Stalker Square Back

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:05 pm

Yea the first bag didn't go too good so I had to stop and think for a minute. One of these days I will think first, maybe. Thanks for the compliment. I hope the strap clamping idea works to help straighten the hull It can't hurt at this point. Next job is to apply the saturation coat. I will do that tonight.

Post by **jem** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:48 pm

After about 10-20 minutes, be ready with a brush you can gently drag accross all the gas bubbles that might form.

dangermouse01 · Post by **dangermouse01** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:47 pm

Surfman;
Excellent job!! Looks fantastic.
When you start the fill coats on your glass, it will take less epoxy. If you find that you have mixed a little too much and have a worthwhile amount still in the mixing cup, place the leftover (in the cup) in the freezer or fridge. The cold will stop it from curing and the next day, place the cup in a pan of warm water (or in the Fla sun) for a few minutes to get it back up to temperature and it is good to go for starting your next fill coat. Which will take even less epoxy than your previous one.

The fridge trick is kinda like your ice pack trick.

DM

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:53 pm

Heya Surfman,

Great work mate, and thanks for the compliment but the bag thing is not my idea. I found it here somewhere in somebody elses post. I merely borrowed it.

Re the epoxy thing, I work in a warm clime too. I mix enought resin to about fill a cup at a time, apply that and then mix some more.

I pour the measured resin and hardener straight into a paint roller tray. The extra surface area also slows the reaction process and gives more pot life.

Mate, I am seriously liking your boat. More and more, I find myself returning to this thread. I have almost convinced myself that I need one of these as well. I got a couple more to build first but I reckon one will be on my to do list fairly soon.

NeilJ · Post by **NeilJ** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:37 pm

I sure do like that tumblehome! I am happy with my DK Dingy but if I had it to do over I would try to figure out a way to put a little of that in my boat. Maybe I will have to look at a modification. I have the glass on the outside of mine to so it would require some thinking beyond my ability. Looks great. I will try to put a couple pictures of my progress up this weekend. Are you going to post the plans for this soon Matt?

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:42 am

Thanks a lot guys, I am really having a lot of fun building this thing and wish I could stay on it more. Mick will probably get the next 2 boats built and be started on a Stalker before I am done at the rate I am going. I didn't get to work on it like I planned last night, I forgot I had a meeting to go to.

The paint tray tip is a good one Mick, it is obvious that the stuff heats itself up and if it is in one big clump it becomes a chain reaction. Thinning it out in a pan would definitely help. I have found that if I mix up about 8 oz or a cup at a time I can usually work with that okay and it goes a long way too. Thanks for the compliments again and thanks to Matt for the design. I can't wait to get it out on the water and go fishing.

Post by **jem** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:56 am

I hope to have the plans put out in the next couple weeks. Busy time of year and priorities get shifted quite a bit depending on demand.

Anyway, don't want to hijack Surfman's thread and fine work.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:12 am

Well, I have to apologize, a few folks have gotten interested in this design much to my surprise and are patiently waiting for me to get this done, or at least splashed. I have been real busy lately, I am in an organization call the Coastal Conservation Association and our local banquet was last night so now it’s behind me however, next week is my wedding anniversary and I thought we were going to go somewhere but, she saw some jewelry at the banquet she liked a lot so now it looks like I won't have to do the Orlando thing (whew!).

Anyway I got the inside glassed and several coats of resin applied and now I am getting the gunnels ready to be glued in place I hope to have that done by the end of next week. Then I will flip the boat and finish glassing the bottom and can go for a test float. Sorry I am taking so long.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:34 am

Okay, more pics and progress or more pics than progress,
Getting ready to glass the inside;

Sides done but I didn’t take a pic of the before glass on the bottom, you get the idea;

Putting on the inside gunwale, you can see the oak on the transom already added;

Okay in the design we added a “nose cone” it wasn’t supposed to be this way, just a flat piece of ply wood with some splash rails but I thought this change would add some dimension and would look a little better, maybe even make the boat a little faster;

Splash rail added and tack welded, in the next pic I show how I attached it using a stapler, the stapler came in handy when I was laying out the panel too I stapled them together and sanded the edges and the panel came out exactly the same;

I now have the “nose cone” (from now on referred to as deck) tack welded onto the boat and the next step will be attaching the outer gunwales. You can see that I screwed up on the inner gunwale and made them a little short. They were supposed to extend up under the deck. I don’t know how I did that I was sure they would extend up under the deck by an inch instead they are an inch short.

lncc63 · Post by **lncc63** » Tue May 15, 2007 10:46 pm

I'm beginning to fall in love with the deck. Looks like it going to look real nice.