Ashley River Boatworks

Engine compartment sole pieces taped off, ready to apply paint. I’ve been in painting mode for the past week.  Now it’s time to apply nonskid to the engine compartment sole pieces.  You can see me making the patterns for these pieces in this post from a while ago. Continue reading Applying Nonskid for the Palm Beach 22

Glue blocks for the deck beams require compound bevels for a good fit. Wow!  That title is a mouthful isn’t it?  It occurred to me when I was making glue blocks for some of the deck beams that this is a perfect opportunity to talk about how the proper use of a few tools makes cutting and fitting bevels easier than it looks.  I used to think that the way pros got such tight fitting joints (when…

Using 3/16″ plywood to pattern the deck beams It’s time to start working on the deck.  And the first step is to make the deck beams.  You might think the shape of the deck beams is a simple curve that’s given to you in the plans, and you’d be right–kind of.  You’re given the curve of the deck in the profile view in the lines drawing, and from that you can derive the deck beams curves using your…

A sweet and fair line is what you’re after when developing the sheer line. One of the most critical steps in building a boat is to develop a fair sheer line and trim the hull to that line.  The sheer line is the line where the hull joins the deck.  It’s probably the most scrutinized line on the boat.  It’s what everyone notices. Continue reading Developing the Sheer Line

The bilge is masked before applying coats to the inside of the topsides. We applied 3 coats of clear urethane to the inside of the topsides of the Palm Beach 22 with the roll and tip method.  After sanding it flat, I decided it was finally worth it to upgrade my shop with a spray booth.  Once you think about the difficulty of all those different surfaces, it’s easy to convince yourself of the…

The completed spray booth is 30 ft long by 10 ft wide. I finally answered all the questions I generated in my previous post.  So it was time to get all that stuff out of the boat and prep it for varnishing and painting the inside.  As you can imagine, it’s much easier to do all this coating before enclosing the hull with the deck. Continue reading Building a Temporary Spray Booth

Nip and Tuck for Lady Jane

Lady Jane with the bilge exposed. A couple of months ago, Lady Jane came into the shop to get some paint and varnish.   She’s a “Handy Billy” design by one of my favorite boat builders, Harry Bryan.  You can read more about the design here. Continue reading Nip and Tuck for Lady Jane

Lady Jane with the bilge exposed. A couple of months ago, Lady Jane came into the shop to get some paint and varnish.   She’s a “Handy Billy” design by one of my favorite boat builders, Harry Bryan.  You can read more about the design here. Continue reading Nip and Tuck for Lady Jane

It’s a good idea to make sure things fit where you think they will. Here you can see exhaust hoses, a pvc pipe chase, the jet thruster hose, a battery box, raw water strainer. Here’s a look at some of the sole pieces I talked about patterning in and earlier post. I’m trying to get ready to coat the inside of the boat before I begin construction of the deck.  It’ll be much easier this way with an…

Getting the engine in the proper position requires a lot of test fitting to establish location of engine beds and all the other items. When you’re building an inboard boat, getting the engine and propeller shaft in perfect alignment is an interesting process.  It’s a logical process that involves aligning the engine and transmission, shaft, shaft log, and strut.  It starts with the strut (the…

Making a pattern for the irregular shape of the engine compartment platform. It’s been a long time since I posted anything about the Palm Beach.  I haven’t forgotten it, and I haven’t stopped working on it.  But there have been some intervening projects like the Riva, shoulder surgery, a trip or two… Continue reading Back to the Palm Beach 22

The final pieces just about ready to glue to the boat. The original patterns are made from cheap, pliable luan. Remember long ago (by now it seems long ago to me) when I talked about the painstaking process of making patterns out of cheap 1/8″ luan?  My process was to use the 1/8″ luan to make my original patterns because it’s so pliable and easy to carve to shape. But by now, you realize how…

  Laying up the deck using packing tape, and checking alignment with the center panels. Having settled on the option of hand laying the deck, it was time to start milling wood.  Take a look back at the first post in this series, Working on the Riva Foredeck.   Look closely at the picture of the overall deck.  See how the pinstripe holly lines are symmetrical about the centerline, and how they…

Working on the Riva Foredeck

This is a detail of the deck damage that we were contending with. I’m restoring the foredeck for a 2013 Riva Iseo.  I talked about working on the swim platform in my previous post, where I said we’d discuss options for the foredeck next.  I thought briefly about trying to repair those bad patches, but I decided against that option because I would have to strip the entire finish without sanding…

  Sun and moisture have severely damaged the wood veneer of the foredeck.   One fine June day, a 2013 Riva Iseo showed up at the shop after the owner asked if I could do varnish work on a wooden deck.  He had purchased the boat used from someone in Miami, FL. Continue reading Untitled

A 1957 Greavette, a Canadian built runabout. Boat motors use the water they’re floating in to cool them.  Some, like most outboards, have what’s called a “raw water” system.  The water the boat is floating in circulates through the engine block, then exits with the exhaust.  Most modern inboards have a “fresh water” or “indirect” cooling system.  In this system, coolant like that in your…

The boat is at rest in a sideways position. Notice the cradles under it ready to receive it. I’ve done all I can to the hull from the outside.  So it’s time to flip the boat upright so I can start working from the inside.  To prepare for this, I’ve made 3 cradles to hold the boat in position once its upright.  I used the patterns for some of the frames with one placed directly under where the…