Candlefish 16

[Bruce Heys]

Twisting the final wire stitch marked a small milestone in building a utility skiff. She is a Candlefish 16 by Sam Devlin and will be a gift to my son. A 20 hp Honda motor will drive her. My son will use it mostly for fishing and crabbing in Oregon. This is not a boat that will be treated like fine furniture and I intend to use a stout fiberglass layup. Tomorrow the seams will be tabbed with epoxy. Hopefully, she will be launched in April.
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[Rob Haskell]

Great gift, with a 20 hp it will fly. What type of ply did you use? I'll be building a nesting dinghy soon, design by B&B.
You're seams look tight, good job.

[Bruce Heys]

Rob your question about the ply keyed right on what I consider a deviation from my previous boat projects where I've used higher quality Occume or Sapeli. I selected 9mm Marine Sandeply from Ecuador. A non-marine versions of the same ply is available from HD and I haven't been too impressed with that wood. I also believe that it's a false economy to go cheap on marine ply. However, at the time of purchase I had access to the Sandeply at wholesale prices. It was too good to pass. I brought some home and put a small chunk in the dishwasher for about a month. I followed that with several boiling and freezing cycles. It looked good after the torture test - no delamination. There are zero voids. The downside is that it has two less plys than Occume and has a lot of adhesive bleed-through on the outer plys. It is only suitable for a paint-grade finish. There will be no surface that isn't covered in fiberglass. All the bulkheads and transom were glassed on the flat prior to mounting. I look forward to getting rid of the wire. In my crowded shop it's like having a giant porcupine.

[John Powers]

Post the fillets when they're done. I hate s&g but love the results.

[Rob Haskell]

glad you got a good price, always a consideration, haven't seen it available around here. I'm going to buy what I need from
Hardwood Store of NC, they aren't too far from me and have marine ply in stock, 6mm okoume for 63$

[John Powers]

Just screwing and epoxying planks onto my Arch Davis sanddollar. 12 foot row and sail boat. Got to keep the heater up as it is in the 20's here. West system slow hardener is working out nicely. Your lucky...nobody here stocks okume, took two weeks to get four sheets. Your price is right to.

[Bruce Heys]

I've gone through a lot of epoxy in the last few weeks. Briefly, all the seams were reinforced with 9 oz. 6" tape, then entire hull was covered with 6 oz. cloth. I chose 50" wide fabric where 2 full length runs gave me and overlap of about 4" along the centerline. That was followed by another single run of the 6 oz. cloth that covered the bottom and most of the middle panel. The keel was then attached and covered with 9 oz. tape that flaired alongside the keel a couple inches. All total there are 5 layers of fabric along the centerline. I've been fairing for several days and fortunately I have finally run out of fairing additive. Turning is within sight. However, prior to that it needs a final epoxy coat, gunwale installation, priming, painting and a brass half oval with be screwed to the keel. P1020272.JPG

[John Powers]

Bruce, who are you getting the brass half oval from?

[Bruce Heys]

John - I'm getting the brass half oval from Jamestown Distributors. It comes in 6' and 12' lengths and in the 1/2" width it can be rolled. As such, there is no extra shipping charge. They also have stainless, but it is a lot more expensive.

[Bruce Heys]

The white oak gunwales are attached and sealed with epoxy. I have used QSWO for the keel and gunwales that is leftover from building a kitchen. It would be my choice to paint the gunwales and perhaps all the interior (except the floors). But the customer (my son and his girl friend) want enough clear finished wood to make it "look like a wooden boat". I sprayed the first coat of primer, but it took too long to clean the hardened primer from the gun. The second coat was put on with a foam roller and it is just a smooth as the sprayed on primer. I haven't figured out if I need to use bottom paint. This boat will live on a trailer and will see salt water probably less than 10%. The ablative paints can receive some extra wear on the trailer bunks so I'm leaning toward just using topsides paint. At least this decision can be corrected in subsequent boating seasons.
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[Tim Koelker]

Nice work Bruce. I built Devlin's Mudpeep with a lower sheer line about 10 years ago and use it for a duckboat. I had good success using rolled on PPG Omni 2 part auto paint for a top coat. My boat was made from Marine Doug Fir ( I worked for Roseburg Forest Products at the time ) and fully covered in glass and epoxy - no problems anywhere with 10 years of outdoor storage.

[Bruce Heys]

P1020339.JPGWe flip her on Monday.
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[Gary Kvasnicka]

Looks great! What paint did you use?

[Bruce Heys]

Thanks Gary. The paint is a marine alkalyd enamel. It will be soft for a few weeks as it cures. My shop exhaust/heating doesn't work well enough to allow more sophisticated two-part coatings.

[Bruce Heys]

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Tedious and slow. That's the only way to describe the taping. The schedule is 4" 12 oz. biaxial tape followed by a 6" layer. The whole thing is then covered in 6 oz. cloth. All the longitudinal seams are done.