PocketShip Build in Europe

[slash2]

Yeah, when I flipped my boat upside down I used a rope come along around the bottom and tied off to a porthole to help spin the boat. Coming back was easier.

[dbeck]

Hello PS-Builders,

the outside of the lower hull (including the transom) of our boat are now glassed. As a deviation from the manual, we have glassed the keel separately from the floorboards: First, this felt easier. Second, this went fairly quick and allowed for laying the glass into the still wet 'monster fillets' (one inch radius in our case) between keel and hull.

Prior glassing, we realized that we only had about 7 meters of glass left. This was kind of surprise, we ordered more glass. As a caveat, the 6 oz (about 200 grams / sq meter) glass is hard to get in Germany and we changed to ~8 oz (280 grams / sq meter) for keel, floor and side panels. The transom is covered by the original glass that is planned to receive a bright finish later.

Another surprise: The two sides of the keel around the centerboard opening are not exactly parallel but very slightly bent to the inside. I am 99% sure this was not the case as we placed the keel into the cradle a long time ago. To be on the safe side, a trial fit of the centerboard prior glassing confirmed there will be no issues.

Cheers,

Dietrich

[dbeck]

Hello Fellow Builders,

as this topic is mainly a documentation about deviations from the manual. Here is a another one and its about painting the lower hull. There are three differences.

1. We used ~8 oz glass (see my previous post). This may add strength, but had the downside of not being really smooth after sanding the third coat of epoxy. We decided to apply a 4th coat using epoxy thickened with microspheres. This also helped to smooth the transitions at the glass overlaps. The consequence was another round of sanding the entire lower hull. Uff!

2. Our PS is intended to be a trailer boat and we decided NOT to apply antifouling but paint. We have good experience with a sailing dingy that stayed in the water for up to three weeks a couple of times. If in the water for more than a few days, applying some wax helps.

3. We want two part paint (paint + hardener) as we believe this is more durable and better suited below the waterline compared to one part paint. After mixing tons of epoxy, mixing paint is not really an issue. As a downside, we were told an epoxy primer is required. We painted the primer followed by another round of sanding the entire lower hull.

Choosing the color scheme was not easy. We were oscillating between 'British Racing Green' and the color scheme of PS1; finally its blue and white. It seems 'International' is not providing two part paint (any more?) and we bought paint from a well known supplier for amateur boat builder. Being in Europe we better stick to the RAL color scheme: We chose 'Cream White' RAL 9001 and 'Black Blue' RAL 5004.

The white color at the bottom was applied together with the white bootstrap in one go as one surface (the blue line at the bootstrap was painted on top of the white later). We applied three coats of white first, then two coats of blue. We had another round of sanding prior applying the final coat.

Its the first time we painted a boat of this size. The result is not perfect, but we are quite satisfied.

BTW: I believe this explains why the finish on PS1 is looking great

Cheers,

Dietrich

Epoxy with microspheres after application (left) and sanding (right):

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Sanded primer (left) and final coat of white paint (right)

lowerHull_primerWhite.png (214.75 KiB) Viewed 31728 times

The result after adding the blue paint and removing all tapes

lowerHull_finished.png (225.18 KiB) Viewed 31772 times

[Creekboater]

beautiful!

[slash2]

Your paint job looks really good to me!

The microspheres for fairing was a revelation for me. Definitely took my finish up a notch (still notches below yours!)

Yeah- I remember going to CLC and was in awe of the paint job on Pocketship #1. It was almost depressing as I was just doing painting and his finish was so much better than mine. Then I read he had taken it to an automotive paint shop. Made me feel much much better.

[dbeck]

Thanks for the compliments. We believe sanding with 400 grid paper prior the final coat made a significant difference.

But there are bugs and bad spots. And there is dust also, which is unavoidable in such an environment. And a few flies made it into the final coat too.

Let's see how this will look like after few years of sailing.

[dbeck]

Hello PS Builders,

as many other builds, we implement the portlights differently for a couple of reasons. First, we'd like to avoid bolting through to avoid the risk of small leaks. Second, the acorn nuts foreseen by the manual will be at the same height as my head and very uncomfortable (when sitting in the cabin with my back against the sidewall). Moreover, the flush mount described in the manual feels complicated. Since our kit included eight pre-cut plywood rings we decided to use them. Their visible edges where rounded with a 6 mm router and they received two coats of epoxy.

This is our approach. Four rings are epoxied permanently at the outside (!) and the acrylic glass is inserted from the inside. There will be butyltape between the outside ring and the glass and four rings will be screwed from the inside pushing the acrylic glass onto the butyltape / outer rings. Thus, everything is sealed at the outside. Shown in the figure below is a trial fit without butyltape (and some spilled white paint from the inside).

portligth_outside.png (242.62 KiB) Viewed 30933 times

The next figure shows the situation from the inside with countersunk holes for 16 mm long A4 screws; the protective film on the acrylic glass will be removed later during final installation.

portlight_inside.JPG (50.73 KiB) Viewed 30961 times

The inside rings received bright finish. To camouflage the bulky shape of the outside rings, those will be painted white as the upper side panels.

- 178 mm, outside diameter rings
- 122 mm, inside diameter rings
- 144 mm, inside diameter of port holes in sidepanel
- 142 mm, outside diameter acrylic glass
- 9 mm, thickness rings

Small caveat: We used 6 mm acrylic glass as described in the manual. But the thickness of the sidepanels is 6 mm plywood plus (!) fiberglass on both sides. Acrylic glass of 7 mm or even 8 mm thickness might have been a better choice for us.

Cheers, Dietrich

[dbeck]

As it is definitely to cold for epoxy or paint, we use the time for preparing things. Today, we made a dry-fit of our rudder. Rudder fittings for dinghies made from salt water resistant brass are used instead of eye-bolts. We plan for three (instead of two) pivots.

The temporary installation just uses short screws, directly screwed into the wood. The small holes will be used to indicate the position for drill-fill-drill to be done later, prior finishing transom and rudder.

Dietrich

rudder_dryfit.JPG (141.34 KiB) Viewed 29351 times

[dbeck]

Here are our February deviations from the manual. As it is was still too cold for major epoxy or paint work, we started with fitting out. We fixed the positions of quite some things and decided to go for a different jib sheet setup as shown in the photo below.

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Then we changed the order of the build and started operation 'swiss cheese' by drilling lots (!) of holes into our boat, followed by fill and smaller drill. Actually I believe it makes absolutely sense to do this at this stage of the build. Any mishaps are not too hard to correct now, same for cleaning/sanding.

2024-02-24_14-21-22.jpg (122.69 KiB) Viewed 28255 times

As many other builders the lazarette hatches will be placed onto a 6 mm plywood frame epoxied to the deck. We hope to avoid water leaking in.

2024-03-03_15-41-32.jpg (140.8 KiB) Viewed 28331 times

Finally we realized that our chosen main sheet block requires two screws with an unfortunate spacing of 43 mm, just the width of the center board case. From scrap pieces of sapele we fabricated a 20 mm thick platform that got epoxied onto the deck. BTW: We decided for a 55 mm ratchet block without (!) a cleat.

Dietrich

[dbeck]

As the only deviation from the manual in March, we decided to go for hawseholes instead of mooring chocks. These are the final holes/openings in our hull prior painting.

(Uhhh, the forum is working again )

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