After You

Shiny it up with a bit of poly for UV protection and this side will be Done.

TNR

A lovely Saint Paul TNR that unfortunately ended with Michelle's scooter being totalled by a hit and run driver. :(

Stopping at the Capital to allow Alice to adjust her mirrors after a light drop.

Michelle watches the ambulance come to check her out as the officer in the police car works on the report
Sad, sad, scooter and driver. Happily another case of helmet saves lives!

After You: PAINt

Everybody always says "just slap some porch paint on 'er and she's done!" in regards to my current class of shipbuilding. (By current class I mean midwestern dads kicking the midlife crisis in a rowboat built from supplies at Homer's or Ace. Not the nautical professional, not a true sailor, not a serious boatbuilder.) [no offense, anybody]

Well, being so much smarter than everyone else who's done this, I went to Menards and explained my very complicated paint needs to a minimum wage paint jockey. I was sold a wonderful industrial maintenance paint that went on like tar and looked like it was going to cure to be a sheet of slate on my boat, only slightly lighter. Two days later and it's still sticky, but I'm thinking "it's on epoxy, of course it'll take a bit longer." After a week plus I decided the wet paint wasn't going to get any dryer and sucked it up and started scraping. The fact that it was so easy to slip the paint off really did tell me I should have gone traditional long ago. So after a bunch of scraping, mineral spirits, washing, sanding, and prepping... I'm porch painted up on one side. I'll get another layer or two of paint on there and hopefully by the weekend I'll put a layer of transparent protection on there, give it a week to cure, and flip it for the other side.

I still have to do the whole chisel, mineral spirits and sanding on the bottom. Joy. All I'll have to do after that is the other side, the roof, the interior, the bunks... Sweet!

I did, however, cut a porthole frame and the Lexan to go in it and it went really well. I also sanded and painted the window frames and have come closer to understanding how I want to solve the "how to open a window" issue.

After You: Materials

I think there is a lot of information and valuable resources related to types of wood to use, qualities of wood, etc.

If I were building an Escargot or something really large that I want to hand down to my children when I die, I'd go whole hog. Marine Ply, West System fiberglassing, Marine Paint, the works.

I'm building a chugger right now that I want to enjoy for a few years (or more if it lasts) and when it goes kaput I'll either turn it into a garden box or a playset. So I'm using good ole exterior pine, a crapload of resin, drywall fiberglass tape instead of fiberglass fabric, porch paint, DAP 3.0 and lots of Titebond. Works just fine. I'm just a guy in Minnesota who wants to go up and down some rivers. Not building an ocean-worthy sailboat or anything. And I also understand they when/if my boat falls apart like a paper boat in a bathtub, I'll either fix it or build a new one. There will be many emotions, I'm sure, but surprise will not be one of them.

(Update post on progress soon.)