Finally sucked it up and got back to work on the Hitia. Its a little bit tight in the garage space, but with the help of my latest recruit, Tyler, we were able to keep working on the front beam and paint the inside of the second hull.
Here's a picture of the beam as it sits right now:
And here is one of the inside of the second painted hull:
We left some unpainted space for the floors and for the eventual installation of the hatches. I was hoping to be able to start working on glassing the outside rather than painting, but it was too cold to work with that much epoxy and I didn't want to do a sloppy job with the fiberglass cloth. So I opted to paint the hull instead, and set up the flood lights and the radiator next to the beam to help it cure up. Then I got out of there because the paint fumes were giving me a headache.
After lunch I came back and was especially glad I didn't glass the hull. I had over done it with the heaters and lamps and blew out the power. I couldn't get in to the room housing the fuse box, so I had to leave the beam as she was. Hopefully that quick hardener works in those low temperatures as advertised!
If anyone has any experience working with epoxy in low temperatures (about 40 degrees F) I'd appreciate any tips.
Anyway, its a bit ghetto, but I'm glad to be back at work on the Hitia. Hopefully the groundhog was right and we're headed for an early spring and some warmer days!
Great to see that you have resumed work on your boat. I kept checking back to see how it would progress. Could you please post list of tools that you use a lot or wish you had to make the build faster and easier?
ReplyDeleteHi Ben,
DeleteSorry for the delay responding. We should have a whole post on the most useful tools, but I can give you a quick answer now.
By far the most used tools are a jigsaw for cutting out plywood pieces, a table saw for ripping down the support and trim pieces, and the japanese hand saw for general cutting to fit.
The jig saw we did without for a while but it has been very useful now that I have one. I'm not sure how you would get buy without the table saw.
Its construction is getting good! Build a Tiki 26 recently, which can be seen on my blog (with translator). Now I am about to start building a Tiki 21, but I confess to have the desire to build a Hitia with a small increase in the height of the edges and in addition provide a small cabin only to sleep in the hull. With this upgrade you can make a pocket catamaran cruise. I believe in the potential of his design to make long-distance coastal cruises with more comfort, lightness and speed of navigation that pocket cruiser monohull.
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin, any progress on the boat? I did end up getting a table saw. I've finished page 2 of the plans and I've started on page 3 and the beams.
ReplyDeleteIts exciting to see the progess move so quickly now. Hope you can keep moving.