fuel tank

This is a picture of a stainless steel fuel tank bought off ebay ,estimated to hold 129 litres. It fits in behind the rear seats and should provide me with a good range. It had alot of caramelized sugar in it when i bought it which had to be cleaned out using acetone,also the fuel sender and fuel pickup pipe were rusted out so will need to be replaced.(forgot to say that it has internal baffles to stop the fuel sloshing around whilst cornering)

An update from my original plans as my original layout left no room for the battery.  Now the battery sits neatly between twin Quicksilver 25ltr tanks .

Modifications that i have made to the tanks are as follows -- I drilled and tapped the filler caps to take a spiggot and tube attached to an external vent .   I also fitted fuel tank senders that are wired to twin fuel gauges on the dashboard. Both tanks are fitted into a custom made wooden cradle and strapped down with webbing straps.

 Fuel vent for both tanks is mounted externally in the splashwell .

3/16 " fuel line and primer bulb

deck strips

In this picture the deck strips (sapele and maple )are glued down to the plywood sub deck using epoxy glue and long wooden battens to hold them whilst setting.

beading

The maple deck edge beading has been glued to the sub deck ,temporary blocks have been used to hold the beading tight until the epoxy sets.

Splashwell

Showing detail of splashwell frame ,and sub decks have been glued and screwed down.

windscreen

Here is an idea of the design for the windscreen, i am hoping to build a wooden frame to hold clear lexan sheet, the wooden frame will either be steamed into shape or laminated up from smaller sections. The bottom picture shows the laminated ash strip windscreen frame held in place with clamps now but will be fixed permanently with screwbolts through the coverboards , this will give a clean concealed strong fixing .

epoxy sealer

This shot shows the lovely stripey quarter sawn sapele topsides after they have had one coat of epoxy sealer.

floor battens

The battens to hold the flooring are in place ready to accept the marine ply flooring. You can also see in this picture that i have fixed side supports for the seating and made the bench seat slatting,

Chines

The topsides have been faired and i have added new chines . The chines were epoxy glued , screwed and plugged .

Coverboards

I used quarter sawn sapele 15mm thick for the coverboards,they were epoxy glued, screwed with 1 1/2" x 8 silicon bronze screws and then plugged with sapele plugs. Towards the Bow the coverboards had to be dampened down in order to get the wood to bend . Amazingly enough the wood set in the desired shape after a few hours in the heat of the sun , then it was just a matter of screwing down and plugging.

Dashboard

The dasboard and bulkhead have had new large radius ends fitted ,then they have been covered with flexiply to produce this seamless curve.

topsides

Detail showing 4mm sapele veneers epoxyed to the plywood skin using staples which were then removed  .(topsides now skinned in sapele solid veneer)

cockpits

Detail of the new cockpit layout with the dashboard and central bridge both being moved towards the stern to provide a longer bow sub deck and more storage up front. I have also added wood to the sub deck battens to provide more shape to the bow deck

rear deck

picture of rear deck with extra strengthening for the coverboards, i have also changed the shape of the well by making extra bracing that i angled in to the rear bulkhead

plywood hull

This picture shows the boat pretty much as i bought it with a plywood hull and broken windscreen. The windscreen will be scraped and a new one fabricated from lexan and cold moulded around a scratch built wooden frame of my own design. The plywood hull has been striped of the old paint and i have reseated all of the screws .

welcome to my first blog

Hi,my name is fred and i live on the south coast of england .(Bournemouth)  I have been building a boat for about a year now and thought that it was probably about time that i start a blogg to document my experiences during this project , I will post some pictures with detail later .