KVARK – the homebuilt microcruiser | Kvark is a homemade plywood boat to cross the Atlantic in 2018-2019

Good and bad clamps

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Uku

We have bought quite many clamps now, perhaps 30? A few aspects have settled over the building months regarding the quality of clamps. Namely, when building a boat and messing around with epoxy – get the cheapest! The good expensive ones made in Germany have a very nice and tight fit when they are new, but a few drips of epoxy render them very hard to use. The cheap ones with lots of play are good, get those. And, it is very good to have many clamps, seems that you can’t have too many.

The cheap ones are good and sloppy. The expensive ones are not that fun.

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More glass

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Uku

Today some glass was laid onto some fillets. The knowhow is accumulating slowly but steadily. I found out that laying glass-taping fillets is best done when the fillet is still wet. Simply lay the fillet, cut out the needed length of tape and place it on the fillet, tapping the tape into place with your fingertips. Gives a nice result, since you do not need to sand the dried fillet in the pre-glass phase. I also decided to add some extra reinforcement to the stern transom. Simple butt joints wont do, so I put an extra layer of thin plywood on top to be on the safe side.

: The glass is soaked and eager to dry. Notice that it sits rather well, no bulges or dents. This is because the glass was laid onto a wet fillet.

: The hard way of glassing fillets. Let the fillet dry and then dremel it to a round edge. I only used the dremel on the corners, the rest was done with sandpaper.

: Glass tape laid onto the wet fillet. It sticks well and you can tap out uneven regions.

: On the right side you can see the butt joints under a layer of epoxy. My gut feeling tells me that a simple butt joint wont do. The extra layer of ply is laying on its back on the middle of the picture. The left side of the transom has already been fixed with clamps.

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Bulkhead construction continues

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Uku

The bulkheads are coming along steadily, three of them complete and three to go. The first fiberglass tape has been laid today to support a plywood joint on a bulkhead. Pictures say a thousand words.

: Floor timer fixed to one of the bulkheads, the purple epoxy filling is visible. To be sanded and taped.

: The bulkhead with the cabin entrance is showing signs of independence. I do not have to hold its hand every time it is vertical.

: The cabin entrance bulkhead is made up of three separate plates. They are held in place by the crossbar seen on the picture. A fiberglass tape seam is on the other side.

: On this image you can see the epoxied glass tape over the joint of three plywood plates. Also, the support structures facing the bow are in place to strenghten the edges of the cabin.

: The bulkhead with the cabin entrance, support structures in place on the stern side.

: Midship bulkhead onto which the mast step will be fixed. The placement of the king plank can be seen as well. The cabin windows also grow out of this frame.