leave about 1/4" around the piece, take a laminate flush trim bit with a top bearing and a router, using the first panel as a guide, trim the second panel...When you done you have two panels exactly the same....Only problem is if you screw the first panel up, you have two panels now screwed up exactly the same
nope, my problem is I used a jigsaw, and I can't seem to cut a straight line to save my life. , I see you can buy the plywood already cut and if I ever do it again thats the way I will go. The wood costs more but that would save me some serious time. I spent about two months off and on getting all the pieces cut out. One of the bigger problems I found was that by cutting pieces out and letting them sit out they would warp or develop a bend form leaning against a wall. I always kept them under a roof even in the house sometimes but with the temperature and humidity changes they bowed a little. It would be ideal to be able to spend a few full weeks and get most of that work done than you could avoid some of the issues that I think come with a year long project, such as wood warping. It was never bad but just enough to where you would have to set weights on places to keep them level and stuff. Even the frames which were 1x3 whiteboard developed bows here and there. That took some extra work to go back and fix.
, I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. 
The floor and decks are all in. I just have a little more fairing and sanding to do and then finish the fishbox and livewell. They are the open areas at the bottom of the front deck. I have to fiberglass the styrofoam in. I am looking forward to rigging her and actually getting to open all these goodies that the man in brown has been delivering to the house. My wife says its like Christmas's every day since I started on this boat. My father in law has welding equipment so in keeping with the custom made theme we are going to try our hand at a polling platform. Hopefully she will be ready by the end of June. And hopefully I can go fishing before any hurricane comes and stirs things up.
And they all make fun of me because I'll stand around for a few minutes just looking at it. Since from the hull on has been custom theres been alot of planning and drawing and picturing everything out in my head. Simple things like making sure a livewell will drain all the way and making the cockpit drain out the back have taken some extra time and thinking. 
