i be sailing

After finding out how difficult it is to work with PME, I decided to get busy and do some more research on materials. I called up Republic Chemicals, makers of PME to see if they had "real" epoxy resin available. This is what I got; apparently they do not have "epoxy resin" available in the market, however, they do have an epoxy resin called Formula #5 that they can whip for customers if it is requested. I was even able request for a trial sample. Their office is in Quezon City though, and my car is still in the shop, so it might be some time before I can get it. I called them up and the stuff is already waiting for me. I’ll probably pick it up sometime this week.

I also emailed Peter of the TLYC to ask if he knew where I could get fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. his reply was short and sweet:

"polymer products
510-1125
good luck."

So I called them up, and they do have 6 oz. fiberglass cloth! and my material problems are over!. They didn’t have epoxy resin though, all they had was polyester resin. It’s similar to epoxy resin but has less adhession and is not as strong. It’s great for most fiberglass work but not for boatbuilding really. I went to their shop in Pasay with Mon to check them out, and maybe buy some fiberglass cloth. the shop was small and reaked of chemicals, but it was worth it. They had all kinds of fiberglass, biaxial cloth, woven cloth and even carbon fiber, as well as a couple of kinds of polyester resin and various fillers. Mon was interested in making a surfboard and they pretty much had most of what he needed too. The guys there know their fiberglass and are very eager to talk to customers and give advice.

I’m pretty much decided on wanting to make an S11N or an 11 foot nesting version of B & B Yacht Design’s Spindrift. So I emailed Graham Byrnes, the designer and asked for a Bill of Materials for the boat so I can have an idea on what I have to import and what I can have fabricated here. he sent me a deck plan with a list of parts. Some of the simple metal parts like gudgeons, oar locks, and cleats can be done in any iron works shop. Pulley blocks can be a little complicated though so I’d probably have to import those.

His wife Carla, also sent a list of materials. Most of it is wood really, the S11N takes about four 4 x 8 sheets of quarter inch marine ply and uses up around 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of epoxy. All of the hardware for B & B’s boats can also be purchased directly from them and Carla said she’ll be sending a list of hardware prices to me soon.

Here is a link to a 9′ version of a nesting spindrift being built and sailed: http://seaweed.thebilge.com/spindrift.htm - nice boat!

We were able to do the initial stitch and glue trials, using the stuff I bought from Ace Hardware. The plan was not to build a boat, but something that kind of resembles one, but smaller. and the primary objective was to try out locally available materials  and check their viability in stitch in glue boat building as well as get first hand (albeit limited) experience in the nuances of the stitch and glue method.

Andrew donated the plywood to be used, I think it was part of Rosco’s Barbecue Grill once. And David was nice enough donate a case of beer for us poor slobs. I brought the lechon manok and the rest of the materials.

Here’s most of what we needed, (notice the plastic bag of Baliwag’s Roast Chicken) from left to right would be my lighter, Marlboro lights, fiberglass mesh tape, pioneer marine epoxy (PME), disposable rubber gloves and enamel paint.  Behind the spraycan are a couple of issues of Wooden Boat Magazine. I was able to find a couple of copies at Booksale in Southmall. I has a lot of usefull articles on boatbuilding etc… On the foreground is piece of used plywood that Andrew has already cut. Somewhere in that mess is a pack of cable ties.

Being the total carpentry klutz that I am, I left all the woodworking stuff to the expert. Here Andrew is cutting out one of the transoms, and drilling holes into the "hull" where the stitching is going to go.

After all the cutting and drilling it was time for the stitching part of stitch and glue. It basically involves threading cable ties through the holes drilled in the hull to temporarily hold them together. It was a pretty simple task and it took only about 10 minutes for the boat to "go 3d"

<=== Look at the concentration! Hahaha!  Lechon Manok looks good too. Boat goes 3D ======>  After the stitching comes the gluing. PME is pretty thick stuff very similar in viscosity to the pioneer epoxy you buy in small tubes. Normally in stitch and glue you’d need to add fillers to epoxy resin to thicken it before you can use it for filleting. But in this case we didn’t need to. Filleting involves filling in the seams of the boat with epoxy putty.  I used a plastic spoon from Jollibee to apply and spread the epoxy putty.

I bought some fiberglass mesh tape to tape the seams of the hull after filleting. in the absence of fiberglass cloth tape I thought it would have to do. Andrew thinned out some epoxy using lacquer thinner and I applied that over the tape which i put over the filleted seam. I was supposed to put tape on the outside seams as well, but decided against it, after the mess I made with the fiberglass mesh tape on the inside. On the outside seams I just filled it in with epoxy putty.

To smoothen out the epoxy work on the outside seam, I decided to experiment. While the epoxy was still wet I brushed  it over with lacquer thinner. The brush I used was soaked in lacquer thinner that had some brown paint on it that’s why it’s that color. After the epoxy cured Andrew was able to sand one of the outside seams. it turned out pretty well.

here are some lessons learned:

• Pioneer marine epoxy is nothing like epoxy resin, it’s thick (like peanut butter) and it’s grey, unlike epoxy resin which is clear. So you can forget about wetting out fiberglass cloth with that. It’s also pretty nasty stuff, it sticks on everything. and if you’re going to sand it. make sure you have a respirator. the powder can be very damaging to one’s lungs and skin.
• Make sure all joints are aligned right before tightening the cable ties and filleting.
• Fiberglass mesh tape is no good for boat building. I don’t think that it adds as much strength to the hull as it should. best leave it do it’s original purpose which is for drywall seams.
• PME is very tough to sand by hand. I plan to buy a finishing sander for this purpose. We’ll also need it eventually when we go build a real boat anyways. There are several on ebay that sell really cheap, I might get one of those.

This project is pretty much on hold until I get a finishing sander and a respirator. After sanding, we’ll probably experiment on paints. I understand epoxy degrades over time when exposed to sunlight and UV radiation. So we need to look at something with UV inhibitors.

I started selling off some of my un-needed stuff to pay for this new hobby of mine. First to go was my old mobile phone. I got it a year and a half ago second hand. I was able to sell it yesterday for almost the same price I got it for. I was able to sell it at bidshot. Next to go is my Web TV System. Interested?

I bought some boat building materials yesterday so I can try out the stitch and glue method of making boats over the weekend. I’ll just use some scrap plywood and see how well it will hold up using locally available materials. I found out that the fiberglass tape that they have in local hardware stores are the mesh type not the cloth kind,  so I’m not sure if it will work. they also don’t have epoxy resin or polyester resin. So I had to settle with Marine Epoxy. 

Here’s a list of stuff I bought: (Ace Hardware)

• Pioneer Marine Epoxy (small can)
• Cable Ties
• Fiberglass Mesh Tape (2 inch wide)
• Sand paper
• 2 pairs of rubber gloves
• White Enamel Paint in a spray can.

I just have a gig to do on Saturday afternoon but after that if Andrew is available, we can probably try out this stitch and glue thing with a few leftover plywood pieces. That and maybe have a couple of beers while waiting for the epoxy to cure.

I emailed Dudley Dix (cool name!) yesterday btw, he’s the designer of the Threefold 6. I was asking about the suitability of the design as an Inter-island campcruiser in the Philippines and whether one has already been built. this was his reply:

"There are a few of these boats being built but I don’t think that any
are on the water yet. The only photos that I have seen can be accessed from
http://dixdesign.com/amateurs-wood.htm ."

"It should be a good design to use as an inter-island camp-cruiser."

I think I remember seing that Italian project before, but the site seems to be down at the moment (i hope it’s only temporary). I’ll try to email the builder when I see the site again and ask for an update.