Farewell cable ties

Today we removed the cables ties (well, most of them anyway), in preparation for a little more gluing, and the beginning of fibreglassing.  

First we had to cut them, and this proved to be rather tougher than I expected.  I just didn't have the strength in my hands to cut through the plastic with these old scissors.




So we made a plan.  Dad cut the ties, and I used a pair of pliers to pull them free.

As you can see, even this was pretty tough!   But together we succeeded, and now we are ready to glue a few remaining holes and move on to fibreglassing.

A novel use for a tongue depressor.

Next step was gluing. First all the panels needed to be adjusted to make sure we had nice  smooth curves, and then the cable ties tightened , and away we go.....

Mum didn't manage to find me any smaller gloves, so dad got inventive with some tape.  Here's the job half done....... pretty clever really.

Now that we're gloved up, its time to mix the glue.  We needed 2 parts epoxy resin to 1 part epoxy hardener, then stir.

After adding some filler to the mix to make a thick glue we're ready to go.....

We glued up all the spaces between the cable ties, and glued the centre web in too. Novel use for a tongue depressor??!

And here she is - glued.   And now we wait.  It's only supposed to take a day for the glue to dry, but given that it's pouring rain I've a feeling it may take just a little longer!

The Transom Arrives

Hooray the transom has arrived! ( It's seems 'transom' is actually just a fancy name for the back of the boat.) 

So, first we needed to use some more cable ties to attach the seat support bracket to the transom to get a nice curve.

Here it is!

Now we need to attach it to the boat. You guessed it - more cable ties!

Next we tied in the vertical boards of the fore and aft buoyancy tanks (that's boat speak for front and back bits that help the boat float.)

Woohoo - It's actually starting to look like a boat!  

We are going to need to do some gluing next, so dad was trying to find some gloves for me.  I think these ones might be a little big?  What do you think?  Perhaps I'll have to get mum to try and find something a little more kid sized before we move on.

The Build Begins

November 1st


Even though we're missing a piece, we've decided to forge ahead...


We were supposed to start by "fastening the seat support bracket to the transom" ....little problem, the transom is the piece we're missing!  (whatever the heck a transom is??) 


So, we just started at step 2.  This involved  lacing  the frame together with cable ties. This is not a permanent arrangement, just a way to hold everything in place until we can glue it properly.

Next we had to clamp the center web in place to help hold everything in a boat shape. We used a piece of cardboard as a pad on our clamp so we didn't damage the surface of our boat - Dad's too lazy to spend too much time sanding it back later!

This was my first go at a clamp, but I'm getting the hang of it...


Unfortunately, Step 4 is back to the transom thing, so Dad's going to have to follow that up before we can go any further.

And off we go......

October 31st
As Dad has momentarily cleared some of the junk out of the shed, we decided to get started.


The first thing we discovered was that we didn't have a bench big enough to work on.......so we made one! I even had a turn to use the drill.


Then we were ready to go ahead and unpack the box. Dad's told me all about how to use the instructions, but he's not really all that good at reading instructions, so I thought I had better check them our for myself.

Unfortunately, we didn't get much further before we discovered that we're missing a piece!

An idea is born

Dad was reading yet another boat magazine recently, the Australian Amateur Boatbuilder this time,  when he found a story about a very cool boat, designed specially for kids. Even better.....they sell it as a kit!   An idea was born - "Allie's First Boat - a Dad and Daughter Project"
The 6ft Mini Boat kit was promptly ordered from Ian Johnston marine in Tassie, and in October it arrived....

Here we are with the box.  I'm pretty excited about building my own boat.  Dad and I are already talking about a name for her, and what color we should paint her.....