JEM Watercraft

Launch day has arrived! Took a while, but I finally got her wet this morning. Rolled her down to the bay and paddled around for about an hour. Very little wind that didn't seem to affect the handling at all, and the water was very calm. Had a grand time. She handled beautifully and I am very pleased. The home made paddle worked outstanding also. All the water dripped off the bottom corner of the blades, and none ran down the shaft to drip in the boat.

I expected the weight to be a bit heavy, but hoped it would be under 50 lbs. It actually weighs 53 lbs on my bathroom scale. The paddle came in at 2.8 lbs.

Superb build Bruce - a few months have passed but the launch must have been one of those "worth the wait" moments .

Looking forward to seeing pics of some outings around your area. Had a look at some net maps the other week and it looks like you have some extensive protected waters nearby. I confess to being extremely jealous!

That looks great! Exactly how I envisioned the Laker looking "in person" when I first drew her up.

Yes Bob, there are a lot of nice paddling spots in the area. We call this our little corner of paradise. We love it here. My house is about 150 yards from Perdido Bay, and there are a lot of creeks and bayous in close proximity that make for some quiet paddling, fishing and crabbing.

Hi Matt, glad you think it looks okay. I made some flubs, but worked hard on it and I am very proud of my first boat. It looks like I am cramped in the cockpit, but I had my legs drawn up and knees bent. The foot braces I installed were unnecessary for me with my long legs, but my wife will probably make use of them. I am quite comfortable resting my feet against the bulkhead. The boat is a bit tender at first till one gets used to it. I was out again this evening with a bit more wind and waves in the bay. Not huge waves, but enough that I was taking some over the bow when heading into them, and never was in fear of losing it. Thank you for some great plans that made it possible.

Bruce

After having the laker out on the water a few times I thought it was time to get it finished up. First was cutting the hatches:



I used a Bosch T101 AO blade. It is smaller blade that allows cutting a narrower kerf and tighter radius. There was absolutely zero chipping using this blade. I was very pleased with the way it cut the plywood with no other safety precautions to prevent chipping:







That done, I started cutting the hatch sill and spacer pieces and checking their fit:



They look pretty good after gluing and three coats of resin:





After getting that done, I glued some backers on the underside of the deck for the padeye mounting scews and drilled the holes for the 3/4 inch #10-24 machine screws I was using. To prevent water infiltration into the deck wood, I drilled 3/8 inch holes 9/16 inch deep, wiped some paste wax on the screws as a seperating agent and screwed nylock nuts on the ends of the screws. Then placed the screws with their nuts into the hole before carefully pouring thickened epoxy into the holes. The next day I backed the screws out of the holes:







Then it was time to get the final varnishing done. A good part of one day sanding with 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper between coats was a drag in the summertime temps we have here now, but I now have three coats of varnish on it and am relatively satisfied with how it looks:







Once again kudos and thanks go to Matt for a wonderful design and excellent plans. And thanks also to all the people on the forum who are so helpful with suggestions and advice to a novice builder. Now I am thinking of the next build. I have the Okwata plans in hand, but am contemplating doing the Buccaneer 10 first so the grandkids will have something to go out in with me when they visit and Carol may prefer a smaller and stiffer feeling boat. Well, we'll see. I leave next week on another 6 week trip so I will have time to think about it.

The saga continues.

Bruce

Beautiful work!!!

Bruce, I admire (and am a bit jealous of) your craftsmanship. really nice work.

On your cart, why do you tie it on so far back? Why not near amidships so the boat is balanced? I've never had a cart or pulled a boat that was on one, and have no experience - only curiosity.

Hi Jack, Thanks for your kind words. I did put a lot of time in it to get it as good as I could. Fortunately all the blebs and horror spots don't show up in the photos. And as a friend says, it's good enough for who its for. Guess it's all part of the learning process.

As to the cart, I had never used it before and was being extra careful not to drag the trailing end on the ground. It helps to have the cart forward more towards the center to take most of the weight. I really like it for putting in near the house. Only have to walk about 150 yards to the bay. I also knocked out a rack to put the boat on the roof of the truck. I'll have to take a couple of pictures of that too.

Bruce