My 2nd Boat this Century...Sea Maid

[cml001]

Great work!

[west0618]

pvolcko & cml001...many thanks. I feel confident that Derek will back me up in the fact that I rarely do ANYTHING half way. It is all in or nothing...to the best of my ability and budget. And the budget limitation is negotiable.
If it were not for the holiday tomorrow I would have my much needed parts in hand by 10am tomorrow. But still I cannot complain. I ordered everything (I hope) I need from HobbyKing's international warehouse, as some items were not available in the States, on the 25th of June. I was notified this morning that they are now setting here in Fort Wayne, Indiana waiting on the next delivery run...which will be Monday. Not bad at all.
Until the parts arrive I am limited on some fronts but...I am ready when they do arrive. In the mean time I have entertained myself with minor touch ups and sub-projects on this boat. I did get the rudder tube installed and sealed and a mount fabricated for the servo for when it arrives. I also started the fabrication of the bench seat and dashboard. From a cardboard prototype to the final pieces in under an hour. Not bad.

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The cushion sections are now partially primed and the frame is sanded and awaiting the primer. Steering wheels are always a problem in this scale unless I can find a toy cheap at Salvation Army to tear apart.

Once the rudder tube was sealed I was also able to start applying sealant to the interior compartments. Ya gotta love the smell of spar varnish...10 hours drying time...but it is good stuff.

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The doors for over the electronics have also been started. As I said...many sub-projects. I do not want to install and seal the stuffing tube for the propeller until I have the motor installed to ensure alignment. That should happen Monday or Tuesday and then I can start applying the varnish to the outside. So far...I am still impressed.

[Tony]

That's an impressive build DD, it's good to see someone with a different craft to flying machines...

[west0618]

There really is not a lot left to do compared to when I first started. The biggest hold up now is waiting on the sealant, spar varnish, to dry at various stages and on various components.
I had to figure out how to attach the rear strut to the stuffing tube, which had to be installed from the inside of the boat due to the grease fill tube, without having to solder it in place on the boat. Then it came to me. Make the rear strut out of brass tube the next size up from what I used for the stuffing tube. Simple really. And easy to mount and still remove for painting the hull. Once the rear strut was screwed in place I was able to seal the stuffing tube to the hull with epoxy.

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With everything I needed from HobbyKing’s International warehouse arriving the other day, I was able to finish the sub assembly for the rudder to make it easy to service if needed. Derek’s first question was “will it fit though the small opening?”

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As you can sorta see…it does fit and is secured in place with a single screw while being trapped between the rudder tube and the rear bulkhead.

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Fabricating the motor mount was a small matter that only took TWO tries. Once I had the motor in hand, I was able to determine exactly where it had to be to line up properly with the drive shaft. This location is under the center of the bench seat that will be added later. I'll have more to show on this soon as I made a cover for the drive shaft and the conduit for the wires to the motor that turned out quite well...on the third or forth try.

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More later as the wiring is completed but some had to be removed while I add the inner walls to the cockpit. Wish me luck in bending the 1/32 plywood around the corners. I’d done it before. It was not a lot of fun then either. But it looks good when it is done. Interesting, but not fun. Well...kinda fun.
I hope this is still of interest.

[Derek]

Really good pics, Dad! It's quite obvious that you are better at "documenting" a build than I am, lol.

[west0618]

It went very well installing the inner cockpit walls as you can see. I installed two bulkheads at the rear of the cockpit to finish out this end of the cockpit so as not to interfere with or complicate things for the drive shaft or the wiring to the motor and low voltage alarm.

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It took a day each to add the port and starboard walls as this is a slow set water-proof glue.

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With my wife's help we removed the excess material around the opening with a multi-tool leaving about .030 to sand off. It sanded down to the body easier than I expected.

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I added a bead of glue to seal the bottom edges of these walls and while I was waiting on that to dry I started on the wind screen.

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It took two tries to get the sheet plastic cut properly but I managed the frame on the first try out of brass channel. Soldering it together was the biggest challenge. I still have a couple supports to add but it is coming along.

[DOG]

It's looking good. Keep the pics. coming.

[pvolcko]

Great work! Again!

[west0618]

Thanks all...
It is a relief to start getting sealant on the outside of this boat. The new cockpit walls now have their second coat of varnish as does the top of the boat.

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The hull has its first coat.

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Even with the flaws from wood filler and the seams on the sides from the two pieces of plywood it still looks good to me. The spar varnish really makes it shine.

As I think I mentioned before, getting power to the motor took some thinking for me to be happy with it. This is a 1/2" tube that goes from the electronics to near the motor for the motor leads as well as the low voltage alarm that will be under the bench seat. This tube and the drive shaft will be covered with a shroud to pretty it up a bit. I'll be installing that soon.

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The other end of the tube is sealed into the electronics compartment.

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Thanks again for your interest and there will be more in a day or so once the second coat of varnish dries on the hull tomorrow. I still have to work out the final paint job as this will obviously NOT have the true Mahogany finish.

[Graham Lawrie]

Very nice:)

[Tony]

Some great detail in these boats you build, nice one

[west0618]

Just to let you know all is still going fine on this build with one minor setback. During a premature buoyancy test I was prompted to remove a small section of wood from the not so solid bow block and replace it with 1/8th plywood and start applying coats of spar varnish all over again. Better now than at a pond. My simple wood frame tank and a sheet of clear plastic worked quite well.

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For now, this is all I get to see...the bottom.

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In 6 or 7 days I will be content with enough coats of spar varnish (as I have yet to find an outlet that sells epoxy paint in containers smaller than 5 gallons) to finally get it right side up. Then the pictures will start again. I did get the bench seat completed...sort of.

[Tony]

Nice work DD...

[cml001]

Another great project you have going on here! And a new bimbo... DD u rock!

[Graham Lawrie]

Really nice build:) I just realized the clamps are so small:)

[west0618]

Tony, cml001 & Graham…many thanks. As I may have mentioned, I did not plan to even start this boat until fall for a “winter project”. Like my last boat was. But once I ran the other boat for the first time I knew I had to start this one ASAP. Just too much fun…the building and the running.
Now for the update on my progress.
Fitting a dashboard to this boat was a challenge as it was not built with this type of dashboard in mind. The original plans called for a small panel about 3.5” x 1.5” in size. But looking at other versions of this boat, both large scale and actual full size, I wanted to improve on my boat. Just getting the dashboard to properly fit and look right since I did not allow for any overhang of the cockpit edge to hide any mismatch took a few tries but I am rather pleased with this.

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Here’s the final dashboard sealed and ready to paint. There is to be four gages while the five smaller holes are for round head brass #2 woodscrews to hold it together and in place. The three at the top will hold the finished dashboard in place while the lower two will hold all the parts together.

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Here it is primed and painted white awaiting the red section to be painted in the center “gage” area. The four gage bezels were turned from common copper plumbing fittings. Note the curved glare on the left two. This is from reflection of garage lights on the lenses made from the front of craft store Google Eyes cut down to size.
Finding pictures of boat gages was easy enough though it took a bit of time and repeated tweaking to get them the right size and distance apart to match the dashboard holes. I printed out the final version of the gage faces on phot paper to get a high shine.

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The dashboard now has the red section in the center to match the seat cushion colors and assembly can begin.

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Best laid plans and all that… After all the work to fabricate the block for behind the dashboard with the bump to hold the steering wheel I found the steering wheel placement was too low. I ended up milling off all my work and moving the whole steering wheel post up ½ inch. But, otherwise, I think it turn out rather well.

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Here you can see the dashboard and the bench seal installed in the cockpit. You can also see the shroud installed in place over the wiring conduit and the driveshaft.
Next up will be getting the wind screen reinstalled as well as the batteries and such to do another buoyance test to mark the waterline so I can get the bottom painted this week. I’d like to think I am down to the “final touches.”

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Lastly, here's a couple shots of the electronics tray that fits in the compartment behind the cockpit. The batteries will either be fitted under it, in front of it or the area on it in front of the ESC. The tray is secured to the rear bulkhead of this compartment with a screw.

[KevG]

Nice Progress love how clean and nice it looks

[Derek]

That's too cool, Dad! Looks great!

[Stambo]

Wow, that dash looks amazing.
I just would not have the patience for this but I can certainly appreciate the result.

[Tony]

Wow, such detail on that dash, pretty awesome work DD