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

Part Three

Part 1 - Part 2

I've gotten so used to quickly shaping and finishing the rails and corners, that I sometimes forget to write about doing it, and adding a couple of photos to the stories. Most of it is done just with the eyeballs. I do add a couple of measurements to show me where the transition curves start and end, coming in and out of the corner blocks. Then a finish sand, two coats of epoxy, followed by two to three coats of marine varnish, and I'm done.

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Seems like it took forever for the interior primer and paint to dry in the cold snap we had up here. I finally had to walk to the local hardware store and buy a small electric space heater to speed up the drying times between coats. The System Three WR-155, two part epoxy primer took two days to cure in my cold, cold barn, but the Marine Enamel just said, "sorry it ain't possible to evaporate my base water at these temperatures". Once I set up a "tarp tent" and hung the heater on one of my old video light stands, it was just a mater of hours until the paint's water carrier evaporated and the paint was ready for the next coat. Normally I apply three coats of paint to the interiors of my prototype hulls, but the epoxy primer cut that back to just two.

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The WR-155 epoxy primer goes on smooth and easy, and you only have to say "water" across the rollers and brushes, and the darn things are almost clean again. It's almost that easy, but it still takes a few swishes through the water bucket, and a couple of squeezes to get them clean and ready to apply the next coat. The only bad thing about the primer, is that the light gray shows you every ugly frizzled end you made in your taping and epoxy work. It wasn't that bad; but until you get some contrast between the flat and the rough, it's hard to tell if a tape end is really neat or frizzled. The clear epoxy on the glass and wood, doens't have enough contrast for the bad spots to stand out. I'm going to competely change the way I do glass work on any future boats I build. I will show these improvements in the next prototype hull I construct.

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For the FlyCaster, I would not use glass tape again to cover the seams of the bulwarks used to stiffen the hull sides. After the bulwarks are tacked in place, and the seams smoothed in with EZ-Fillet material; I would place "blue" masking tape to the hull sides and bottom panel at 1" beyond the edge of the seams and around the perimeter of the bulwarks. Then I would use glass cloth, pre-whetted and placed over the bulwarks, and smoothed into the seams (cut darts where needed). After the epoxy has turned "green" (curing, but still tacky); use a box knife and trim the glass along the "inside" edge of the the masking tape and lift off the waste. Pull the masking tape up and press back down any of the glass cloth edges that may have lifted. Another thing I would do in the same vane, is to place masking tape along the edges where several glass tapes come together. Say where the seam tapes of the top and rear panels of the bow compartment come together at the hull sides. I would place the masking tape so the side to side seam tape would climb up the side and over the other two tapes a bit, then I would have a straight line to cut the excess tape back to. Sounds more complicated than it is, and I will go into this more in the next hull and it's series of stories.

Once I got the interior finished, it was time to flip it over again and complete the outside work. The interior would then have enough time for a total cure while I worked on the bottom. With the hull seams already rounded over, glass taped, and the bottom runners attached and covered with 3" tape, it was time to fair in any edges that I felt needed it. Whether or not you spend the time making it "pretty" is up to you. If it was going to be my boat, and covered in fish guts and scales, I would just finish it off in a "work boat" level of quality. You have to remember you are building it to go fishing, and not for a trophy case; and that it's just a tool to get you where the big one's sleep. My 79 VW bus gets me to the same fishing holes as someone else's 40k SUV. But this was going to be a show (for sale) boat, and it needed a higher level of quality. Which means several applications of QuickFair and lots of sandpaper and some dust. My sander and shop Vac keep most of the dust to a minimum, but there is always some that escapes and hangs in the air.

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Once the glass tape edges were faired in to hide their locations, it was time to unfold the 6oz glass cloth and give it some time for the creases to go away. But before I do the smooting thing, I have to measure out the "upper" edge on the sides where I will trim the glass cloth. On this hull, I had glass wide enough to go up(down) from the hull seams by 2". I mark this location with a pencil around the premimeter of the hull and apply masking tape on the "sky" side of the line. I will later spread epoxy to just into the middle of the tape, and will trim off the excess glass after it has turned "green" and pull the masking tape.

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I've found that if I give the glass cloth a few days to relax, and give the cloth a "hand smoothing" every day, I can chase all the folds and creases out of it. I didn't have to make a single cut or dart in any of the seams or corners. For the majority of the bottom, just smooth the wrinkles to the sides and ends. To finish the corners, I just had to open up my hand, and by running my thumb and fingers down around them, I was able to open and close up enough of the glass cloth's loosely woven "warps and weaves" to have them fit tight to the hull underneath. No cuts, no darts.

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The only thing that I came to regret, was putting the bottom strips on before adding the glass cloth. Keeping the whetted glass tight to the sides, and tops of the two strips as I did the rest of the bottom, reduced the hair count on my head more than I liked. Do the cloth first, then epoxy on the strips, followed by one or two layers of glass tape. Once all the glass has cured, then fill the weave with a mix of epoxy and QuickFair. For a usable (time to do it right) working time, I like a 2oz (A) + 1oz (B) batch of "fully mixed"QuickFair, and a 1oz (A) + 1/2oz (B) "fully mixed" batch of epoxy, stirred together to form a soupy weave filling batter. A gloss finish will take two to three full applications to the bottom and up the glassed over part of the side panels. Even if you don't want a smooth glossy bottom, the weave filling will cover the proud parts of the glass cloth and protect them from getting cut and fuzzing up.

I also like to add a skim coat of straight epoxy to the side panels, from the faired in top edge of the glass cloth, and up to the rails. I do this to protect the wood and seal off the surface from any moisture that may try to sneak through the outer layers of primer and paint. Once all the epoxy had cured, it was time to sand the hull to get a smooth and even surface for the finial finish.

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Side Bar: I was going to add graphite to the mix when I did the weave filling to (as I have heard) give it more resistance to abrasion. A chemical engineer told me that there was no way that I could mix in enough graphite with a popsicle stick to do more that color the epoxy black. Hummmm? To get enough graphite in the mix to where there was a lot of graphite near the surface protecting the epoxy, and not just the epoxy protecting the graphite, I would need an industrial strength mixer to stir it into suspension. And that just stirring with a popsicle stick, I would only get about 25-30% (by volume, if that much) of the graphite powder into the mix. A heavier proportion of graphite than just mentioned, would also be a very dry mix, and be difficult to spread on the hull. BUT YMMV.

This is the second hull that I have filled the weave on without adding pigmented pastes to color the epoxy. It was something that had me kicking my own butt around the shop for a couple of minutes, because I knew better. The pastes give the surface a high contrast opaque finish that brings out all the flaws. The bumps, groves, and unfilled spots in the glass cloth, literally jump out at you. You then know where work needs to be done to the surface, and you only have to fix those spots, and not be adding more epxoy to places that don't need it, because you can't see that it's ok.. By knowing where to work you save a lot of time, energy, expensive epoxy, and achieve a better finish on your hull.

Don't add the pigmented pastes to any epoxy that will be used on the first wet out of tape or cloth. You won't be able to tell where the glass has adhered to the wood, or where is has not. Only use the pigmented pastes in the epoxy mix during the last one or two coats while filling the weave. Check with the epoxy manufacturer to see whether or not the pigments, and what types of pigments may be added to that version of their epoxy. With some plain epoxies, dry pigment powders can be used. With other epoxies, the paste versions need to be used. The paste is actually a little bit of Part A resin mixed into the pigments to put them in suspension, and aid in the mixing. So you will need to think about how you measure out the part A's & B's when you add pigment pastes. Put in a bit of the paste in the measuring container, add part A to the line (or by weight), mix throughly, then add the part B and mix again. You will need to experiment a little to determine the amount of pigment paste to use, and from that, how opaque a surface needs to be inorder for the flaws to stand out. I could help with this if I had actually remembered to get the paste myself. Ow!

The pigment pastes come in a range of colors. For weave filling, I would use the light gray, or maybe white. With these two light colors, the blemishes jump out at you. For the more adventuresome, you can always make up your own if you have access to the dry pigments. Just add the powders to some epoxy part A and mix into a thick paste. You could also go to your friendly hardware paint person and get a couple of onces of the color pigments they add to the uncolored "base paints". Add both types of pigments (powdered or hardware store) to some part A to get them into suspension for later use.

Now give the hull a light sanding with some 100-150 grit to prep the hull for either primer or paint. With this hull I put on three coats of System Three's, WR-155 two part epoxy primer, in light gray. The first coat acted the way a finial rolling of pigmented epoxy would. All the flaws jump out and go, "you blind"? A little back tracking with some QuickFair and 100 grit sand paper leveled the playing field so to speak. With the next two applications of the WR-155, I was building up a nice thickness of primer for the final finish sanding with the 150-220 grit, or higher. The WR-155 needs a few days for the epoxy to cure, after the finial coat, and before it's sanded for the last time. Its also nice to have a "duck" around looking over your shoulder to keep you honest.

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After the cure and finial sanding, wipe the hull a couple of times with a damp cloth to remove any dust that may remain behind, or has drifted in from the ethers. If everything is hunky dory, it's time to paint. Pick your poison and have at it. I'm going to use System Three LPU two part linear polyurethane topcoat, in Mercer Green. All the Sys3 LPU's are named after local islands, and I think they used Mercer Island for the "green", because it has the highest per capita income of any place in the state. Mercer Green is a dark, and "rich", forest green. It should go well with the dark mahogany rails, and light tan interior.

This is the second hull I've applied LPU to. My first boat, the 8ft Nuthatch, was a learning experience on just about every aspect of boat construction. Stitch and Glue, epoxy, glass tape and cloth, and LPU paint. I think applying the LPU was the easiest part. Measure out some paint, add the required number of "eye droplets" of crosslinker to an once of water, mix it all up, and roll it out. Follow the paint rolling with a bit of "tipping" with a high quality brush, and the LPU pretty much took care of itself. Like the WR-155 primer, the LPU is just as easy to clean up. It dries fast between coats, so you should be able to get on four coats in one day if you have moderate temperatures in your shop. If it's cold, you will have to add some heat to your work area to evaporate off the water base. The can says "Dries by evaporative drying and chemical cure. Additional coats may be applied without sanding within 24 hours of previous crosslinked coat, or 14 days for previous uncrosslinked coat". I added the underlines for clarification. One quart should give you four good coats on a "normal" 10ft hull.

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I let the hull set for about 1 1/2 weeks before I flipped it over to add the hardware. I wanted to let the paint cure and reach it's full hardness, and I do mean hardness. It's one tough paint, and I'm amazed at how resistant the LPU paint on my Nuthatch Pram has been to scratches and wear. For a "wet" look, give the hull a couple of coats of LPU clear coat, and put on the shades.

With the hull upright again, I could add the bow and stern handles and fit the 10" kayak hatch to the bow compartment. Installing the nuts and washers for the bow handle gave me a chance to do some stretching exercises, and with the hull still on the work platform, a test of my ability to balance on a stool.

I wanted to make sure the screw holes for the kayak hatch were spaced evenly and that there were enough of them to hold the frame securely to the panel. After about a dozen trips around the hatch's frame with a compass, I found the correct spacing that brought me back to within 1/8" of the starting point. Close enough for me. I then drilled the holes in the frame, and matched the hole pattern on the bow panel. Break out the caulking gun and lay a bead of sealer around the inside lip on the frame, and install; wiping up any excess that may squeeze out around the edges.

With the lifting handles and the kayak hatch in place, I only had to go get a seat to finish off the hull so I could take it to the water for launch day. I don't know if the devils in the details, but going to one of the big sporting goods outlets in the Seattle area can give you more choices than my be needed. I had my friend Bob take me around to see what was available locally, and after I had spent some time online doing research for seats to see what was out there. I wanted something that could be removed if the boat was carried bottoms up, or just kept out of the hot sun. There were lots of different seats and bases to consider. Bob steered me away from the $20 specials, because the backs flexed too much and were not that comfortable for long days spent fishing. I finally settled on an Attwood ProForm seat with a Swivl-eze seat adapter (the pin was off about 1 degree, and the seat listed to port, I leveled it with a shim) and base plate system to mount on the pyramid. My other choice was from Temptress; with their special mounting system that I really liked. It was a little more expensive, but with the way it mounts, the pyramid could be fitted with a small waterproof hatch and turned into an air chamber. But they didn't have a color in stock that I liked and I went with the one you see in the photos. It's still a very good seat.

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Launch day came and I met Bob at the lake for a real world test by someone who actually goes flyfishing. He's had a well known 8ft fiberglass pram for awhile, but I think after rowing the FlyCaster, it may be for sale. ;) He said as he was rowing the boat, "it's more stable and faster". I don't have any superlatives to say about the design. It's just a boat with a special purpose; "take one person flyfishing to where the big ones sleep". I think it does that in an attractive form; and at only 80 pounds as you see it in the photos. The build and study PDF plans packages are ready for sale in my section of the "Plans" page.

Remember to check out www.flickr.com/photos/flycaster to see the latest photos that I've added since the last time.

Thanks again for reading my stories and the comments you take the time to make.

Warren Messer
Red Barn Boats

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