How goes the battle? Things are moving a long here. I have put in my new anchor system and have begun work on the floor. However, I am stuck with a question of how to attach the floor boards. Anyway, just thought I would check in and see how things are coming for you. BTW are you going to the boat show on the McKenzie? I think it's on April 25th? Let me know.
BTW Craig, Thanks for the nice compliment.
There is one little "trick" that I used when sanding. (wet or dry). I get a piece of 1/4" MDF board and cut it to exactly half of a sheet of sandpaper. (long ways) I glue a piece of 2x4 on the back as a handle. Then I use spray on glue (just a little bit to make it tacky) and stick the sandpaper on the MDF. This helps keep me from creating pressure points (gouges) from my fingers through the sandpaper and gives me a very smooth/flat surface. It also helps me control the pressure on the sandpaper by distributing it across the entire piece.
Oh - If you use just a bit of spray glue, you can replace the sandpaper as you need to.
Its a very simple contraption to create but I think the results are really worthwhile.
Hi Craig,
Since I started with a polyurethane sanding sealer I was comitted to go that way. I used Interlux "Pre Kote" primer and "Brightside" polyurethane and their (special) 216 thinner.
Its pretty simple to use but since I don't have a paint booth or a sprayer system I had to do it all with a brush. Of course if you look at it closely you'll see the inevitable paint "sags". To be honest, I wet sanded the first two color coats to try to get rid of some of the worst sags. This "percussive learning" taught me how much I could get away with. I thinned down the last coat since I think it it helps the paint flow and gloss. The other aspect I had to deal with was that I did this in February in my garage. I had to wait until the weather was fairly warm and dry (>50 degrees), I rolled the boat into the driveway so it could warm up like a lizard, paint on one coat, roll it back into the garage, ensure that there was plenty of ventilation, and leave it completely alone to dry for a few days.
Hi Craig,
I had quite a bit of checking so I sanded (forever) and used polyurethane sanding sealer as a start. This helped fill in some of the micro cracks so that when I started primering it, it covered up about 80% of the checking cracks. I put 3 coats of primer on and wet sanded each coat. You're right, I used Interlux for the final coats. I put on two regular coats just like it says but then I put on a third coat that was thinned down. I think it helps it achieve the gloss finish when its thinned a bit. Perhaps 15%?
After refinishing mine for the second time, if I have to do it a third, I'll sell it to some youngster and start over with a new kit.
;o)
Yea I am trying to get it so that three can fish comfortably. I am going to use this rear knee lock. I think it will block into the gunnels well. I had three fishing from the boat a few times last year. Not to big of a problem except that all the weight was in the back. I saw a picture of a boat that Sanderson from Tatman had built and I noticed that the rowing station was adjustable. Additionally, I ran into a guy last year that had a wood boat that was adjustable. From an enginering standpoint it should be fine, every single one of those Clack's and Hyde's is that way. You're right, from a fishing point of view they did get that one right. I also started a thread on here asking a question about it, and the overwhelming response was just to go with it. So I will see how that works. The good thing for me right now is that the water I fish is totally flat. Very little, if any, white water to speak of.
Took a look at those pic's of your boat. Man you put a lot of work into it so far, much more than me; kudos! I dig your choice of blue. I have always wanted a sleek dark blue boat. My fav boat colors are 1st deep navy blue, 2nd forest green and 3rd this red I have now. I think that last one finds it way onto the list via nostalgia. Have you seen a boat that is painted with that Interlux paint? I am hoping that is finishes similar to the spar varnish, glassy.
Man I am with you on the fishing bit... I can't get in the water fast enough. I usually start fishing one of the upper section of the North Fork of the Snake in March. It's cold, but man if you hit it right its a riot.
I got the bug as well. I have loved this project and look forward to a new boat. However, that one is going to have to wait for a few more years. I am thinking the 17 1/2' 56". My thinking is the wider the bottom the easier it will be to hold on a bank fishing, again we'll see.
I threw up some pics of my progress weekend. I have all the varnish gone and am now onto the finishing sanding. I got the wood for the floor boards on Saturday. So hopefully I will be able to make some bigger strides now that I can attack little projects throughout the week after work.
I wish you great progress this week.
I like the Tight Lines bit so, back at ya - Tight Lines,
Jesse
At 7:14am on February 28, 2009, Jesse Ronnow said…
Craig,
It gets even smaller. When I lived in Seattle I lived with a guy for a while that ended up being a Defensive End for the Beavers. Sefa O'Reilly. What an interesting dude. His mom was Tongan and his dad wash 1/2 Irish. Hence the screwy combo of names. Good guy though. Let's see that would have been... I think 98 - 01 is when he was playing.
I should have all the old varnish stripped today. I'm pretty stoked about that. Once I get the varnish all stripped away, I am going to add the foot release anchor system. Then it's on to the seating. I am going to completely redo the rowing station. I am going to setup the rowing seat to slide just like the front seat. My hope is that I will be better suited to trim the boat when I have fewer of smaller passengers in the front. I saw a Tatman style boat with this on the South Fork last year and seemed like it would be a good idea.
After that I need to rebuild the front seat, the casting deck and front horns, setup the set of horns I have for the back seat. Put the new rear seat in and put on the floor boards. I guess somewhere in there I need to finish the interior and refinish the exterior. However, it need to be a lot warmer than it is now for that so I am going to wait for a while.
Man when I put that all down on paper it looks like a bigger project than in my head... oh well I'm having a good time. Anyway, I am going to post some pics today to document my progress. Have you decided to move forward on the blog? Got any new pics of Old Blue? Good luck today.
Jesse
At 8:22pm on February 22, 2009, Jesse Ronnow said…
Craig,
First off, you went to OSU? I am a U of U grad, great football game this year huh? I know you guys came out short but it was still a great game. I have not heard of JBR but my father who is a land development attorney in ST. George has worked with them on a few cases.
My boat is 16' 48" just as yours, I guess I just need to figure out the camera angle thing, cause my boat always looks skinny. I am excited to get her finished and get some good pics.
This weekend was pretty slow going for me because I had some work for my day job to get done for some upcoming meetings in Salt Lake. I took AJ's advice and bought a varnish stripper. As with any thing that is new it takes a bit to fill out the process and get comfortable. For me and this process it was about 6 sets of ribs. I applied the first layer of stripper on the rowers left, the three ribs in front of the oar locks. A nice thin coat went on in about 10 mins. I let it set for about 45 mins. Once my impatience got the best of me I stopped working on my day job stuff and jumped into the removal. It was not bad going and within about 45 mins I had most of it stripped and sanded down to the bear wood.
There were a number of sections that appeared to be a little lite on the stripping gel so I went over board on the next application. So the good news is all the varnish will be off no problems. The bad news is that the wood will not dry out until May ;). Hopefully not that long but its been a day now and still way damp. So lesson learned, put on a nice thin coat and let is set for as long as you can. The amount is no where near as important as the time to set. Oh well you live and learn. As soon as the wood drys I will through up some pics.
I have thought about a blog myself for the exact same reason. Let me know if you do it. What kind of paint are you going to use? I think I am going paint the outside of my boat. Right now the out side of boat is covered in a deep red stain, but it is starting to come off in a few places. Since I don't know the color of the stain I think I am going to find a color of paint that is as similar as possible and go with that.
Living in Eastern Idaho is wonderful. As I mentioned above I went to school and grew up in Utah. However, I had the wonderful fortune of falling in love with a gal who not only grew up in Eastern Idaho, but happen to be the daughter of one of its biggest fly fishing icons. My father in law, Bill Schiess, has been guiding on Herny's Lake in Island Park for 25 years. My wife used to run his fly shop and tie his fly's. How great is that!! The only problem is there is to much water. I had to devote my time to just one so I could figure it out. However, the water is very, very blah. I spend most of my time on the South Fork of the Snake with only a few trip(s) to the Madison a year. The water on the South Fork is like a moving pond. I would love to get up to your neck of the woods some day and give the big water a run.
Well it's back to the real world. Have a great week and good luck with any work on the boat. If you have some, post a few pics.
JDR
At 5:51pm on February 20, 2009, Jesse Ronnow said…
Craig,
You hit the nail right on the head. I work with a guy that used to guide on the Green and these were his exact words.. "I can just slide over and off rocks". Regardless, I'm less than impressed. I will say this though, I do get quite a few comments about my boat on the South Fork of the Snake.
I have a question for you on your restore. Are you going to strip the paint? If so do you have any ideas on how? AJ, from Wooden Boat Tours in Jackson Wy, suggested that I use Aqua Strip but I can't find any locally and will have to order some. Just wondering if you have tried anything else.
How wide is your boat? My comes in at 48" but looks much "thinner" than yours. Anyway, have a sucessful and productive weekend at work.
JDR
At 5:31pm on February 19, 2009, Jesse Ronnow said…
Craig,
I didn't realize you are refinishing your 16' Tatman. I am doing the same on exact the same boat. For the past 20 years my boat was babied by my uncle. As a result I am only stripping and refinishing the interior. I think I am going to put on an oil finish this time, no varnish. What are your thoughts? How far into it are you? One last question are your pictures in Mt?
JDR
At 5:27pm on February 19, 2009, Jesse Ronnow said…
Craig,
You are correct on the ventilation. I leave the main garage door open about 10" and the standard door in the back of the shop open while the heater is running. This creates just enough of a draft to keep things well ventilated.
As for the Clack's they are adored, which I don't understand. I went out with a client this past fall and rowed his and was not a fan at all. The floor is like a waterbed... no kidding. It sucked. I would say they are the most popular with the guides over here. And how can we forget Hyde's? My guess for the popularity is that Hyde's are manufactured in Eastern Idaho and Clack has the largest dealership here and they are easy to own.
Rigby is in Eastern Idaho, just outside of Idaho Falls on Hwy 20. Hwy 20 is the hwy that takes you to West Yellowstone and Ennis Mt. I actually live outside of Rigby, about 20 min's from the Byington boat ramp on the South Fork of the Snake. To give you a Montana perspective, I live about 1hour 50 mins from the 3 Dollar Bridge section of the Madison. Great river with a spectacular Salmon Fly hatch.
Good luck with the rest of your project.
At 12:56pm on February 18, 2009, Greg Hatten said…
Welcome to the site & all the wooden boat "madness"... really like your boat!! I'll look for you on the local water... I hang out mostly on the McKenzie and mostly above the dam.
GH
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How goes the battle? Things are moving a long here. I have put in my new anchor system and have begun work on the floor. However, I am stuck with a question of how to attach the floor boards. Anyway, just thought I would check in and see how things are coming for you. BTW are you going to the boat show on the McKenzie? I think it's on April 25th? Let me know.
Tight Lines,
Jesse
There is one little "trick" that I used when sanding. (wet or dry). I get a piece of 1/4" MDF board and cut it to exactly half of a sheet of sandpaper. (long ways) I glue a piece of 2x4 on the back as a handle. Then I use spray on glue (just a little bit to make it tacky) and stick the sandpaper on the MDF. This helps keep me from creating pressure points (gouges) from my fingers through the sandpaper and gives me a very smooth/flat surface. It also helps me control the pressure on the sandpaper by distributing it across the entire piece.
Oh - If you use just a bit of spray glue, you can replace the sandpaper as you need to.
Its a very simple contraption to create but I think the results are really worthwhile.
Since I started with a polyurethane sanding sealer I was comitted to go that way. I used Interlux "Pre Kote" primer and "Brightside" polyurethane and their (special) 216 thinner.
Its pretty simple to use but since I don't have a paint booth or a sprayer system I had to do it all with a brush. Of course if you look at it closely you'll see the inevitable paint "sags". To be honest, I wet sanded the first two color coats to try to get rid of some of the worst sags. This "percussive learning" taught me how much I could get away with. I thinned down the last coat since I think it it helps the paint flow and gloss. The other aspect I had to deal with was that I did this in February in my garage. I had to wait until the weather was fairly warm and dry (>50 degrees), I rolled the boat into the driveway so it could warm up like a lizard, paint on one coat, roll it back into the garage, ensure that there was plenty of ventilation, and leave it completely alone to dry for a few days.
I had quite a bit of checking so I sanded (forever) and used polyurethane sanding sealer as a start. This helped fill in some of the micro cracks so that when I started primering it, it covered up about 80% of the checking cracks. I put 3 coats of primer on and wet sanded each coat. You're right, I used Interlux for the final coats. I put on two regular coats just like it says but then I put on a third coat that was thinned down. I think it helps it achieve the gloss finish when its thinned a bit. Perhaps 15%?
After refinishing mine for the second time, if I have to do it a third, I'll sell it to some youngster and start over with a new kit.
;o)
Yea I am trying to get it so that three can fish comfortably. I am going to use this rear knee lock. I think it will block into the gunnels well. I had three fishing from the boat a few times last year. Not to big of a problem except that all the weight was in the back. I saw a picture of a boat that Sanderson from Tatman had built and I noticed that the rowing station was adjustable. Additionally, I ran into a guy last year that had a wood boat that was adjustable. From an enginering standpoint it should be fine, every single one of those Clack's and Hyde's is that way. You're right, from a fishing point of view they did get that one right. I also started a thread on here asking a question about it, and the overwhelming response was just to go with it. So I will see how that works. The good thing for me right now is that the water I fish is totally flat. Very little, if any, white water to speak of.
Took a look at those pic's of your boat. Man you put a lot of work into it so far, much more than me; kudos! I dig your choice of blue. I have always wanted a sleek dark blue boat. My fav boat colors are 1st deep navy blue, 2nd forest green and 3rd this red I have now. I think that last one finds it way onto the list via nostalgia. Have you seen a boat that is painted with that Interlux paint? I am hoping that is finishes similar to the spar varnish, glassy.
Man I am with you on the fishing bit... I can't get in the water fast enough. I usually start fishing one of the upper section of the North Fork of the Snake in March. It's cold, but man if you hit it right its a riot.
I got the bug as well. I have loved this project and look forward to a new boat. However, that one is going to have to wait for a few more years. I am thinking the 17 1/2' 56". My thinking is the wider the bottom the easier it will be to hold on a bank fishing, again we'll see.
I threw up some pics of my progress weekend. I have all the varnish gone and am now onto the finishing sanding. I got the wood for the floor boards on Saturday. So hopefully I will be able to make some bigger strides now that I can attack little projects throughout the week after work.
I wish you great progress this week.
I like the Tight Lines bit so, back at ya - Tight Lines,
Jesse
It gets even smaller. When I lived in Seattle I lived with a guy for a while that ended up being a Defensive End for the Beavers. Sefa O'Reilly. What an interesting dude. His mom was Tongan and his dad wash 1/2 Irish. Hence the screwy combo of names. Good guy though. Let's see that would have been... I think 98 - 01 is when he was playing.
I should have all the old varnish stripped today. I'm pretty stoked about that. Once I get the varnish all stripped away, I am going to add the foot release anchor system. Then it's on to the seating. I am going to completely redo the rowing station. I am going to setup the rowing seat to slide just like the front seat. My hope is that I will be better suited to trim the boat when I have fewer of smaller passengers in the front. I saw a Tatman style boat with this on the South Fork last year and seemed like it would be a good idea.
After that I need to rebuild the front seat, the casting deck and front horns, setup the set of horns I have for the back seat. Put the new rear seat in and put on the floor boards. I guess somewhere in there I need to finish the interior and refinish the exterior. However, it need to be a lot warmer than it is now for that so I am going to wait for a while.
Man when I put that all down on paper it looks like a bigger project than in my head... oh well I'm having a good time. Anyway, I am going to post some pics today to document my progress. Have you decided to move forward on the blog? Got any new pics of Old Blue? Good luck today.
Jesse
First off, you went to OSU? I am a U of U grad, great football game this year huh? I know you guys came out short but it was still a great game. I have not heard of JBR but my father who is a land development attorney in ST. George has worked with them on a few cases.
My boat is 16' 48" just as yours, I guess I just need to figure out the camera angle thing, cause my boat always looks skinny. I am excited to get her finished and get some good pics.
This weekend was pretty slow going for me because I had some work for my day job to get done for some upcoming meetings in Salt Lake. I took AJ's advice and bought a varnish stripper. As with any thing that is new it takes a bit to fill out the process and get comfortable. For me and this process it was about 6 sets of ribs. I applied the first layer of stripper on the rowers left, the three ribs in front of the oar locks. A nice thin coat went on in about 10 mins. I let it set for about 45 mins. Once my impatience got the best of me I stopped working on my day job stuff and jumped into the removal. It was not bad going and within about 45 mins I had most of it stripped and sanded down to the bear wood.
There were a number of sections that appeared to be a little lite on the stripping gel so I went over board on the next application. So the good news is all the varnish will be off no problems. The bad news is that the wood will not dry out until May ;). Hopefully not that long but its been a day now and still way damp. So lesson learned, put on a nice thin coat and let is set for as long as you can. The amount is no where near as important as the time to set. Oh well you live and learn. As soon as the wood drys I will through up some pics.
I have thought about a blog myself for the exact same reason. Let me know if you do it. What kind of paint are you going to use? I think I am going paint the outside of my boat. Right now the out side of boat is covered in a deep red stain, but it is starting to come off in a few places. Since I don't know the color of the stain I think I am going to find a color of paint that is as similar as possible and go with that.
Living in Eastern Idaho is wonderful. As I mentioned above I went to school and grew up in Utah. However, I had the wonderful fortune of falling in love with a gal who not only grew up in Eastern Idaho, but happen to be the daughter of one of its biggest fly fishing icons. My father in law, Bill Schiess, has been guiding on Herny's Lake in Island Park for 25 years. My wife used to run his fly shop and tie his fly's. How great is that!! The only problem is there is to much water. I had to devote my time to just one so I could figure it out. However, the water is very, very blah. I spend most of my time on the South Fork of the Snake with only a few trip(s) to the Madison a year. The water on the South Fork is like a moving pond. I would love to get up to your neck of the woods some day and give the big water a run.
Well it's back to the real world. Have a great week and good luck with any work on the boat. If you have some, post a few pics.
JDR
You hit the nail right on the head. I work with a guy that used to guide on the Green and these were his exact words.. "I can just slide over and off rocks". Regardless, I'm less than impressed. I will say this though, I do get quite a few comments about my boat on the South Fork of the Snake.
I have a question for you on your restore. Are you going to strip the paint? If so do you have any ideas on how? AJ, from Wooden Boat Tours in Jackson Wy, suggested that I use Aqua Strip but I can't find any locally and will have to order some. Just wondering if you have tried anything else.
How wide is your boat? My comes in at 48" but looks much "thinner" than yours. Anyway, have a sucessful and productive weekend at work.
JDR
I didn't realize you are refinishing your 16' Tatman. I am doing the same on exact the same boat. For the past 20 years my boat was babied by my uncle. As a result I am only stripping and refinishing the interior. I think I am going to put on an oil finish this time, no varnish. What are your thoughts? How far into it are you? One last question are your pictures in Mt?
JDR
You are correct on the ventilation. I leave the main garage door open about 10" and the standard door in the back of the shop open while the heater is running. This creates just enough of a draft to keep things well ventilated.
As for the Clack's they are adored, which I don't understand. I went out with a client this past fall and rowed his and was not a fan at all. The floor is like a waterbed... no kidding. It sucked. I would say they are the most popular with the guides over here. And how can we forget Hyde's? My guess for the popularity is that Hyde's are manufactured in Eastern Idaho and Clack has the largest dealership here and they are easy to own.
Rigby is in Eastern Idaho, just outside of Idaho Falls on Hwy 20. Hwy 20 is the hwy that takes you to West Yellowstone and Ennis Mt. I actually live outside of Rigby, about 20 min's from the Byington boat ramp on the South Fork of the Snake. To give you a Montana perspective, I live about 1hour 50 mins from the 3 Dollar Bridge section of the Madison. Great river with a spectacular Salmon Fly hatch.
Good luck with the rest of your project.
GH
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