Painting the 27ft Sportfisherman

The 27ft sportfisherman that Kevin Agee is building as an amateur project in Virginia is in the painting stage, with final finishing coats going on during the past two weeks. He is using an Alexseal paint system, from undercoats through to finishing coats.

A big bugbear for anyone trying to get a top quality high gloss finish, whether on a car, boat or almost anything else, is dust settling on the surface either during or immediately after spraying. It creates tiny imperfections in the finished surface that can be seen on very close inspection. Dust is in the air all the time, even though we don't see it unless the lighting is just right to highlight it. It is aggravated by painting in a workshop space where woodwork and sanding has been done because the dust produced will have settled on all horizontal and sloping surfaces and even on walls and other verticals. From there it goes back into the air when disturbed by any breeze or draft, including those created by the spray equipment.

Preparing for painting concentrated on making the work space as clean as possible. All tools and materials no longer needed for the final phase of the project were removed for storage elsewhere, partly to clear the work space and partly to remove all potential dust sources. Then the boat was towed out of the workshop before hosing down all surfaces of walls, ceiling, floor and steel structure with water to wash out all dust. All had to air-dry before any painting could begin because of the risk of drips from above.

See the captions of the photos for explanation of what is happening.

This is the final sanding of the finish primer. The turquoise color is a guide coat of food colouring in alcohol. It is sanded until no turquoise remains to ensure a smooth surface with all minor imperfections filled.

Finish primer has been sprayed over cockpit and deck surfaces and sanded, ready for finish coats.

Holes for hardware and instrumentation for the console have been cut and the items dry-fitted to check for good fit before preparing for finish coats.

Console, leaning post and access covers have been sprayed with finish coats. Beyond them is the hardtop, with the bottom facing into the shop. The bottom of the hardtop is the same colour as the hull, the rest of it white. The bottom will be sanded and prepared again because of perimeter imperfections where some masking tape adhesive remained after cleaning with alcohol. A stronger solvent is needed to remove all traces of adhesive.

Three coats of Etheral Blue Alexseal Premium Topcoat, sprayed to a nice gloss.

Transom and outboard bracket, sprayed the same colour as the rest of the hull.

Reflections in the hull side showing the high gloss finish. 

The fuel tank was delivered by the fabricator during the week. It has been pressure-tested and test-fitted into its compartment under the cockpit. Now it has been abraded all over with 220 grit paper, then acid-washed before painting with a heavy coating of epoxy barrier coat. This was all done with TotalBoat products.

The 110 gallon fuel tank, as delivered by the fabricator. It has two baffles, one running fore/aft on centreline and the other transverse at the midpoint. It has spigots for inlet, vent and two outlets, as well as fuel gauge sender unit. The corner brackets on the top are for bolting to the hull girders.

After abrading, acid-washing and drying, the tank is ready for painting.

Tank painted with a thick coating of TotalBoat epoxy barrier coat.

The next step will be to spray the cockpit and deck, so we covered the toerails with masking tape and draped the hull with plastic sheeting, to shield it from white over-spray.

Draped, ready for deck painting.

Kevin's boat is now only weeks away from completion. I will complete the drawings after launch and seatrials. Until then, see our other designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Back to Building a Sportfisherman

I had to take an enforced break from working with Kevin Agee on his 26ft sportfisherman for a couple of weekends, the result of a very minor injury that tried its best to become a much bigger issue. Now I am back to help him as he approaches completion of his new boat.

Work on the console and leaning post has continued.

Console structure completed, with Coosa Board for the instrument and helm surface, plywood elsewhere.

Front view of console. The opening will have a door for access to the instrument wiring and batteries.

Leaning post structure completed. Helm seat is on the left and an aft-facing seat on the right, with the live bait well under the aft seat. The hole in the side is for a tackle box and the other side will have a refuse bin.

Inside view of the live bait well. The rounded ends were made with laminated plywood half-pipe sections and allow the water to swirl or flow smoothly rather than splashing back and forth between hard corners.

Framing for cabin hatch.

Cabin hatch cover. It will be hinged at the front.

The tumblehome rail, dry-fitted to set up the alignment. This is two layers of high-density Coosa board, cut to a trapezoidal section and tapered toward the front. It will be glassed before fitting and will have a stainless steel capping.

The underside of the rubrail has been faired to a large radius against the hull in the bow and will now be glassed along with the decks. The glass will be lapped onto the hull, which has been ground back to glass for a good bond.

Today we glassed the console and leaning post with a layer of 8oz woven glass. 

The side decks aft of the sheer break and the aft deck have also been glassed, with a layer of 1708 stitched fabric. Doing the same to the side decks forward of the break and the foredeck is scheduled for the next week or two.

This design won't be on our website until after Kevin's boat is launched. See our range of other designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Finishing the 26ft Sportfisherman Cockpit

My previous post about Kevin Agee's 26ft Sportfisherman project showed the support structure of the foredeck, dry-fitted for a test fit. Then the timber members were removed and set aside to be glued in later. This was to make it easier to finish the inside of the cuddy cabin, without drawing blood from our scalps.

Kevin is working toward a high-quality standard of finish, as good as he can manage as an amateur builder. Over all of the fibreglassed and sand-papered interior surfaces of the cockpit and cuddy cabin he has sprayed two coats of high-build epoxy, followed by two coats of fairing compound applied by roller. Most of this fairing layer has been sanded off and will be covered by sprayed high-build epoxy, then finishing coats.

Cuddy Cabin with the fairing layer being sanded. The white spots are the high-build epoxy layer showing through as an indication that the sanding has gone as far as needed to fair the surface with minimal thickness of fairing.

These are the curly maple foredeck stringers and fiddles for the cuddy cabin seats, epoxy-coated and waiting to be glued in then varnished.

Insides of hull sides with fairing layer sanded (light brown) and low spots filled (dark brown), ready for final sanding. The plywood cutouts for the hatch openings were loosely in place to keep us from falling through the openings. Now they have been removed for trimming to size, then addition of the perimeter framing. 

Parts for the flush cockpit hatches. The plywood cutouts have been trimmed to give 5mm (3/16") clearance all around. The perimeter frames have halved joints on the corners, cut on a table saw. The stiffeners have been cut to fit clear of the gutters into which these hatch covers will fit.

The cover on the left has the perimeter frame and stiffener in the positions where they will be glued. After gluing, the sharp edges will be rounded off and a drip groove will be cut into the lower face, all to be done with a router.

This design is not yet on our website, I want to get this prototype nearer to completion so that any adjustments that we make during the build can be incorporated into the final drawings before I make them available for sale.

Deck Structure of 26ft Sportfisherman

The deck structure of Kevin Agee's 26ft sportfisherman is coming together. Last post about this project I showed the frames for the flush deck hatches. Now the drain spigots for the integral gutters have been added. They will be connected to tubes to drain overboard.

Completed hatch frame, with two drains fitted in the gutter on the right.

The two drain spigots, seen with the frame turned upside-down. The sloped bottom surface of the gutter removes unwanted weight from the frame and increases the bonding area where it contacts the beam ends

We cut all of the deck beams to length and dry-fitted them into the hull, then fine-tuned the hatch positions. The beams were then accurately cut to fit each hatch in its correct location. The outer ends of the beams are notched into a beam clamp on the hull and they have intermediate support from the hull girders, fitting into slots in the top edges of the girders.

Deck beams dry-fitted and trimmed for the hatch frames, ready for all to be glued in. The large opening that has no beams crossing it is where the fuel tank will be installed, with a screw-down flush access panel over it. The centre console will also be over this area.

Same stage, looking aft from the cuddy cabin toward the transom.

This design is not on our website yet because the drawings are incomplete. To see our range of designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Installing Services in the 26ft Sportfisherman

When building a boat there is a lot of effort that goes into parts of the boat that will be hidden and hopefully never seen again. Nevertheless, that hidden work has to be carefully planned and executed if there are not to be problems further into the project or, worse still, after the boat is launched.

Kevin Agee is in that stage of his 26ft Sportfisherman build. It would feel good to lay the deck and see what would seem to be another big step forward. But that would be jumping the gun. Before that can be done all of the hardware under the deck must be installed. That includes fuel, water and waste tanks, piping, valves, skin fittings, pumps, bilge blowers and the solvent-glued PVC ducting to carry hoses, electrics and engine controls.

Looking forward from the transom. PVC ducting to carry hoses, electrical cables and engine controls, installed through bulkheads and girders. The platform at the front end of the compartment in the foreground is for the batteries. The fuel tank will go into the next compartment forward and the water and waste tanks will be forward of that. The ducts that turn up against the hull sides will carry fuel filler, vent pipes and wash-down piping.

Looking aft from the front of the cockpit. The water and waste tanks are in the foreground. The next compartment is for the fuel tank. These tank compartments have plywood bottom panels, with voids beneath that form a tunnel for bilge water to run aft to the bilge pumps. All of these compartments and the tunnel under the tanks have been thoroughly protected from moisture by glass/epoxy laminates.

Preparations inside the outboard engine bracket for cables, engine controls and fuel lines. These compartments will be accessible through flush plastic access covers through the aft platform.

Well-planned access to these under-deck areas is important for later removal of tanks if needed and for reaching seacocks, pumps etc. The choices are to fit commercial hatches or make them from scratch. Whichever choice is made, the hatches need to be flush, or nearly so, or people will be tripping over them and at risk of injury.

One of the hatch gutter frames for a flush hatch. The rebate around the outer edge will receive the edge of the plywood deck, with the frame finishing flush. The gutters will drain into pipes that discharge overboard.

Bottom view of the gutter frame. The splayed face was cut on a table saw to remove unneeded timber to reduce weight. The dowels across the corners pass through the glued joints to introduce cross-grain for strength and long-term durability. The dowels will be trimmed off flush.

Another view of a finished gutter frame

This design is not on our website yet. To see our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Filling the Bilges of the Sportfisherman

Kevin Agee is building his 26ft sportfisherman in a rented industrial unit in Seaford, Virginia. He plans to complete her and launch in time to go fishing in summer 2019. Each week of evening and weekend work takes him another step closer to that goal.

Having built three big boats myself, of 36ft, 34ft then 38ft, I know very well the commitment needed for a project like this one that Kevin has taken on. It takes drive and determination to do it. The skills develop along the way, to produce a high quality boat of which he can be proud. The standard of work that is seen on the hull shows his dedication to creating that quality boat.

Work that is going on now is all below deck level and on the deck panels themselves.

The bilge is broken up into compartments by the bulkheads and girders.The large ones on centreline are for tanks, batteries and pumps, accessed via hatches and access panels and draining to bilge pumps at the transom. Most of the others will be foam-filled and totally sealed.

Looking aft into the cockpit from the cuddy cabin.

Looking into the cuddy cabin from the cockpit.

Meanwhile, alongside the boat the deck panels are being glassed, with heavy glass on the top and a light layer and peelply on the bottom.

Deck panels, with curing epoxy.

Deck of the engine bracket. The wings have been thickened up with two layers of Coosa Board, which will be glassed over and bonded to the transom and bracket with glass tabbing.

This design is not yet on our website. To see our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.