[Jred]

i Forgot about a little paint fiasco I had at this step. I tried to use some total boat bilge paint which I had used previously and really liked. It was a year old and I knew it would give me a problem so I went ahead and painted the front hatch area and then when I didn’t cure correctly I scraped it all out! You can see in some of these pics where I scraped a little off.

this is when I started the fuel tank. I used Max gasoline resistant epoxy and many layers of 1.5 chop and 10oz cloth alternating. I used peel ply to help get air out around corners and big fillets on the inside as well as a few neat coats on the inside once it was all glassed together. The tank ended up holding about 8 gallons
@Charles Hadley hooked it up with the full plate which I just remembered I still owe him for.

 

[sladeskiff]

Awesome project, pretty work!

 

[Sublime]

That fuel tank is awesome. I wanted to do that, but chickened out. And yes, any future tips on the carbon poling platform would be great.

 

[Jred]

I’ll give small helpful tips on the carbon via DM I don’t want to post it for carbon marine to see or even worse, the rest of the internet

 

[SouthernAngler]

J-Red
I thought I was told CSM and epoxy resin did work together because of the styrene that's used to hold the CSM together. I was told the epoxy wouldn't dissolve the styrene. Maybe Im mistaken.

 

[Jred]

Between deployments at work and family stuff it’s now June 2022, I’m working on glassing the floor into place. I did 1 layer of 1708 on the bottom with some trevira squares and additional 1708 for where I’m gonna mount the cooler tie downs. I made the cockpit self bailing and it drains into the little bilge area I built. The core in the floor of the front and back hatch areas are 1/2” so it sits a 1/4 lower than the floor and while the tubes I built look ugly they work well and it’s a straight shot to the bilge.

 

[Jred]

J-Red
I thought I was told CSM and epoxy resin did work together because of the styrene that's used to hold the CSM together. I was told the epoxy wouldn't dissolve the styrene. Maybe Im mistaken.

The styrene bunder doesn’t dissolve in the epoxy but the epoxy will still impregnate the fiberglass strands, it just isn’t as flexible as I could potentially be with poly resin. On the tank it’s more or less just used to build thickness and add a little bit of strength for the 10oz.
im no expert but I have no worries. If there ends up being a problem I’ll remove the tank and put something else in

 

[Jred]

With everything glassed in how I like i glued in the cockpit drains and put a few layers of glass over top of them to add strength and fill pinholes then rolled on a thick layer of gelcoat to fill any more pinholes and help me start sanding high or low spots

 

[barry noll]

While I was waiting on the skiff I also got started on these View attachment 222619
View attachment 222616
View attachment 222618
View attachment 222620
View attachment 222617
View attachment 222614
View attachment 222612
View attachment 222611
View attachment 222613

After the floor was done and gelcoated I made my first bigger mistake. forward rod tubes would have to be at such an angle that it would be hard to get rods in and out and the rods would always have significant bend to them while in the tubes which would have them rubbing the sides of the tube constantly. I also wanted the gas tank up forward which would not have much room now so I changed them from 3 forward on each side to 2 aft View attachment 222655
View attachment 222654
View attachment 222653 Here’s how I did that
View attachment 222663
View attachment 222657
View attachment 222659 View attachment 222661

Looks great! Impressive home build.

 

[Jred]

Once I sanded the cockpit area smooth enough for my liking I sprayed the gelcoat on the inside with the harbor freight purple gun drilled out to 5/64 I believe and used duratec high gloss for the final coat. It came out nice. I’m not wet sanding or buffing anything. It’s a fishing skiff
I got the transom eyes and bow eye installed and rigged up the fuel tank at this point while getting ready to glass the bottom of the deck

 

[Jred]

With the bottom of the deck glassed I built the hatches and glued them in from the topside then flipped and glassed them in from the bottom side

 

[Jred]

for the hatch drains I made little tubes with the top of a silicone tube and glued/glassed them in

With the bottom glassed and the hatches in place it was time to glue the deck down. I used thickened epoxy in some spots and poly resin/chopped fibers/cabosil in others

 

[Jred]

With the top glassed on and gaps filled I attempted to use 10oz cloth to create an overhang. Done do this it doesn’t work

i cut that off and layed up strips of chop strand on my trusty mirror and then used that as an overhang and layed the 1708 over the whole get up this worked fine

 

[Gatorbig]

Killing it!

 

[Jred]

gI removed about an inch of core at the top of the transom and filled it with strips of Trevira and glass then glassed the edges to the deck and rolled on a layer of gelcoat. this was the last thing I did before I was deployed for about a month and then again for about a week during Hurricane ian

 

[bonefishbradjr]

Wow so sick! Building a skiff like this is on my bucket list

 

[Jred]

Here’s a test fit if the poling platform. Its too tall. I cut it down so it’ll be about an inch above the top step

 

[Jred]

I got the skiff flipped over and put a layer of glass and gelcoat on the underside of the flange and then got the hatch lids built and set in place before applying gelcoat to the topside. I was spraying the gelcoat but ran into an issue and ended up just thinking it out with duratex and rolling the final layer on

 

[Jred]

I got the rub rail track installed. I went with the tessilmare radial kit. I started taping off for nonskid. I used kiwi grip, I’ve used it in the past and it held up fine and feels good and is easy to touch up and use.
i also started installing some hardware at this point all I’m adding is the hatch drains, hinges, latches, casting platform and cooler tie downs

 

[Jred]

Picked up a 22’ moonlighter and got it installed with the v marine guide holders, they’re nice

took it out for the first test run and this happened in the carb. I was probably not paying attention when I put it together after a rebuild and the screw holding the lever wasn’t tightened. I knew what happened as soon as it died at full speed and fuel was pouring out of the cowling
my wife thought this was hilarious

Once I got the needle and float lever installed I took it out the next day… 17-22 knot winds perfect! ran it straight into the wind and was seeing 25 knots and a pretty smooth ride in about 1ft chop. My stock aluminum prop blows out at low speeds on turns and starts to cavitate when getting up on plane so I’m gonna have to tinker with that. If anyone has recommendations on where to start with this id appreciate it.

Im pretty much done besides tweaking the trailer a little. Does anyone know where I can get side bunks for the stern? I’ll be finishing up the poling and casting platforms in the next few weeks and then gearing up for a 3 month deployment that’ll take me into next year.

the tiller extension makes for a good paddle in a pinch. I knew I should’ve bought the push pole before the first test run