Aluminum Railing

Gel Coat

Sorry!

Hello 4 followers. Sorry to just stop with the updates. I meant to mention in May that we were full tilt boogie busy getting the boat ready to fish. The Gypsy made it to Alaska and successfully performed in the Southeast salmon fishery. I will put a few more posts of the "final product," even though, boats are always a work in progress.

Aluminum Hatch Combings, and Paint

The aluminum combings were completed rapidly and look great which makes me pleased I chose to go that route. As doing glass would have consumed much more time. As it turned out, from start to finish including welded brailer hooks was two and a half days. Gelcoat tomorrow.. Hopefully.

The Mist Gray is looking great 3 coats later, all thats left is the blue trim. Looks as close to a spray job as rolling and tipping will allow. We were planning on spraying but couldn't bother with taping off everything and halting back deck progress.

Glass work complete!!

All the loose ends are finally tied up on the back decks glass wise. With only gelcoat remaining. It kind of snuck up on me. Yesterday I was up early grinding old gelcoat and grime from around where all the fill (water, and fuel, x2 apiece) covers would go. And chamfering all the 90 degree edge lips of the hatch that we had left and accommodated thinking the aluminum hatch coming configuration would like right angles. Much to Glass's chagrin because it hates sharp corners. After all that, we neglected to remember to account for the welds within the corners making rounded corners necessary. Doh! I'm so tired of being retarded. Never right the first time. So in an early morning inferno of glass dust, followed by a rally session of fast kickin duraglass we pounded out all the remaining obstacles. Not without some of my "special" glasswork. To me glass has become an art form. Though an unorthodox one, I'm told I do it unorthodoxly. 120 Gallons of resin later, 540 lbs of various fiberglass putties, 1/3 of a mile of cloth and about 2000 square feet of foam and nidacore lamination.. Lets get weird. And after that day it hit me. We were finally done glassin the decks. The final day was the pinnacle of getting experimental with creating weird shapes. I had dreaded making patterns for such oddities, and in the end I just siped some nidacore making it bend like orgami hot gluing it in the desired shape, filling all the heinous gaps with foam scraps held by hot glue and repeatedly pumped with duraglass. Till it could be a glassable work of art. And like that the back decks were done.

Amalgamation of odds and ends

This is a brief synopsis of all the random tasks that are spliced between the "real project," i.e. back decks. We rarely have included in the blog the countless do overs and righted mistakes. But trust in the nature of murphys law that we did not get it right the first time and with luck maybe close the second. For instance the rudder post rebuild was rebuilt again today to correct some alignment issues. Anyways heres a few less granduer happenings.

The first is of a piece of poor mans teak laminated to doorskin with epoxy being pressed into position as a backsplash in the galley with contact cement and sticks.
This is a glimpse of the foc'sle after a weeks worth of application of the 5 gallons of thermal insulation paint. In hopes that it would insulate like a beer koosie so the condensation between out door and indoor temperatures don't create a wet rain forest like situation soaking into your bunk.
The next series is of the scuttle which was screwed into the roof and gooped for a seal. The goop was long gone, and so was the balsa wood core of the roof that the screws held onto since it was broken down be the water making it past the failed goop defenses. The water followed right on down the back wall of the cabin which also rotted and was replaced (see earlier post.) So in an attempt to avoid further damage I removed the screws, ground off the gelcoat, and ramped up the the edge with duraglass to make a glassable transition. Then it was glassed and more duraglass was added for fairing.


And more glassing on the main deck.

The "decks" go on

The pictures attempt to capture the "decks." In the first picture, the Hoppen's goop in the two back deck pieces. Jacob is the goop master... so much putty. The "deck" on the gypsy wraps around the boat.. in a horseshoe. Then, where the two freeman hatches are in place over the stern bering and extended engine room/shaft are the other solid deck areas. Lastly, the largest deck area is over the engine, where the stack will mount. Almost ready to gel coat.

Hatch Layout Complete

All the hatches are built and held in place with icky-pucky, a structural fiberglass putty. True to its name it's quite icky. I've pretty much been a full time gooper lately. 30 gallons have been used thus far, to stick things in place and cove the edges to make smooth glass-able transitions. My icky-pucky skills have made significant improvements. When Larry, an Ace glass man giving us a hand was going to help tape in (glass the seams) the panels he noticed my putty transitions weren't nearly graceful enough. Too many lumps and daggers for the glass to flow over it. So we had to push back that job and Monique and I spent 10 hours sanding down all my crappy gooping. This has been my experience with fiberglass in general. You do a job, and its not good enough so you end up spending another day fixing it which means a many hours of sweating/grinding/sanding, everything being coated in glass dust.. again. And that all too familiar itch to remind you to do it right the first time.

The top photo is insulating foam being fitted and gooped to the hull.

The next is of me racing to wet out and prepare strips of glass for Larry to Tape in the transitions of hatches, turning a house of cards that are held together with the pucky into a solid back deck that is one with the boat.

The third is two strips od half inch nidacore being gooped to the foam hatch to support the drums aluminum slider track which will be bolted to it

The final is an almost panorama of the Hatches. With me in what will become the Lazarette; Presumably gooping.

First coat primer on hull

Hull tacked
First coat sanded down quite far and filled small scratches and imperfections. A second and third coat has been applied and we are ready for the final sand before the top coat gets applied.

Side projects

Guy is a miracle worker. We had bought a teak door back in fall for the Gypsy, but it was too heavy duty to be the door to the bathroom and too big to for the cabin. Guy took out the glass, cut it down 5 inches, picked up new glass, and reconstructed it to fit the Gypsy perfectly. So now the Gypsy has a teak cabin door!




Jacob ripped out the port bunk because of hull damage behind it, and the bunk was delaminated and the plywood was splintered. The picture of the huge gaping hole was what Jacob had to grind out to reach good glass for the repair. The former bunk was replaced with a smaller "book shelf." The hull in the foc'sle is being prepped for thermal paint to hopefully reduce condensation on the bunk.




The engine was given a second coat of paint, and then a spray of clear coat. The bilge/engine room was given a first coat of bilgecoat.

Aft floors

The water and fuel tanks are installed and tied in. Floors to the hatches have gone in. Next step is the aft bulkhead and sticking 3/4'' foam to the hull for additional insulation. The Gypsy is quite hard to get around right now.

Fish boxes

Nearly all the 16 foam panels we layed up have been installed.