[Chris Morejohn]

Sold my home in the Bahamas so have been busy shipping my beach combing finds back here to the states. End of an era for me leaving the Bahamas but it’s been a great time having been there since 1997. Times have changed though for Rachel and I over there as its getting too busy for us. We are relocating to a small island off of Vancouver island BC this May after I finish these skiff projects out here in NC.
I got a few hours in this week on the jig. I have built the tunnel in place for photos only to show how it would look if wanting a tunnel. What would be done if building a tunnel is you could wax the ply and just glass it in place as seen.
The chine pockets and chine panels are 1/4” cheap plywood that I will use as patterns to trace over a fiberglassed sheet I will lay up on my fiberglass table. Very easy, light and cheaper than Coosa board or core.
The 1/4” ply will be put back into place, the core will be added to the hull and then the traced fiberglass chine pieces will be added in last.
I will just cover over the tunnel when coring the hull as that area will use flat sheets.
I should have the hull ready to start coring by Friday so we should see it cored next week.
The Basalt cloth has arrived as all my other materials. The basalt cloth feels the same as carbon in stiffness when dry. I will be glassing up test panels soon so will have something to say in a few days.
Because it’s cold up here I will be building a movable sliding oven box to cover the hull at night with a heater in it to cure the resin overnight.
The building I am in is fantastic but to big to heat.
Let me know if this is too many photos.
Thanks

 

[Capnredfish]

Never too many photos.

 

[bryson]

Because it’s cold up here I will be building a movable sliding oven box to cover the hull at night with a heater in it to cure the resin overnight.
The building I am in is fantastic but to big to heat.
Let me know if this is too many photos.
Thanks

Very interested to see this - it's not as cold here as it is there, but I've considered making a "tent" to drop down from the ceiling when I want to add a little extra heat during curing.

Looking great, Chris. Like @Capnredfish said, definitely not too many photos -- keep 'em coming! Really appreciate you sharing these with us!

 

[Chris Morejohn]

Got in a bit of time today laying on the core sheets. I always plank my sheer area using full flat sheets. I just scribe the bow section in using cheap thin plywood or the cardboard that came with the core box. The bow pieces always look half moon shape.
I will be making my chine flats out of solid fiberglass which I will cut from a sheet I will layup for these parts and other things I will install on this build.
I will rip the planks in the morning and finish coring tomorrow.
Then it’s add in a few detail things I have come up with, fill in the gaps and then lightly fair before resin coating. She should be finished glassed By the end of the month.

 

[Chris Morejohn]

View attachment 106580

Here’s the rest of today’s works photos

 

[Charles Hadley]

Looks like jelly Fisher and your posts are going to create some progress on other people's builds too.

 

[omegadef]

Chris,

You may not have been aware, but you're infinitely better at this than I am.
Did you cut the core with a jigsaw?

 

[Chris Morejohn]

Chris,

You may not have been aware, but you're infinitely better at this than I am.
Did you cut the core with a jigsaw?

Yes I pretty much just do everything with a jigsaw and then use a hard board to quickly hand sand the just cut edge. I bevel my cuts so they fit tightish against the sheer plate and chine flats. I am gluing to tight edges together with white wood glue and will push thickened epoxy putty into the wider seams after it’s all in place.

 

[Chris Morejohn]

Got in 7 hours work this Sunday. Rachel my wife helped me rip the core strips. I jig saw the 4x8 sheet in 1/2 then we ripped to 3-1/2” widths. I have 11 hours logged so far on coring. One more day to go. I like to dry fit the core. Fair it, then vacuum it real good. Then I squeegee in epoxy thickened putty into the seams between all the screws. When cured I remove the screws fill them in plus the left over seams. Then I Fair all the high spots off and then radius off the chine core. Then I fillet in the chines.
Once done I then resin coat the whole hull. After it’s cured I wash off, lightly sand if ruff fuzz is anywhere then start the cloth layup.
My new foam pads should be here this week so will show my fairing setup.

 

[BassFlats]

Wow. And just like that, we have a skiff. Awesome work Chris.

 

[Fishshoot]

Is this the beryllium or the boron?

 

[Mountolive]

Is this the beryllium or the boron?

Beryllium

 

[Pole Position]

Pardon my ignorance....what happened to the tunnel?

 

[DuckNut]

I have 11 hours logged so far on coring.

It would have taken me longer to get enough beer to think about getting started

You're changing the game for sure. But I have to ask: why did you let those poor souls on earlier builds jigsaw the core together for a month when they could have had it done over lunch?

 

[DuckNut]

Pardon my ignorance....what happened to the tunnel?

It is under the core. Jig is set so you can build either from the same set of frames.

 

[Mountolive]

It is under the core. Jig is set so you can build either from the same set of frames.

Chris is writing a book that will show a home builder how to make a skiff. He wanted to build a tunnel into the jig in order to take photos for the book. His Beryllium is being made without the tunnel. The jig still has the tunnel’s form, however @chrismorejohn simply put the H-80 core right on top of the tunnel.

 

[salt_fly]

Chris is writing a book that will show a home builder how to make a skiff. He wanted to build a tunnel into the jig in order to take photos for the book. His Beryllium is being made without the tunnel. The jig still has the tunnel’s form, however @chrismorejohn simply put the H-80 core right on top of the tunnel.

Looking forward to the book and my retirement so I have time to build and enjoy a Conchfish with a tunnel.

 

[Chris Morejohn]

It would have taken me longer to get enough beer to think about getting started

You're changing the game for sure. But I have to ask: why did you let those poor souls on earlier builds jigsaw the core together for a month when they could have had it done over lunch?

About core area size. Like I have said before, Does not all matter what you form of method you use. All production skiffs are built using 2” square pieces of core....so if it’s a flat area then you can take advantage of it. The sheer is easy but you have to know how to scribe In the panels.
Go look at the photos of the Chittum shop. You can see a huge pile of scrap core piled up against the wall. Enough there to build at least 5 skiffs.

I took Monday off to pick my daughter up at the airport.

Today I got a few things done.
Shown is the Basalt cloth and the 10 oz eglass cloth I specify for these builds. The squares shown are 12” squares laid up in slow epoxy and regular boatyard polyester resin. There are 3 layers each cloth in the 4 one ft squares. It was 61 degrees in my shop so will see how there are doing in the morning.
I used 5 ounces of each resin to do the 6 layers of each cloth setup. so 2-1/2 oz per sq Ft resin used.
The Basalt cloth is a bit stiffer feeling than the 10 oz and weighs more dry. It wets out just fantastic. turns from golden brown to dark brown immediately when resin hits it.
So when these skins are good and cured I will then do some tests to share with you all.
Because it’s so cold up here I will be building some form of cooking the hull each evening with a bag- tent setup to heat up over night.
Talk soon....

 

[Chris Morejohn]

Lots of other builds going on that don’t get seen here on MS. These are Berylliums, a lithium in Australia, and the Beryllium plug being started in Abu Dhabi by Hayarrie Marine, plus the cool looking CF 17.5 with the Carolina flair added.

 

[Mountolive]

The master at work.