Author Archives: ewadmin

New Beach Cat (Part II)

Final Details

By Captain James R. Watson

(In Epoxyworks #5 I wrote New Beach Cat (Part I)—The Hull Story about constructing the hulls of my new beach cat.)

There is a little aftershock related to this event, with all the anticipation and abstracting of what she’ll finally be like—now we find out. One finds it is also time to evaluate whether or not this project fulfills the criteria that drove its initiation. Continue reading →

An Air Cushioned Launcher

By Captain James R. Watson

I thought Jan Gougeon’s idea of an air-cushioned boat launcher was crazy at first. Then I thought if I could build a platform narrow enough to fit between the hulls of my catamaran, low enough to fit under the beams and powerful enough to lift the entire catamaran, it would be feasible to levitate the boat over yard, beach, sand bars, virtually anywhere. Continue reading →

budget

Staying Within Your Budget

By Captain James R. Watson

Staying within a set budget of time and money can be the toughest of all goals for a boat builder. The beach cat I wrote about in this issue is the 19th boat I’ve built from scratch. From these projects, and from talking to many folks building similar projects, I’ve learned some elements of maintaining a budget of time and money. Continue reading →

Getting the Most out of Mini Pumps

By Jim Derck

When using WEST SYSTEM® 300 Mini Pumps, the most important things to remember are:

  1. Read the instructions.
  2. Use one full pumps stroke of resin for each one full pump stroke of hardener to get the proper resin-to-hardener ratio.

If you’re ever concerned that your pumps aren’t metering properly, simply mix a test batch of 3 pump strokes each of resin and hardener. Stir thoroughly and make sure it’s fully cured before continuing with your project. Continue reading →

Restoration of a Figurehead

By Allan Eugene Mechen

The 200-year-old wooden figurehead from the ship H.M.S. UNITE’ was in a serious state of rot in March of 1994 when restoration experts began work to save her. They completed the painstaking process in October, 1994.

Examining the figurehead on site, we saw that it had been previously sheathed in fiberglass. This was probably done because the 200 year old timber could no longer be maintained using conventional methods and materials. Continue reading →

Plaque on the Figurehead of the HMS UNITE'

A Brief History of the H.M.S. Unite’

The title signed on the figurehead repaired with WEST SYSTEM® products and featured in Restoration of a Figurehead in Epoxyworks #6, gives the following history of her host ship:

H.M.S. UNITE’
Fifth rate frigate ~ 38 guns
Captured from the French in 1794
Previously named Imperieuse. Renamed Unite’ in 1803
Was in three Successful Actions against the
French, on 1st May, 4th July and 29th Nov 1811
Converted for use as a Convict Hospital Ship in 1836
Broken up at Chatham in 1858.

Continue reading →

Restoring MELANIE’s Deck

Courtesy of Peter Townrow

Melanie was built in 1919 by the German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen, and previously bore the names WOLF and SANPAN. The 42’ sailboat was purchased in 1956 by Sir Eric Seal, Winston Churchill’s former secretary. After Seal and a group of civil servants restored her, MELANIE became the first yacht of the Civil Service Sailing Association. Continue reading →

Drying DOVE’s Feathers

by Ginny Kienast

Epoxyworks 6

Cover Photo: With her blistered bottom fully repaired, DOVE takes to the seas in fine form.

After completing the tedious reconstruction of DOVE’s decks, we felt exhilarated and pleased. We had spent a year removing DOVE’s teak decks, drying out the foam sandwich core, reinforcing it with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy and laying a new epoxy/fiberglass deck. It was a job we never wanted to undertake again. It was February 1991, and we were making a list of things to do so we could be cruising aboard DOVE within a few months. I could toss out my epoxy saturated clothes and finally think of basking on DOVE’s foredeck in some tropical cove. Continue reading →