Pre-launch Marathon

So, I had given myself a goal of getting the XCR in the water on Labor Day... that didn't quite happen, but not because it wasn't ready to go. Anyway, I have a few days worth of work to report on. I narrowed the tasks down to the minimum necessary to get the boat into the water: getting the trailer finished and roadworthy, installing the seats, and installing the carrying handles.

First the handles. What should have been simple turned into quite a struggle. I found a place that looked good, then drilled holes for the mounting screws through the deck and backing block. I was using machine screws, so I needed to put the nuts and washers on the inside to hold everything together. Since the handles are near the front (and back) of the boat, the nuts and washers are inside the closed off area behind the bulkhead. I had installed a hatch, so I should be able to just reach in there and spin on the nuts right? Wrong. First of all, I peak in there and don't see my bolts... hmm... I figure out that they are not long enough, so off to Menards for some new ones. Back from Menards with new bolts that are plenty long, so I check the fit with the mating nuts. I find out that I ended up with course thread bolts and fine thread nuts. Arrrggghhh!! Off to Meijer this time (Menards in closed by now...) to get the right size nuts. Back home, checked everything again, and it all fits, good. So now to just reach in a thread them on... not quite so easy! I had to squish myself into the narrow front of the boat, and reach through the small hatch all the way to the very front and thread those nuts on blind. After much stretching, wriggling, and sweating, I finally got them on and tightened down. Whew!!

The seats were a lot easier to get installed. I first made 8 aluminum "L" brackets that the seats hang from. Here is one without the holes drilled:

These were mounted to the seats using some more stainless steel machine screws where this time, everything fit the first time! I then used some larger diameter bolts to attach the "L's" to the previously installed seat brackets:

Finally, the trailer... First I put the plywood bedding on. Then I built "bunks" starting with the 2x6's I had previously cut to match the bottom profile of the boat. A couple notches were cut into this part for the U-bolts that held the bunks to the bed of the trailer. Then, I glued and screwed a 1x4 to the top, glued a piece of camping pad to that, and wrapped the whole thing in trailer bunk carpet.

Seat frames

I epoxied and fiberglassed the seat mounting frames in place last night. The frames are made of 1/2" plywood fiberglassed on both sides. Several sets of stainless steel nuts are embedded in the frames to allow for a variety of seat heights and angles. The seats will be held to the frames using aluminum angle brackets and thumb screws.

Also, the trailer is mostly assembled... I still need to put on the plywood decking, mount the bunks, add the tongue extension, and install the wiring and lights:

Back upright

Having been a few days since I last posted, I have several days worth of progress to report. After all the bottom fiberglass and other reinforcements were added and faired, I applied a couple coats of epoxy / graphite mixture. This mix has been shown to be a very durable and low friction bottom finish. You can read about some others's experiences here and here. I ended up doing the application with two rather thick coats, instead of 3 light coats. Here are some pictures:

We had some unseasonable cool weather here in Michigan (mid 60s during the day, 40s at night) so I ended up putting a little heater "inside" the boat to make sure the epoxy cured nice and hard:

Final appearance after 2 coats:

After letting everything cure for a day, I cut some simple shallow "V" blocks (that will eventually be used on the trailer), called over a couple friends, and flipped the boat upright again. Here is my wife trying it out:

Reinforcement and Fairing

Application of the reinforcement layers was pretty straightforward. I used some more kevlar on the stern to provide extra strength for the rudder mounts. I once again used the "plastic sheet" technique to give me a smooth finish. After wetting out the kevlar, I simply wrapped a sheet of plastic over the cloth and smoothed it out:

Then, last night, I knocked down the rough edges and high spots with a plane, then applied some fairing compound (epoxy + silica + microballons) to give everything a smooth uniform finish. I did a test fit of my rudder gudgeons and found that I needed some small spacers between them and the stern. They are epoxied on and reinforced with a couple strips of fiberglass. They can just barely be seen in the following picture:

Here is an overall view of the stern:

Armor

My plans for the XCR include expedition style trips to a variety of locations that include plenty of rough landing areas: rocks, oyster beds, sand, logs, etc... Therefore, I am planning to heavily armor the front few feet of the boat. It may be excessive, but I am not that concerned about a few extra pounds. What I am planning is:

• 4" strip down the full length of the keel, extending all the way up the stem
• 8ish" strip from halfway up the stem, extending about 2 ft along the keel
• 12ish" strip from the bottom of the stem, extending about 4 ft along the keel

This, along with the epoxy / graphite fill coat should make the front end of the XCR pretty much bombproof. Here is a picture of the cloth laid up dry:

More fiberglass...

I got the second layer of exterior fiberglass applied without incident last night. However, I had two other experiences that are more interesting than repeating what I did on Monday night. The first was that I went out to the garage to get started, went to put on some gloves and found that I had only one left (how did I go through that box so quickly?!?!?!) Oh well, so it was off to the store. It turned out that they were out of the kind I bought before (latex stretch) so I wandered over to the "medical supply" section of Meijer and found a box of blue nitrile gloves. Wow, I am definitly converted. I was having a lot of problems with the latex gloves tearing and getting holes in them, maybe I just got a box of really flimsy ones... Anyway, the nitrile gloves work great.

The other interesting thing was that I met another neighbor. I always work in the evening, with my garage door open, so it is very easy to see what is going on inside. This is actually the second time a neighbor I have never met before stops in my driveway and walks in to see what is going on. We chatted for a while (not too long, I was still working epoxy into the fiberglass) and it turns out he built a cedar strip kayak a few year ago. I'm pretty sure I want to build one of them myself, but I really can't settle on a design... I digress... Anyway, if you want to meet your neighbors, build a boat in your garage, they will flock to you!

Fiberglass and a trailer

I got a lot accomplished yesterday. First, I got a trailer to haul the XCR around on:

Due to the length of the XCR, I will be adding a long tongue extension which I am picking up locally. Because the trailer is bolted together, it is really easy to add the extension. I also plan on making some custom "bunks" for the boat to sit on. At this point I am planning on keeping it upright, so I will also need some sort of cover for hauling it long distances. I'm thinking a simple plywood cut-out shaped to fit around the cockpit... Any other brilliant ideas?

After the kids were in bed, I put on the first layer of bottom fiberglass. Because I got 60" wide fabric, it reached from gunwale to gunwale, so I could do it all in one big application. I ended up wetting out the cloth in "quarters." I started in the middle of one side, and worked my way to the front. Then, I completed that side working from the starting point to the back. Once that whole side was complete, I switched to the other side and did the same thing. This way, I didn't end up with any wrinkles in the cloth that needed to be pulled or cut out. I was able to work quickly and smoothly and I never had any batches of epoxy "get away" from me. It helps that it has cooled down to the high 60s / low 70s around here. Hopefully I get the same weather treatment for the second layer tonight!