JEM Watercraft

Looks good from where I sit.

slider wrote: Doing the outside glass was good practice, but I am definitely not looking forward to doing the inside.

Have you considered doing the interior in 3 sections? I did a section for each side and one for the bottom and it was fairly painless - just means 3 sessions. The other good thing for me was having that overlap along the chines as I used a very lightweight glass but this may not be any advantage for you.

Looking great. On the inside what I do is drape my glass all around and then start putting spring clamps around the sheer as work out the wrinkles. Start epoxying in the bottom and work your way out. Leave the clamps in place until the last thing.

One more coat on the outside - may be my last. Plus you can see the oak quarter round I am epxoying together to make my gunwales.



I got the outside halfway decent. This is my first boat, but I have been struggling because it also looks like my first boat. I think I need to move on and start on the inside.

Well, I had to glass the inside to really appreciate how bad the ouside doesn't look. Doing the inside was awful - as I would get one side looking right, I would realize I had just screwed up the other where the sides meet the bottom (did this back and forth a while - very maddening). Final result was okay but has some bubbles and wavy sections.

For some reason, doesn't bother me as bad as I thought it would, the inside looks a good bit worse than the outside (and I was really bummed about the outside originally). Guess I came to the realization that I built this thing to get on the river and fish not sit around and gaze at. Now that I have the gunwales and the decks on, I am thinking it's looking pretty good, very cool actually .

I will post some pics in the next few days. Got outside rails and decks on and I still have to do the graphite/epoxy on bottom. I am debating whether to just skip the inside rails??? I also bailed on doing the bulkhead thing and just did some minimal decks.

slider wrote: Guess I came to the realization that I built this thing to get on the river and fish not sit around and gaze at.

A great realization! You want to do a good job but all those little mistakes seem to disappear once she's on the water.

G'day Slider and welcome aboard mate.

I just found your thread. Been a little pre-occupied lately but don't stress too much about your finish. Like you say, the whole point is to build a fishing boat - not a piece of fine art or furniture.

These touring pirogues are very, very good fishing craft and I am certain you are going to love yours.

Ha! My first build (and only so far) is so ugly I had to paint the outside. Guess what, she's still a great fishing machine! A true work horse. Plus, I have no qualms about adding or cutting this or that to modify her to my needs, throwing her in the back of the truck, or dragging over rocks and mud and logs. A true joy!

Thanks guys, like I said in my first post before I even started the build: "This will 100% be a solo fishing craft ..." I am back on that track and can't wait to get it out on the river and go fishing.

Mick, your review and posts on the touring pirogue were key in me choosing that model (I even knew before starting it had to be green). Hope to get more done this week and post pics.

Almost there... a few more pics.

The inside glass job:





Close up of end piece tying gunwales together - I do like the way this came out! I went with this relatively flat piece on the back and did a thicker rounded piece on front.:




Almost done, all I have left is the graphite/epoxy on bottom, doing something for a seat and rigging this fish slayer:

Looks good Slider. I like how you did the ends and breasthooks.