Building the 9 ft HSP Flycaster  
Design by Warren Messer - Seattle, Washington - USA

Part Two

Part 1 - Part 3

After the hull has had a couple of days to cure, and more time in colder weather; it was time to start the fit out of the interior. This was going to be a single person boat and I was going to use and modify the interior parts a bit from the 10ft Hudson Springs Pram. I wanted to add an extra set of side bracing bulwarks and change the shape of the bow compartment so the hatch was on the aft panel, and not inset into the top panel. Make it a little easier on the bottom if someone goes out with you. Other than those changes, the only other modifications were placing some backing blocks for the bow and stern handles, blocks for the anchor brackets, and some bracing for an electric outboard.

Before I measured for any of the interior parts, I wanted to get the inner and outer rails glued and screwed to the hull, to set and define the curve of the sheer line. I wanted to do this before any of the bulwarks or the bow compartment panels were installed, so the rails would not be trying to add tension or compression forces to the hull sides and distort the shape of the bottom panel.

I was showing my friend Bob how to measure the angles and set the tablesaw to cut the compound angles needed to get the corner blocks to fit. Things went well until I set one of the blocks 180 out in the miter gage and cut the wrong angle. After some do as I say's and not as I do's in corner block cutting 101, I was able to salvage the block, readjust the dimensions, make the others the same size. In my plans, I let you decide how wide and long they should be, so you can make last minute (*&^%$) changes. With the blocks cut, it was time to put on some glue and screw them into their corners. Make sure you mark the screw locations on the top edge of the panels. You will need to know their locations later when you add the outer rails. Be careful here, as the corner blocks set the heights for all the rails to be shaped to.

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I always try and cut out my rail material ahead of time, mark which end is the bow, and which side is the top, and on which side of the hull the matched inner and outer rails go on. I then separate them into two stacks, side by side, and tied together loosely. The outer rails on the bottom, the inner rails on top of it's mate. Then I put the ends on blocks to lift both ends of the rails off the floor, and put sand bags in the middle to bend them down again. As the days go by, I add more bags and move more of them closer to the bow end, still keeping one near the middle/aft end. The rails start to adjust and you can tell as there is less rebound from the rails when you press down on them.

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I try to get the stern inner and outer rails installed first. This helps keep the stern panel from taking on a curve as the hull sets in your shop. I try to keep some 2x2's clamped to the bow and stern panels until I'm ready to fit all the rails to prevent this; and a cross bar to hold the sides apart and in place. I mount the outer stern rail first, since the outer ends need to be trimmed before the outer side rails go on, as they extend to the very end and cover the stern rail. The outer bow rail covers the forward part of the side rails. I usually add the inner stern rail after I have glued and screwed the outer in place. Use the same set of clamps to hold both. After the glue has cured, I hold my draw saw to the side of the hull and trim the ends of the outer rail.

The hardest part is to get the bow end of the rail at the right height to start with. I usually drill a centered hole in the bow end of the rail, and with a screw in the hole as a center punch. The hardest part is knowing when everything is lined up. This is were it's nice to have a friend help you with this task. Have the friend hold the stern end of the rail, down and away from the hull so you can locate the bow end. When things look good, press the rail into the hull to mark the screw points location for drilling the hole later. Drill the hole if things are lined up and then drive a screw (not tight) in place to check. If things look good, get out the clamps and glue/epoxy. I've been using Gorilla Glue for this, but I may change to Gel-Magic with the mixing tip. My plans call out the sizes and placement for the screws used to attach the rails to the hull. The bow rails go on last.

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Normally I do a rough shaping of the rails and corners after everything has cured. But with this hull I didn't know where it's balance point would be so I could mount and shape the oarlock socket blocks. I needed to install all the interior parts, and as many of the extra do dads, to find the “balance point”. Lucky for me, Bob had all the fishing do dads that I could place around the hull, and Chuck at Duckworks had the kayak hatch and handles that I needed.

The kayak hatch diameter set the width of the rear panel, and I used this same width for the top panel too. I made some cardboard templates, so I could trim , and re-trim them to fit the hull. Once that was done, I could take the measurements and fit the plywood panels to the shape of the hull. With the bow compartment panels fitted, the bulwarks cut and fitted, and the seat pyramid cut and fitted; it was time to give everything a good coating of epoxy to seal the edges and panel faces. Remember to do this to the hull too, under where all the interior parts will go, because they will later cover everything up. Give then a couple of good coats to extend the life of the boat.

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Now it was time to “jump stitch” the parts to the hull; except the seat pyramid. I still need to balance the hull. Mix up some EZ-Fillet and “bag it”, using a small opening in the corner of the bag. Tack the pieces to the hull and let cure. The photos show how I held all the bulwarks in place, and the “equalizing sticks” I used to keep the bow compartment panels in alignment. After a nights cure on the jump stitches, it was time to do a fillet job on all the seams. Sand around the seam edges and wet out to the outer width of the tape you will use. I used 3” tape. Place and shape the fillets to your liking and either stop for the day and let the fillets cure, or lay down the tape and wet out. I did the place, shape, and tape thing, but I think I will go to place and shape the fillets and tape the next day. Part of the change in my doing things is distorting the fillets while brushing around on them when wetting out the tape. Especially on the bulwarks.

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But I may not. I have since figured out how to presoak the tapes and then place them. I had seen this done before, but with a special production ($) machine. I tried doing this on another boat, by using a squeegee; but the squeegee tried to tear and pull the tape out of shape, so I abandoned that idea. I had used an old 4” paint roller on some epoxy, and it became garbage, but as I was pulling the plastic center part of the roller off the handle, the light bulb went on. I scraped off the foam and had a nice round, free wheeling roller. I laid some black plastic on a 2x6, and then a strip of 2” tape ( I was fitting the seat pyramid at the time) on top of this new setup. A little dribble of epoxy along the tape, and a couple of rolls back and forth; and I had one of those black monolith, jawbone pounding, trumpet blaring, Ta Da, moments. Evolution, or was I always meant to do it? The pre-soaked tape laid on top of the plywood seam like spoons in a drawer. I hardly had to do any finish work; just a touch here and a dab there, and used a lot less epoxy in the process. Your gloves get a bit sticky, but just watch what you touch. On the longer tape runs, just roll/fold it up as you wet out the tape, and then roll/straighten it back out on the hull. Be careful you don't fuzz up the ends when you do this. You could leave the ends dry until placed.

Once all the interior parts were installed, I placed all the do dad's in their respective places, and set about balancing the hull. I have an old broom that I use for this and placed in under the boat. I can then turn the broom handle and the boat moves fore or aft, depending on which way I am turning the handle at the time. When I found the sweet spot, I started moving the seat pyramid with the seat on top, back and forth (also fine tuning the broom with small twists) to find the “balance point” that I was trying for. I wanted the boat to balance centered, to reduce the wetted surface area in the stern while rowing. I also wanted to get as much real estate in the aft part of the boat for the person fishing; and when they stood up, that the boat would be as level as possible in the back one half. To check this I played “Rock a bye builder, in his work shop” to make sure I was correct in my assumptions. The sea trials will let me know if I am correct or not.

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With the interior complete it was time to flip the hull and work on the bottom. I got the edges filled, rounded, and covered with a layer of 2” tape and a couple of keel strips, but I flipped it back over so I could epoxy the rails, and paint the interior. I want the inside to be drying and curing while I finish off the outside. I will be using LPU two part polyurethane on the outside and it needs a week or so (if the weather warms up a bit) to cure before I plop the boat in the water. Shiny dark green on the outside and a light tan marine enamel on the inside, with reddish brown rails. Should look great. For a lot more information on what I'm doing with this boat, check out the extra photos I've added to my gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/flycaster. Up to 200 now. That's 200,000 words you don't have to read. ;) Until the next time, thanks for reading my stories and looking at the photos.

Warren Messer
Red Barn Boats

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