Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #2-5C . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

I was still coating the dead lights and the hand rail backers, when I had to re-visit the cockpit hinged locker. (Lower left of pic.)
It occurred to SOMEBODY,    that the centerboard up-haul tackle once installed, would preclude actually OPENING    the locker!
DOHHHHH!!!! 
So a notch was cut in the starboard side, sanded, shaped and epoxied, and all is well again. 
I'm mostly finding these issues, by visualizing the finished boat and then mentally getting beaten about the head and shoulders, every time Reality rears it's ugly head. 
Lord knows, the PLANS are no help! 
Especially, because I keep adding in Cool Things, that aren't IN the plans. 
Hence, the sometime re-adjustments to the build. 
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Ah, well.

That tape-the-back trick is paying off well; I'll be doing that to the hand rail backing doublers, when I flip them over.
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So how DO you move an unwieldy, floppy, boat deck all by your lonesome? 
It's not a matter of weight, so much as bulkiness so first off, make it less floppy.
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Then lift it up on one side and simply plop it down on the hull! 
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EASY!! 

Figured I'd need roughly 2½ times the total number of clamps I currently own, to clamp this deck down properly for gluing down with epoxy.
Couldn't see buying several hundred dollars worth of clamps, for what will essentially be a single-use application and then just gather dust in the garage, for the rest of my life. 
So I placed enough clamps to hold the deck in position on the hull.
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Needed a few more clamps up front, to position all those compound curves.
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A good thing about saving all your plywood scraps, is that you can make a ton of clamping blocks covered in packing tape.
Drill a bunch of holes and use a box of screws and you're good to go! 
This is NOT the Glue-up; this is pre-position and pre-fit, to get ready to glue the deck down.
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Now, instead of needing several hundreds of dollars worth of clamps, all I need is a bag of bamboo skewers!! 

After getting the deck locked down, I discovered I hadn't read the build manual, quite closely enough. 
Missed the part about beveling the bulkhead cleats, since the cabin sides curve around bulkheads #'s 2, 3, & 4.
Woulda SWORN I had the whole build manual just about memorized by now, but I sure missed that one word: bevel. 
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Ah, well. Easy fix with a Sawzall.

After sanding the bevels smooth, (Sawzalls are effective, but they are NOT subtle) I elected to screw the cabin sides temporarily, to the bulkhead cleats.
This will give me a couple of advantages over just using clamps.  It will provide a reference point (the screw-holes)  and ensure both up and down and fore and aft alignment of the cabin sides, after the deck is glued down.
Having the deck temporarily in place allowed me to cut a notch in the cabin sides where it sits on the deck and also allowed me to cut, fit and trim, fore and aft cabin side doublers.
Forward doubler being scribed.
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After cutting. (And yes, MORE beveling!) 
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After the doubler and cabin side is glued together, I can cut in a drainage notch; something that is a Major Pain to do, after the sides are already glued down.
I'm trying to spare myself, as much pain as possible! 
Especially, since it chews up far fewer man/hours of labor.   

And fitting the aft cabin side doubler.
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Starboard aft side, pre-trim.
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And after final trim.
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I see numerous build blogs where those doubler pieces are cut, fitted, and installed, AFTER the cabin sides are glued and screwed down. 
Man! That looks like a LOT of work! 
By having the bulkhead screws as a reference point, I can coat and glue the doublers at each end, on a work surface (less drips to sand out) and install the whole completed panel whenever it is coated both sides, and can be affixed at my leisure.
I can start coating these, right after I get the deck glued down.

Put a strip of tape on the gunnels, so that (besides protecting them from epoxy and glue drips!) I could mark everything before I put the deck down.
It will go much more quickly, if you're not constantly reaching underneath, to find out where a backer block is.
Vertical lines denote beginning and end of backing blocks, double vertical lines denote a bulkhead.
Abbreviations denote Rod Holder, Cleat, and Re-Boarding Strap.
The dots denote where the rub rail will be screwed to the gunnel into an over-drilled, epoxy filled, re-drilled hole.
Tried as much as  possible, to make sure I could always reach the other side of the gunnel, to get the nut onto the 10-24 screw.
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EXCEPT!!    In two spots.
DOHHHH!!! 
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Going through all the effort of using machine screws and nuts, because I fully expect the rub rails to get beat up over time and require replacement, on occasion.
(I've SEEN,    how I dock!!)   
Just don't understand anyone that would permanently glue a sacrificial piece of wood, to a boat. 

The obstructed spot was an easy enough fix, with a Forstner bit.  (Two blocked mounting holes out of 24, can't complain.)
Notice the edges are sanded, in preparation for a final coat of epoxy before gluing; I'll coat the inside of the holes I just made, at the same time.
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Added paper masking before the final epoxy coat gets applied.
(I know just what kind of a slob I am, with epoxy and glue!)   
Here's the final coat of epoxy, prior to gluing the deck onto the frame members.
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(Sigh.) 
I really TRIED to avoid any drips and even thought I had done so, until the next morning, when I was rudely disabused of my unfounded optimism.   
Probably should have masked off the insides, as well.
I can do some paint touch-up after everything gets really cured.  I've learned my lesson about trying to paint over epoxy, that is still out-gassing VOCs.   
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Remember the bulkhead clamp trick, for keeping the floor up and out of the way, until needed?   
Works for deck assemblies, too! 
This allowed me to keep the fore deck off the glue, while I was at the back, aligning the screws with the screw-holes in the corners.
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Aligned the screws with the screw holes and got surprisingly good alignment, throughout.   
Then I started screwing down all the blocks.
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Near heart failure,    when I peeked underneath each side of the bow and saw "waves" of plywood, where the wood held down by the screws made "ripples" on the deck.
A clear indication that the compound curves needed far more clamping surface area than I had figured on, the day before.
Quickly pressed my clamps into service and though that might look like an over-reaction; trust me, it's not. 
No more ripples.
(Side decks were fine, BTW.)
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I'll move on to getting multiple coats of epoxy on the cabin sides, while all that cures.
While I'm not exactly multi-tasking, I AM sequencing the build steps just as efficiently as I possibly can.
After all, this project has cost me (so far!) a year and a half of my LIFE! 
And caused me to miss out on:   
1) A Columbus Day Cruising Regatta.
2) A Cedar Key Small Boat Meet.  (Well, in my own boat, anyway.)
3) A Florida 120.
4) Probably a BEER Cruise.
Still and all, it's going to take as long as it takes, and that's all there is to it.

With the deck out of the way, I rearranged my work area and laid out all the cabin sides components.
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Including the forward cabin side doublers and the hand rail backing doublers.
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First coat on the cabin sides.
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And a second coat on the hand rail backing doublers.
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Omigosh!!   
Starting to look recognizably, like a BOAT!
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A far cry from the partial build I dragged out of a Wisconsin barn, 18 months ago.
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But also, still a far cry from something that looks like this:
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In my defense, I had my colors picked out long before I ever saw this pic of a SCAMP, built by designer John Welsford and displayed at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Apparently, we just have similar Good Taste. 
And my colors are Sea Foam, not Aqua and Hatteras Cream, not White.  The cabin roof will be the same Grand Banks Beige, though.
When my wife saw this pic, she loved the port hole colors and dissuaded me from painting the porthole frames an ersatz bronze as I originally intended; so they will now be Sea Foam, also.

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Yeah. A long ways off, still.
But, I'm getting there!!   

Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

I do have to wonder what Heloise Hinkley thinks about all this. You are now a number of steps closer to the finish line, and when you cross that line you will know it is a job well done.

[Captain Kidd]

She is looking like a boat!!!

[Doug SC]

You shouldn't call Heloise a boat!

[Jan Pittard]

I was still coating the dead lights and the hand rail backers, when I had to re-visit the cockpit hinged locker. (Lower left of pic.)
It occurred to SOMEBODY,    that the centerboard up-haul tackle once installed, would preclude actually OPENING    the locker!
DOHHHHH!!!! 
So a notch was cut in the starboard side, sanded, shaped and epoxied, and all is well again. 
I'm mostly finding these issues, by visualizing the finished boat and then mentally getting beaten about the head and shoulders, every time Reality rears it's ugly head. 
Lord knows, the PLANS are no help! 
Especially, because I keep adding in Cool Things, that aren't IN the plans. 
Hence, the sometime re-adjustments to the build. 
You cannot view this attachment.
Ah, well.

That tape-the-back trick is paying off well; I'll be doing that to the hand rail backing doublers, when I flip them over.
You cannot view this attachment.

So how DO you move an unwieldy, floppy, boat deck all by your lonesome? 
It's not a matter of weight, so much as bulkiness so first off, make it less floppy.
You cannot view this attachment.

Then lift it up on one side and simply plop it down on the hull!  :

A far cry from the partial build I dragged out of a Wisconsin barn, 18 months ago.

Charles Brennan

Looks amazing CB - and like a fun little boat!!