Covid 19 Diary
My blogs have always been how my construction interests manifest themselves in my free time, and this topic is in keeping.
Covid was a step back for many of us. I still find the period of time interesting as so much could be learned about the depths of the human psyche, and how little we truly know. I’m old enough that I recall seeing the end of Communism, was Covid a glimpse of what the end of Capitalism looks like?
Life is an endless struggle even in normal times, when I have time, I don’t have money, and vice versa. So with the Covid break, with work being slow for a short time-we had to fill our time. It was a struggle at first to make it meaningful.
Like most, we got caught up in the ancient witch-craft of sour-dough , welearned how to make bi-color laminated croissant dough and macrons . Eventually the lack of creative fulfillment got to us. I tried to tap into my creative side a bit more and invented structural bacon (in response to my desire for the perfect burger)-but it was clear I was going squirrely.
With my family in the same predicament, we needed a project. It couldn’t be straight architectural-this would not the interests of my family for long. Boats had to be the answer. Like Architecture-boats are a result of art and science working together, form follows function. I found them intriguing because of the technical challenge, but also because of their beauty. I was thinking cedar strip canoe or a rig-rower type when I proposed the idea……the idea was soon hijacked after the will of the team took over. Before long it became apparent the project had its own legs.
My requirements as a dad would be that the boat would have to easily transported, was safe for smaller pilots, and could be constructed within a summer. In no time, we had it narrowed to three choices:
The Jim Boat looked cool, but kind of a bit juvenile looking for my boy’s early teenage tastes. Never mind the design had not made it past the R+D stage. The appeal was it was only 6’ long and was designed to fit in the back of a half-ton. Also the design seemed to almost unsinkable because of the large bulkheads.
8’ Tiny Titan (Mini Hydrofoil):
Plans are for sale by Glen-L Marine for the design featured in the 1965 Popular Mechanics March issue. This still would have been a good choice, but a little too specific to purpose. We wanted more of an all-around option.
The Cocktail Class Racer (Skua Racer):
Chesapeake Light Craft sold us on the 1938 Charles MacGregor designed racer. You can buy redi-cut kits, which in hindsite would have be cheaper, faster, and probably better-but where’s the fun in that? I thought it would be more of a learning experience in carpentry if my boys learned how to make their own components. Having never designed a boat, I thought trying from scratch was out of my wheel house, so we bought the set of plans from Chesapeake. While we jumped in with both feet, we didn’t learn until later that boats under 10hp in Canada do not have to be inspected by Transport Canada. The design is a stitch and glue design rather than a plywood on frame type of construction. Having never pushed the limits of epoxy before, the concept of the stitch and glue made me a little nervous. This relies on the epoxy to create a moment connection where wood meets wood. Field testing confirmed the strength of the epoxy. The glue joint was in fact stronger than the wood. Stress testing had the wood fail before the epoxy ever would. Still, I was a chicken. We ended up reinforcing our frames with preformed cedar. This change probably added 30-40lbs of dead load overall.
So how exactly does this project relate to building construction? This project introduced us to a couple interesting products. These products would seem to have potential and open up options for exterior finishing on buildings.
West System Epoxy has a variety of products that are the gold standard in marine finishes. I have never used these first hand but understand through the prevalence in the industry and the countless blogs raving about the work ability of the product-its reputation is seemingly deserved.
Covid messed with supply chains and product availabilty and still continues to do so. If I’m being honest, Lethbridge does not retail West Systems Epoxy, and I didn’t feel like driving all the way to Calgary. At the time, Calgary’s infection rates were the highest in the province. We decided instead to try the locally available product with the lesser time on the market: Ecopoxy. Ecopoxy is manufactured in Manitoba for any Canadian flag wavers out there. We picked it up at the local Windsor Plywood.
These boats are typically made from Marine Grade Plywood (Okume-plywood made from tropical wood species ). At the time, the best Windsor was able to source us was a marine grade fir. While the fir ply have the marine grade adhesives it was stiffer and less bendy than the Okume. Fir trees like cedars and redwoods contain thujaplicins that are natural fungicides. These make the wood substrate a good choice for marine environments.
We opted for the UVpoxy kit which mixes at a 50-50 ratio with a working time that seemed to fit our project. We had approximately 20-30 minutes of application time and could push it a bit depending on the outside temperature, maybe as long as 45minutes until it started to tack and leave brush stroke marks. The real discovery was when you mix the epoxy with wood flour (sifted cedar sawdust) to make ‘thickened epoxy’. Proportions of each should resemble oatmeal consistency when stirred. It spreads like drywall mud, but when it sets it is space aged in its properties. Cut-able, sand-able, water impervious and has incredible strength with the most minimal of thickness.
The real win was the odour-or lack of one. Other epoxies we have used have the sharp tell-tale strong and sweet smell. This was reassuring as my 12 year old was going to be assisting with the application. Even while observing the safety measures it is a nice feature. And the Ecopoxy folks seem to have the aesthetics figured out. Pigments can be added with a decent selection of color.
The weakness of the product was the working range for temperature. Working in our unheated garage this became obvious. There was no problem in the warmer days, but as autumn neared and nightly lows were in the low teens-we had to stop epoxying. We even had a couple layers that we had to remove due to the inability of the product to set. Inventively we tried soaking the unmixed resin and hardner in our hot hub for 20 minutes before. While this helped, it really does seem to need a minimum of a twenty four hour cure before letting the temperature drop.
We couldn’t figure out how they got the mirror finish for the longest time. In the end we likely applied 8-12 thin layers. We would apply 2-3 layers before sanding out the high spots then reapply. Like other epoxy products, light torching of the surface gave the product good flow and removed microscopic suspended bubbles. The product is glossy until sanding. Sanding is required to smooth out imperfections in the epoxy application. Try as we may and even with a 600 grit final sand, the finish was always matte. The trick we discovered was the application of a marine grade varnish(also with UV inhibitors) after the ecopoxy was given a full cure. Varnish is the top finish that gives the paint the ‘candy-like’ appearance. Prior to the application of varnish and epoxy, we never exposed the boat to UV radiation. This is for reasons we define in our Exterior Wood Finish blog.
Below is the photo diary of the build sequentially. This project took us 12 months(working around work, school and winter schedules). We still have to finish the interior, and mount the throttle and steering system (which was from Chesapeake Light Craft). The Yamaha outboard and trailer were purchased from the fine folks at Precision Power Sports who were a great help. The cover was custom and made at Lethbridge Custom Canvas (and at less cost than the internet).
