The weather is turning cold and we are getting tired. With the roof layed on we can cover the boat before the snow comes.


For the next few weekends we have to store the epoxy and cleanup the construction site.


Over the winter we will finalize the interior and roof, and determine our electrical, plumbing and motor cabling requirements.


See you in the spring.

The Big Turnover

We finally finished the bottom, now to turn it over. This has been a question and topic of discussion since for months.

How do you turnover a 1,500 platform 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 1 foot thick? and not damage the boat.

My concern was: is it strong enough if we screw up?

Some of the suggestions: hire a crane; get 20 guys; or use the tractor.

We chose the tractor, that way no one gets injured, and the it cost nothing. I don't believe it was the right decision, next time a crane. The job took 2 hours.

We didn't know what we were doing, it wasn't tied to the bucket properly, so we had a hard time getting it on it's side. Because we used the tractor the weight was not distributed over a large area.

We stressed and twisted the boat; suprisingly nothing snapped or broke. The epoxy held it together. Again no nails or screws or bolts; just epoxy and fiberglass to hold 1,500 pounds of wood together.

Next phase is the sides and interior walls (bulkheads). I will keep you posted.

Construction

To begin construction we needed to cut many sheets of 4ft by 8ft plywood into 1ft by 8ft pieces.

First, the keel: 40ft long 1 ft high and 2 inches thick. The bow has an additional 2ft by 3ft section. This was built in a day.

It took the month of July and the frame is almost done.

Next is the fiberglass, then paint and the we turn it over, hopefully by the end of August.

Epoxy and more epoxy

First we needed to epoxy every sheet of plywood, both sides. We had 80 sheets and could do only 9 sheets per day. That took 2 weeks with the rain creating havoc. We wanted to start construction but the job had to be done.

The beginning

After a year designing the Knotty 1, a 40 ft flat bottom canal houseboat, we begin with the site setup.

We leased the construction site from the Britannia Yacht Club. They have been very helpful and encouraging.

We started in June getting the site setup. First we needed a working platform. The concrete pillars and railway tracks were provided and put into placed by the club. I don't know what else we would done; wooden skids were considered.

Next a canopy to keep us dry. We had record rainfall in June. It rained 27 out 30 days. I suppose you guys in Vanvouver thinks that normal; anyway back to the canopy. After much discussion, we finally built a wooden frame and draped the largest tarp we could buy (50ft by 30ft) over the it and then tied the tarp to rebar stakes in the ground.

Finally the building materials arrived: 80 sheets of marine plywood, 55 gallons of epoxy, 27.5 gallons of hardner, plus a bunch of other epoxy add-ins. The epoxy came from the US and the first barrel was punctured in shipping so we had to wait for the second barrel (2 more weeks).