Candlefish 16

[Tom Hoffman 65]

If your boat is as you say primarily a trailer boat and only occasionally in salt water, I would not think you would need ablative paint. Take a look at Petit EasyPoxy. Most marine supply houses have it, I painted my bottom of my sailboat with it and kept it in the Muddy Mississippi for 8 weeks. When it came out, the grime just hosed off.

Nice paint and went on with a roller and tipped with a foam brush like cream. Self leveled. Really nice paint. Here are before and after pictures.

[Bruce Heys]

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I've been installing the interior bits. The fairing is almost done thank goodness. Progress has been slowed by a complete tablesaw failure. I had to rip it apart to replace the arbor bearings - a real PITA. It is easy to appreciate the saw when it's not available. Fitting the decks, foam flotation and hatches comes next. This boat is a gift to my fully deserving son. A launch on his 4/19 birthday seems possible.

[Bruce Heys]

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I used the better part of two sheets of 2" styrofoam for flotation. The underdeck pieces are held in place with foam adhesive and nylon straps. I figure that I've installed about 50% more positive floation than specified by the designer. The center deck is sheathed with 1/2" ply (3/8" is used in all the other applications). Probably overkill. I was concerned that the hatch would resist conforming to the curve of the deck, but it proved to be no problem with 3 underside ribs. I'm concerned that condensation may build up in the sealed floation compartments under the rear seats. It will probably require the instalation small access ports to vent the moisture. The half-circles of ply on the gunwale aft of the center deck are for oar locks. The oar locks will serve double duty as recepticles for rod holders. A battery platform is located as far forward as possible inside the center storeage area. The Welsford Rifleman and the Lobster Bay Skiff designs really caught my eye. Both of those boats have the throttle and steering gear located forward for better weight balance. In the end I picked the Candlefish for its simplicity but I remain concerned about the weight balance. The 20 hp motor is about 110 lbs not including the gas tank. The anchor, rode and line will go in the forward storeage area. That may help the balance a little. It's all conjecture until it floats.

[Bruce Heys]

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It is getting close to launch time, perhaps this coming weekend. We were going to purchase a new 20 hp motor. However, we found a used 15 hp Honda that was half the price of a new unit. The boat will sit on a galvanized EZ Loader trailer. The motor has a 6 amp. alternator that feeds the battery in the fore part of the center storeage area. The simple panel has separate fused switches for the fore and aft navigation lights and the GPS/fishfinder (it will mount to port of the panel). There's a fused outlet for powering whatever. A hinged cedar-framed piece of plexiglass will cover and seal the panel from excess moisture. I never expected this project to last 4 1/2 months and I missed my son's birthday by a couple of weeks. He's pretty jazzed none the less.

[Tim Thomas]

That is a beautiful boat. I'm sure your son will have a lot of good times with it.

[Roderick Gentry]

When working with Jim Brown I learned that they did their tapes over the main glass. I liked to put the coth over the tapes in an effort to fair them out with the cloth. Their method was cloth followed by tapes in decending widths. Pretty much all done in one wet-out. Then when it hardened they would scrape the little hard edges on the tapes, and do a very little sanding, and on to the finishing. very fast. Plus less chance to sand through the glass. But it all works once one has it actually on.