cape fear 16 Sit-on-top construction

co · Post by co » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:31 am

Hi Matt,

So I'm about 5 weeks in to construction on my CF SOT. I'd say it's going pretty well... the body panels have been stitched together, filleted and glassed on the inside, and I'm just about done sanding the outside seams. I'll probably have them glassed on the outside by Saturday. I've stitched the fore and aft decks on (they fit without any issues, thankfully - I didn't stitch them on before filleting the seams).

So that leaves me wondering about the cockpit and tankwell. I cut out all of the pieces last week without really thinking about how they go in... but now that I look at them, I'm not 100% sure. I might be overlooking instructions somewhere, but I wonder if you could offer some advice about how these panels fit - specifically the tankwell fore and aft walls, and the cockpit fore and aft walls. The shape of those pieces is odd (one looks like a T, two of them look like rectangles with two rectangular pointy bits pointing up from one of the sides).

What's the orientation of these panels - do they go pointy bits up, pointy bits down, etc? How do the sidewalls and floors fit with these? My theory is that the pointy bits go down, and the floors hit them just above the cutouts - and the cutouts are just to reduce the weight of the piece - but I want to make sure before they get filleted in place. =)

I know this might be hard to explain, so if you have pictures of this phase of construction, I'd love to take a look at them. Thanks!

Craig

P.S.
For prospective builders, this is my advice so far:
1. Use 4mm marine... even if the 1/4in exterior is free (like mine was), I have to think you'll be better off. The boat built with 1/4in is probably going to be 75-80 pounds. Fine for me, since I'm young and strong, but still... Also, the bottom hull panels have a TON of bend in them both at the front and back. While I was tightening the stitches, I was holding my breath wondering if I was going to hear cracking.
2. Stitch on the fore and aft decks before filleting the seams. I didn't do this, and luckily my panels were stitched together correctly with proper gaps, but if they aren't, there is not a lot of bend in them once the glass is on - if your hull is too wide, it will really suck to bend it in.
3. If this is your first boat, read as much about stitch and glue (and especially look at during-construction photos) before you go. I used way, way too much epoxy in the first seams and it was a pain to sand down.

Post by **jem** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:53 am

Excellent post!

Here's some images to show the orientation of the panels:

Review step 19 in your instructions. You glue a cleat on the reference line for the side panels and the floor sits on top of the cleats. The forward and aft walls are fiberglass taped to the floors.

This is why I run this forum and value customer feedback. It only improves the product.

I try to write the instructions from a new builder's point of view but it's not always easy. Some things that I see one way may not be clear to others.

That seems to happen a lot with my line of thinking these days.

co · Post by co » Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:32 pm

That's perfect, thanks! If I had thought about it a little more, I probably would have seen that those pointy bits are meant to be one of the scupper walls...

Seems like I might have 3 weekends to go, I'll post some pictures when I'm done. Thanks again!

co · Post by co » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:27 am

Hey Matt,

Well, I've been pretty busy at work lately, so I'm behind schedule, but I did remember to take a picture the other day. You have plenty of pictures of this model, so I'm sure you don't need it for marketing purposes, but I thought you might like to see.

As you can see, I just need to finish the aft deck, then a lot more sanding... but it shouldn't be much longer.

Thanks for your assistance during the building. I know I made a decent number of mistakes, but I think it's going to work out fine. I'm sure the next one will be a little more polished

Post by **jem** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:31 am

Hey hey! She's coming along.

You'll find that sanding is the most frustrating part. It's because it means if you're to the stage where the hull is fully assmbled and could be put in the water...and you want to get get out and do some fishing!

A random orbit sander does the job the fastest. Where a dust mask for safety and to keep that lovely ground epoxy and fiberglass taste out of your mouth.

Don't forget, send some picks of her in action and I'll rebate you 1/2 the cost of plans (1/2 because I have some pics of the CFSOT already).

Congrats!