Bulkheads & Transoms

Today I spent some time cleaning up my tools. I’ve been neglecting many of them over the years as they’ve lived outside in damp conditions. My handsaws were rusting and some of my wrenches too. I sanded down the rust and gave everything a good coat of oil. Hopefully they’ll do a little better now. After lunch I got all the 3/4″ square blocking glued and nailed to the bulkheads and transoms. I used the Titebond 3 glue and silicon bronze ring nails to tack them in place.

nailers attached

After finishing those and raking more leaves, I started sanding down the Klepper paddle that I epoxied last time. I’ve got the blade and half the shaft sanded down.

Hours: 2/15

Fill Coat & a paddle

I didn’t want to quit after glassing the panels so I went outside and started sanding down the paddles from the Klepper. You may remember from my first post that I learned to sail on the Klepper. The paddles are long overdue for some maintenance, so I sanded the finish off the first one today. I need to have Matt help me identify the wood. I think it’s a teak blade on some sort of fir shaft, but it would be nice to find out for sure. I’ve got the first one down to bare wood with a rough sanding and a partial finer grit sanding. It still needs another fine sanding before refinishing.

45 yr old Klepper paddle

The epoxy set up nicely this afternoon in a warm basement, so I was able to put the fill coat on as well. Time to settle into the couch for a Christmas TV show with the family.

Hours: 1.25/12

Fiberglass and paddles

The big roll of fiberglass arrived today. That was the final bit of supplies for these boats. Now it’s time to get building.

10 yards of 6 oz fiberglass

I also pulled the old Klepper paddles out of the attic. One of them needs a repair from a break when Dave and I were paddling in CT a good 20 years ago. They need a good sanding, new finish, and some new drip rings and they’ll be great paddles for the Totos.

Klepper paddles

How it all begins

I grew up learning to sail a Klepper Aerius II that my folks purchased before I was born. Klepper folding boats are amazing things and it was a lot of fun to learn to paddle and sail. In college I sailed dinghies around the Tampa Bay area. I never got into racing and never learned any of the terminology aside from the very basics.

For years after that my only boating was a simple fiberglass canoe. The old skin of the Klepper had given out after 30+ years of life. We paddled around local lakes and rivers for a bit and then had kids and hung up the canoe for a while. As the kids started to get a bit older, I started thinking of sailing again and how much fun I’d had as a kid. I started looking around for a family day sailer. I picked up a 17′ 1983 Spindrift Day Sailer I in Oct 2012. It’s big enough to hold the family, but small enough that I can rig it, launch it & retrieve it myself. We’ve gone out a few times as a family, but more often solo or just with Molly

She’s starting to enjoy the sailboat, but it’s really more boat than we need most of the time. Eventually I’d like to build a Michalak Piccup Pram, but in the mean time I thought a fun father-daughter project would be a simple Puddle Duck Racer. We can knock it together from simple materials using non-toxic glues instead of epoxy resins, etc. To make it more fun we imagine building a plywood dragon head and tail for the boat and painting the whole thing green with scales. The goal is to be as cheap as we can make it, but I’m hoping to reuse the sail, mast, spars & rudder for the Piccup Pram. We’ll be able to put this boat on top of the car instead of a trailer, but it’s still big enough to bring along camping gear for a night or weekend on the lake. First step is to order the Piccup Pram plans and start working on the mast and spars in the basement while it’s still too cold to work outside.