Building a Skerry

Day 1 (3/3/03): After much anticipation, I ordered the Skerry kit with sailing option on March 3rd. To celebrate we had a little kick-off party complete with balloons and cake. My daughter is very excited about building a boat. However, I don't think that she is grasping that it is going to be a few months before she can start painting.


Happy Boat Making	"Daddy, when can I start painting?"

Day 2 (3/5/03): The kit has arrived (2 days from ordering). Of course, I had to open everything up and take a look at what I was dealing with. I am very excited


It's here!!!!!	How hard can this be?

Day 3 (3/6/03) - 5 Hrs: It took me 5 hours to read through the instructions so that I was reasonably comfortable with them. I was hoping to have the boat completed by June 9th. After reading the instructions, I am just hoping to be able to sail it at least once this year. In a way, it's better... Now, I won't feel pressured by a deadline and can take my time to do it right.

Although, I have a couple of questions, the instructions for building the hull aren't bad. However, I get the feeling that there was a rush to get the instructions for the "sailing option" completed. These seem open to interpretation in many of the sections.

Day 4 (3/8/03): After checking out the NSRWA Kayak Expo (Some S&G and strip kayaks), I spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage, which will be my boat shop for the next few months. It's still below freezing out, so I'm not sure what the rush is. At this rate, I'll be lucky to be using epoxy a month from now.


The home of "Bugaboo Boat Building"	With a little luck, this pile of wood will be a boat, someday.

Day 5 (3/9/03) - 5 Hrs: Last night it occurred to me that I only need to epoxy the panel scarfs, then I have some steps that I can do before I need the epoxy again. I managed to talk my wife into letting me use the family room for a couple of days, just to have a warm enough place to get the process going. I guess it was a good thing that we decided not to renovate the family room earlier.

Today, I made a 16 foot table out of 4 saw horses and 2 sheets of plywood and set it up in the family room. One half of the room sits about an inch lower than the other, so I couldn't get the table perfectly level. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me later.

The most important tool (a cup of coffee)

The first section I glued was the bottom panel. Using packing tape to keep the edges clean and plastic wrap under the scarf, I clamped the panel down by screwing a length of strapping across the middle and to the table, on either side.

Package tape keeps epoxy "squeeze-out" from sticking where it will be unsightly

I used the recommended method of checking for symmetry by running a string from end to end and checking that it crossed the scarf at the exact middle. It was actually off by about a quarter of an inch, but compensating really through the joint off. I'm hoping that going with what looked right at the joint was the right way to go and that the slight deviation with the string won't result in disaster, later

I then also glued the two number 1 panels. The recommended approach is to stack the panels so that you can be sure that they are the same. The plans give a measurement from baseline (in my case, a chalk-line) to the bottom of the panel at the scarf. This is how to get the appropriate shape. Similar to the bottom panel, I used package tape to prevent the squeezed-out glue from getting on the panel and I used a piece of strapping to clamp it down


The Shop Manager measures my work		A faint blue chalk-line is used to measure for the correct panel shape. Ok, there's 2 chalk-lines... so, it took a couple attempts.


Mixing epoxy for the first time. It has little odor, but I'm not taking chances		The bottom and #1 panels glued and clamped down.

My table will only accommodate these panels, so 2 and 3 will have to wait until tomorrow night.