Turned over

Last week Judy and I put the fiberglass on the bottom.  Judy had the idea to use a foam roller and it worked great!  what would I do without her?  

This weekend we rolled it over with the help of 5 friends.  now it's time to seal the seams from the inside.

Seams Taped

I got the sides taped to the bottom.  It is moving along better than I thought.  so far no major snags or mess ups.

This closeup of the transom shows temporary screws and more spot welds.

Spotwelding

There are large gaps between the sides and the bottom. First I attached the two temporarily with wire ties.

Next I "spot welded" the sides to the bottom with epoxy and fiber glass.

here is a close up showing the spo0t weld, a wire tie and a tempory screw

Here it is with the bottom laying on the sides. Now I need to attach it.

These are 2 more pictures of Chameleon and one of her mother ship Halimeda. We sailed Halimeda from Florida to Trinidad and up to Maryland. We used Chameleon as a tender.

A work in progress

Here is the view from the stern. I have attached the sides of the rear seats to the stern with butt blocks and epoxied them in place.

Next I attached the aft bulkhead to the front of the seat sides sides.

Why build a boat?

My interest in boat building started about 25 years ago. I was learning to sail and reading about all the great adventures people had in sailboats. I was most interested in building a steel sailboat. they seemed very rugged and safe. Instead, I bought a 14 ' sailboat. This is a picture of it with my daughter

I eventually bought bigger boat

This is it with me and my friends. I finally decided to build a dinghy to go to shore from a still bigger boat.

I don't have a real answer as to why I build boats instead of buying them. It certainly would probably take less time and effort to earn the money to buy one.

One reason is the satisfaction of accomplishing something most people don't do. In this case, I think it has something to do with not being able to find the exact boat I am looking for, especially in Kansas. I hope to use it to teach my grandsons to sail.

Deciding to build a sailboat

I decided to build a sailboat. It is called a Cat Ketch 17 designed by Jacques Mertens see http://www.bateau.com/



I have built one before; the second time should be easier? The boat is 17' 6" long, has a 6' beam, two masts and two cockpits.

Here is what it is supposed to look like

here is what it looks like so far:

You cut the pieces out first. then stitch them together. finally you glue them together with epoxy and fiberglass. the method is called "Stitch and Glue"









the boat is upside down without the bottom. So far the process has been fairly easy and is going faster than I had expected.



















Below is the other boat I built. It is called Chameleon and is a nesting dinghy.

I almost forgot I built a cradle in the shape of a boat for my first grandson. Here is a photo of it: