JEM Watercraft

I'm still having some "issues" with the bow ends on my swamp girl. As you may have read in my earlier post I had one end break about 6 inches back. I put it back together with epoxy and cloth. That end is now stitched together. It took some real tweaking since the fiberglassed end didn't bend like the other side. It was more of a sharp bend at the break. It seems to be holding well.

As I start stitching up the other end I have the beginnings of the same problem. I have a VERY hard spot at the "curve." And to top it off I have a crack beginning to go up from the bottom just like the last panel. It is not completely broken and hopefully won't. But knowing that "hard spots" are bad and knowing that if I mess with that panel too much I could break it like the other end, I'm wondering what the best course of action would be. So

1- Can you deal with hard spots at all after the boat is tack welded?

2- Should I just go ahead and put a fiberglass patch over the potential crack area now, then try to get it right?

I plan to glass the entire outside of the boat (left overs from my drift boat)

It seems to me I probably did something wrong in the lay out of my panels, but I swear I "thought" they were dead on. I'm sure this will work out. It is still awsome to see the shape of a boat coming together and the first signs of spring creeping it! I can't wait to get a little fish slime on it.

I should probably make this a different post but I was wondering about any mods made to this boat to make it more of a fishing boat. Thought, ideas, pictures are welcome.

I'll try to add pictures to this post to make my ramblings clear as mud!

Thanks in advance

I wouldn't fuss about hard spots too much. Ideally, you'd have none. But it's not like the boat will explode if you have some.

If the cracking is a concern, go ahead and apply a small patch. Do so for both sides of the boat if a more "even look" is a concern.

I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the process but sad to hear you're having some trouble .

I'm sure Mick will jump in with lots of fishing mod ideas.

I have to post up a picture from James Heager and his Swamp Girl. He has it in his back yard pool and is casually standing in his Swamp Girl with no trouble at all!

heya Sawdusty, Welcome board mate.

I had some problems with the stems of my swampgirl too.

I think it was because of the cheap and nasty ply I was using. I would recommend you sneak up on the twist. ie. pull it in a little at a time along the length of the twist and just keep working back & forth till it all comes together.

Thanks for the reply,

There is no sneaking up left to do. They are tightly together. I did try to sneak up on it as mentioned in another post. I'm even using "good" marine grade okoume. I think I will go ahead and put some e-glass on the area I'm worried about.

Sure seems like a lot of tension in the ends of the boat. How often does it pull apart after tack welding the boat and cutting the ties? I'm planning on shaping the ends a little more after removing the ties. Is that normal?

Cheers

How often does it pull apart after tack welding the boat and cutting the ties?

Mate, it has never happened on any of my boats. Try to get as big a tack between stitches as you can.

If you can, avoid speading your wood flour all over your ply, like this.


It is a SPAM to clean up and the ply will be stained.

This was my first build and I did this to get the second panel to line up with the first. It worked but there are better ways of doing it. (check some recent posts on builder's log)


I can't find a piccie right now but I even drilled the bow and put a 1/4" bolt right through the bottom panel in a couple of places and gradually tightened the nuts to force them into shape. I am a rough bugger but the epoxy & wood four will fix a lot of mistakes.

I had planned to paint my 'girl but I sort of likes the rustic look of my patchy finish where the boat was stained by the resin & flour so I left it. (God I miss my girl)

here is what the bow looked like after I finished and had fared her with wood flour. Stained patshes similar to this were ll over her.

Thanks Mick,

How did you drop the pictures in your message?

Guy's ... I wish I could help you on this but when I built the prototype of the Swamp Girl for Matt ..... I did not have any problems with the panels.

It just went together like it should and then I did the un-natural thing of bobbing off the tail and making it a more or less square stern so I could put on a trolling motor later if I wanted to. Or if I got lazy and did not want to paddle that much.



Chuck.

Mate,

I use Photobucket, (free site) here is a link.
http://photobucket.com/login.php?action=logout

you need to create an account. and log in.

Save your piccies to a file on your hard drive then re size them
I am an IT idiot and I had some trouble at first.

You need to have a second browser open , One on the forum and one on
Photobucket

Once your piccies are uploaded to photobucket, you can post them here, by right clicking on the URL. (That is the one in the top box directly under your piccy} and starts with the letters http://

After you have right clicked on the URL, then you Left click on "copy" in the drop down box that appears.

Now, come back to your post on the forum.
Directly above the post box where you type your message and second from the right, you will see a box with the letters Img in it.

left click that once, move your curser down to immediately to the right of where the letters [img]appear%20in%20your%20post,%20right%20click%20and%20another%20drop%20down%20box%20will%20appear.%20Left%20click%20on%20"paste"%20and%20the%20URL%20from%20your%20photobucket%20will%20appear%20%20%20Now%20left%20click%20on[/img] again and when you post your message, the piccie should appear.

Hope that helps a bit mate. (probably as clear as mud)

Oh yeah, the problems I had with my panels were because I tried to be smart. I used 4mm exterior grade, hardwood bracing ply on the 2 bottem panels.

Persevere mate, The swampgirl is a superb boat and well worth any little difficulties you might be havine at the moment.

Let's see if I got it right.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s180 ... edboat.jpg
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