Crabbing Skiff - Bottom Installation - PICS

[JimRockfish]

I didn't mean to upload the first blurry one...

This morning I started installing the bottom. I cut it an inch or so over around the edges - more in the back - and will take it into the garage now to prep for fiberglass. After talking to another board member (thanks Tom P.) I decided to glass the inside bottom. A couple of other builders I know then suggested no more than 4 oz. fabric for the inside to minimize weight, so that's what I ordered. The outside, up to the top of the garboard strake will be covered with 10 oz. fiberglass, after the bottom is installed. I agonized about glassing at all but now feel good about it. I feel good, like I know that I should. Hit me. Hot pants, make you sho yoself. I'll trim and bevel the edges once the fiberglass has set up in my garage. Another outer keel of oak goes over top center and then it all gets glassed over. An outer stem also goes over the front of the stem, so the wood at the tip gets shaved down a bit.

[Tom Powers]

First a question. Is this boat going to spend it's life on a trailer/lift or in the water?

Second question. Does the oak keel sit on top of the plywood in (more or less) a half round shape or is it faired into the plywood such that it is a smooth transition from the bottom to the keel?

If the answer is on a trailer/lift and the keel is a half round shape, don't bother overcoating an exterior keel of oak. Just make sure that you use white Oak. You will have a heck of a time getting a good bond between the glass and the oak and the corners will pitch a fit.

What I would do is find a 3/4 inch copper or bronze strip and run it along the bottom edge of the keel.

Mount your bottom like you are planning. Tape over the seams with 10 oz 6 inch tape. Use two or three layers on the bow and the all of the stern corners. Then glass over the bottom then the first streaks on the bottom with the 10 oz cloth.

Once you get that done then epoxy and screw (from the inside) the keel in place. Use screws that are big diameter #12 but 1/2 inch shorter than the keel/bottom is thick. After every thing is all together and you have more or less your last coat of epoxy add the strip of copper/bronze on the keel.

On the oak. Make sure that you use white oak. Here is why. With red oak the pours are such that they will transmit water through the entire length of the board. With white oak they do not. Try it some time. Take a 12 inch strip of red oak that is cut along the grain put one end in a cup of water and blow into the other end. You can make bubbles. This can not be done with white oak.

Tom

[JimRockfish]

Tom - You are brilliant. I printed your latest and put it in my notebook as reference.

This boat will be trailered but also suspended off of a dock on a lift during the summer.

The oak keel sits on top of the plywood, with a groove cut to mountflush but correct -more of a half-round shape. So, I won't glass the outer one.

I'll definitely use white oak and I really like the copper or bronze strip over the bottom

THANKS! Jim

[Tom Powers]

It is not brilliance it is experience. . . . having watched a number of plywood on frame boats age. Some more gracefully than others.

Tom

[JimRockfish]

OK. Then let's call it... wisdom that comes from living and doing.

Information> Experience > Knowledge > Wisdom