JEM Watercraft

deck is glued down and the tape is layed with the saturation coat of epoxy done.

Beautiful work! I've been lurking in on this thread and it's nice to see another Freedom taking shape. I've been caught in a crossfire of sporting events for kids and the wife's health deteriorating, so the Freedom 18 has seen little progress this winter. Good Lord willing & if the crick don't rise, I'll post something yet this summer.
You're gonna love this boat!

Lee

I've been thinking about the coaming for awhile now. Being a strip built boat I did not want to use plywood, but I was stuck on what to use. I finally decided tonight to use Aspen to acsent the four strips on the boat. I took a 1x4 and cut a 1/4 strip out of it and tried to wrap the cockpit,but it snapped. Then I tried to use a heat gun and it snapped again. I had a beverage and thought about it for a while and decided to make a steamer. I had some left over pieces of 2 inch tubing from building the kayak trailer. I gathered them up and welded all of the pieces together with a piece of plate (several 1/8 inch holes drilled in it) about six inches up for a boiling chamber.




It worked like a charm. After cooking for about 5 minutes the strips would bend around the cockpit.



Once I figued out how thick to cut the strips I was home free. Ended up stacking six strips for the coaming. They will be goopied to the the deck once dry with a layer of glass to keep everything fastened down tight. needed alot of clamps to keep the strips in place while they dry.

Nice!!!!

Been doing alot of final sanding in preperation of varnishing. Tomorrow night i am going to put thre first coat of graphite on the bottom. Hatches are all finished up,she's not too far from getting wet. Tonight I finished sanding and made the hatch straps.

Went out to the shop early this morning and applied the first coat of graphite impregnated epoxy. I am hoping by this afternoon i can apply the second coat and run my heater tonight to get the boat ready to flip tomorrow and start varnishing.







The hatch covers are finished.

The first coat of varnish is on and it looks pretty good. I will give it another pretty heavy coat and then a light sanding. Once it is sanded it will get 2 or 3 more good coats. I hope to get it slimey next weekend.

I got started rigging the boat tonight. I am trying my darndest to paddle it tomorrow,but I still have to build my seat tonight. I am liking the way it's starting to look close to completion. Heres a few picks I'm heading back out to the shop to work on it somemore.

The only thing I know of the still needs to be done is build the seat base, which will be done in the morning/afterwhile. I would like to say thank you to Matt and Ron Smith for the help along the way. I must have PM'd Mat 100 times during this build. It has been a really fun build although a little tedious at times. Is it perfect? No,but it is close enough for me. This is only the second boat that I have built and it has turned out way beyond my expectations. Also thanks to Ron for letting me copy his "trademarked" kayak/camping seat base. If the weather will hold off I hope to give a paddle report tomorrow.

I definitely can't stand these blue elastic luggage straps and belts !

However she's a fantastic and very inspiring boat. Have great fun with her !