17-foot McKenzie drift boat

I'm deep into building my McKenzie drift boat using the Don Hill 17' Flyfisher plans from driftboatplans.com. The previously documented builds here have been a tremendous help, answering many of my initial questions. I'll certainly have many more questions as I progress, and hopefully the community can continue to guide me in the right direction.

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Permalink Reply by David Witton on Wednesday

Looks like you've got some perfect weather for boat building!

Permalink Reply by Art Page on Wednesday

Yeah, we've had some un-seasonally warm weather recently (Encinitas, Ca).  However it's currently raining and 71F.  Which brings up a question about applying epoxy. 

I've always used medium cure hardener (Total Boat 2:1) for previous wood working projects and plan to use this for fiberglassing the sides and bottom.  I *think* med cure will give me enough time without prematurely setting up.  I'll have a helper dedicated to just mixing in small batches and use a shallow container to reduce heat build-up.  I'd like not to use slow cure for fear it'll be more prone to runs and sags since I'll be applying on a near vertical surface of the sides.  I've never applied this much epoxy over a large area like this before, but looking at YT vids of canoe glassing looks like runs/sags on a vertical surface isn't much of an issue. All that being said, I think med cure will give me enough time to do one side by myself with the help of a dedicated mixer.  What do you think?  

Permalink Reply by David Witton on Thursday

I think you'll be fine with the temps in the low 70s. One thing I could have been better at is babysitting the project for a few hours after you're done applying the epoxy. 

Permalink Reply by Art Page yesterday

And just like that, the bottom is screwed down with 5200 applied to the frame bottoms and chine logs.  Used 2 alignment pins (actually nails) with mating holes in the bottom to register it to the outline of the boat and to minimize smearing the 5200.  The front 18" or so of the bow section was the most challenging to get to conform and bend down to the stem.  Not shown are all the weights, clamps, and ratchet straps to make that happen.

Permalink Reply by Art Page yesterday

To trim the 1/4" overhang on the bottom flush to the angled sides, I kluged up a jig for the trim router to hold it perpendicular to the sides with a flush cutting bit.  It worked better than expected and 15 minutes later that task was done.  I'm still recovering from tennis elbow/tendinitis so it sure beat having to break out the hand plane :)

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