Comment

Comment by Brad Dimock on March 5, 2010 at 2:34pm

I should add--I have a lot of pretty peculiar ideas that may or may not apply to other rivers, other boats, other tastes and preferences. As I've said in earlier posts, my concepts are based on three decades of running and wrecking Briggs drift boats in big water with way too much weight on board. I'm trying to build with the long-term repair work and maintenance in mind. I want to be able to monitor, disassemble, rebuild, with a minimum of heartbreak and dismay. We ride our ponies pretty hard down here, and repair is a big part of the job.
Other peculiarities: Never glue your gunwales on. They have to come off again when you wreck 'em and it's way easier to unbolt/rebolt than chisel them off. (In fact, we had one explode in the shop in the middle of the night last week. If I'd glued that sucker on, I'd still be screwing around with replacing it.)
Always use slotted screw heads--they're way easier to get back out when the get full of paint/epoxy/etc.

But the long and short of it is, take my brilliant ideas with a grain of salt.

Comment by Brad Dimock on March 5, 2010 at 12:25pm

Just a fiberglass/foam/fiberglass sandwich. (WEST system) Seems like no matter how strong or tough we make the bottoms, we can always punch right through it in a major rapid / major wreck. So I keep it as simple and easy to repair as possible, and hopefully light enough that the boatman can still manage to miss most of the rocks. The river doesn't seem offended by a lack of paint. Except during a flip, when your attention is usually elsewhere, the river is the only one that sees the bottom. And for off-river maintenance I prefer to be able to look through the clear epoxy layer to see where I have leakage, infiltration/rot, etc. and monitor wear, tear, and abrasion. It is always so disappointing to grind off a little paint in the process of patching what you thought was minor bottom damage, only to have a giant surprise hidden beneath.
But I do wish this wretched Divinycell was not such a bilious green color!

Pulling together another hull tonight--the funnest part of the whole process!

Comment by Robb Grubb on March 5, 2010 at 12:10pm

Brad,

What type of bottom protection and material do you plan on using? glass, paint, battens, etc. ?

Regards,

Robb
www.RiverTraining.net

Comment by Brad Dimock on March 3, 2010 at 8:20pm

The technique is one I found online--pressing a sheet of stiff plastic into the wet glass/resin. It gives a very shiny finish, but not as smooth and dimple-free as one might hope. Even so, fairing is a breeze after that. I cut that side panel out this morning, and the rest of the sheet turns into seat bulkheads and seat backrests. Formed up the bowpost and transom for the next boat today--ready to form the hull tomorrow or the next day. It'll be exciting to have two boats going in the shop at once!

Comment by Kelly Neu on March 3, 2010 at 8:05pm

Nice perspective on the boat! Cool technique on the Lodore glass.