Ikaroa The Less Visible Side of Boatbuilding I share the planning, timekeeping and ordering behind my boatbuilding. Breaking the work into small tasks matters, especially when a late primer order nearly caused trouble.
Ikaroa Getting Back to Boat Work I’m struggling to find my rhythm again after a weekend off, so I’m sanding keel fillets, preparing floors and glassing the hull joints. I also made a rather handsome fillet-sanding tool that works better than it looks.
Ikaroa Preparing Floors for the Cabins I started preparing the cabin floors, with underfloor painting and epoxy work next. I’m also switching from “hull 1” and “hull 2” to starboard and port as the interior work begins to diverge.
Ikaroa Hot Enough for Iced Coffee The workshop was hot enough to make iced coffee sound almost tempting. Almost—I’m still drinking mine hot, because cold coffee is poison, just slightly less dangerous than decaf.
Ikaroa Filleting in a Very Hot Workshop I managed a few hours of putting fillets on before the workshop reached 27°C and there was no point continuing. Visitors still get coffee, though I remain firmly opposed to iced coffee and decaf.
Ikaroa Second Keel Fillets in the Heat I’m pressing on with the second layer of keel fillets, despite the workshop reaching 29.5°C before mid-morning. I’m also glassing the panel joints from inside and making hard plastic spatulas that cannot be broken by reaching too far.
Ikaroa The Heatwave Has Beaten Our Epoxy With the Met Office issuing its first red heat alert and temperatures possibly reaching 40 degrees, I have no chance of working with epoxy on Tuesday—even with slow hardener.
Ikaroa How Tough Is a Thin Interprotect Layer? I’m testing the cured Interprotect coating from a mixing bucket and finding that even 0.05 mm makes a remarkably tough continuous film. With Coppercoat and polyurethane still to come, I’m starting to believe the hull will be nicely protected.
Ikaroa Trying to Work on the Boat After getting out of bed, finding coffee and pretending to be human, I try to work on the boat.
Ikaroa Keel Fillets After Turning the Hulls I’ve reorganised the workshop and started making the keel fillets, using a runny epoxy and microfibre mix to fill the gaps between the backbone, bulkheads and hull sides. A thicker layer and glass tape will follow.
Ikaroa One Hull Turned Over at Last I finally turned one hull over after working almost without a break for 28 hours. Huge thanks to Eamon for making it possible—and now I need sleep.
Ikaroa Ikaroa Is Looking Pretty Now I’m so pretty now 😍 Ikaroa’s hulls are looking very smart in their grey finish.
Ikaroa When the Wet-and-Dry Vacuum Went Feral I learned the hard way that our Nilfisk wet-and-dry vacuum is not watertight. After it nearly cooked itself, I replaced it just in time to vacuum and paint the hulls before turning them.
Ikaroa Finally Seeing the Hull Properly I finally got to see the hull from more than a metre away, and I really like what I see. We dismantled one side of the tent, and suddenly there is so much space.
Ikaroa Iroko Shoes on the Keel I shaped iroko battens for the keel and skeg, glued them in place, and then spent the day sanding until my arms vibrated. The hulls are looking wonderfully golden, and I’m still on track to turn them next week.
Ikaroa A Faster Way to Fair the Hulls I’ve found a much faster way to apply fairing compound to the laminated hulls, with only about an hour of sanding per side. The tent may also be nearing the end of its service as our workshop.
Ikaroa Sanding the Hull Smooth I’m sanding the hull curves smooth before painting and turning the hulls. The fairing compound is coming along nicely—though leaving the tape on too long was less clever.
Ikaroa The Bow Reaches Its Final Shape I’ve finished the bow’s final shape—the first part of the hull that is truly done. Soon, this surface will be cutting through the waves, unchanged beneath its protective paint.
Ikaroa Narrowing the Iroko Keel Pieces I’m still avoiding sanding hulls, so I started narrowing the iroko pieces for the keels. The dimensions also give me a useful check on the plywood, glass and epoxy laminate thickness.
Ikaroa Moving Heavy Materials Without Crushing My Feet I use straps to hold plywood in place and move heavy materials around the boatyard—because dropping 30kg on my feet got old quickly.
Ikaroa Fairing the Freshly Laminated Second Hull I laminated the other side of the second hull, added aramid, and tried a very thin, runny layer of fairing compound to fill the weave. The cooler weather was a welcome relief after battling the heat and amino blush.
Ikaroa Cork Insulation and Condensation in Boats I’m asking how condensation has affected other Wharram boats, and how people have dealt with it. I’m planning to use a thin layer of cork inside Ikaroa for both insulation and the interior finish.
Ikaroa Coffee After a Night of Laminating I barely slept after finishing laminating at half past one, and the heat made daytime work impossible. So I had coffee and read the history of building Gleda instead.
Ikaroa Finding the Best Fairing Tool I spent five days and 15 square metres of hull testing fairing tools before finding a bigger, stiffer plastic squeegee that actually worked. The first hull is now faired, and I’m moving on to laminating the second.
Ikaroa Finding the Best Fairing Tool I spent five days and 15 square metres of hull testing tools before finding a large, stiff plastic squeegee that made fairing much easier. The first hull is now faired, and I’m moving on to laminating the second.
