Topcoat

Today the first topcoat went on the bottom of the hull. Behn 100% acrylic porch paint. Two more to go. Little need for antifouling bottom paint in Lake Champlain. Kept the Cherokee in the water all last summer and it was barely dirty at haulout

The Home of Wonderdog Boatworks

Wonderdog Boatworks is located in Essex Vermont and is currently building a modified GT23, plans from Bateau.com

Kayak, design and build by Wonderdog

This is a twelve foot kayak designed and built by son James and I. Maiden cruise and fall foliage tour here in Vermont

Wonderdog Boatworks

Befoe and after pictures of the 1965 Cherokee (above at mooring in Lake Champlain
This is the before picture of the Cherokee

Up to the present time Wonderdog has been mainly concerned with the construction and repair of relativly modest boats in the 12 to 22 foot range. Last winters project was the reconstruction of a 19 foot aluminum cabin cruiser, a Cherokee Commander 1900, built in 1965. Really bad shape, needed to be completly torn apart, hundreds of pounds of soggy foam removed, new floor, rivets pounded tight, new foam, new transom, old paint removed and redone, great project, great boat, powered by a 60 hp Tohatsu, gets right up onl plane with no transition.

Hull with two coats of S3 high build primer

Two Coats of Primer

Over the past few days I have applied two coats of System 3 high build yacht primer. It is fantastic. Produces a smooth hard finish that hid all marks in the finish from sanding. Today I sanded the entire surface with 120 grit paper on my small Porter Cable random obit sander, dusted it off and am satisfied with the results, now if it would just get warm enough for the topcaot. I am going to use Behr 100% acrylic porch paint for the bottom of the hull and probably for the whole boat. Good hard finish, scuff resistant and durable and far less expensive.

Sorry, no pictures of putting the plywood on the frames

Here is a picture of the epoxy mixing station. A garage sale electric drill ($2) a paint mixer, (1.50) a piece of pvc pipe (0) and a cup to catch the drips. Works great, set at slow speed so no bubbles and a pleasure to use.

Here are good friend Pete, me and my son James putting the first layer of biaxial glass on the hull. We mixed lots of epoxy by hand until I "invented" a better system. The hull panels have already been joined together with two staggered layers of biaxial fiberglas tape

Building the strongback and frames

This boat is built from plans received from Bateau.com. The name of the design is GT23. I have decided to reduce the size of the boat from 23' 6" to 22' and so asked for the plans in metric to make the conversion easier.
The panels for the sides and bottom have been cut and assembled and are standing on the floor to the left and right of the frame. The bottom panels will be set in place, joined in the center (keel) with plastic wire ties and then the side panels will be hung off the bottom panels and joined with ties.