Under Construction - 27' Emancipator

09/03/08       Week 2 - This week we received the mahogany, so most of the week we milled and cut the stock to size.  As you can see here we have begun replacing a few of the frames and a section of the chine. How this brings back memories.

09/10/08       Week 3 - This week we replaced the sheer and started planking the starboard side.

9/23/08        Weeks 4 & 5 - I've been on the road for a little over a week, but we should have the starboard side finished up today, and we will begin planking the other side tomorrow.  We have also started installing the cover boards.

9/29/08      Week 6 - The side planking on the starboard side is complete. We stripped the transom back to plywood and removed the bottom half of the plywood to eliminate rot.

10/09/08      Week 7- This week we began by glassing the interior hull sides and chine. This was to stabilize the mahogany and to stop any moisture from traveling in and out of it. In the past, you wanted to let a boat breathe, but nowadays, you want to seal all the wood to stop any movement, which allows us to get a long lasting, excellent finish. This also eliminates the rot issue, so this never has to be done again. We also gutted all of the interior bottom frames and floor frames. We then sanded which removed all the paint and almost an 1/8" of the bottom planking, which because of time, had become water and oil saturated. It was important that we got down to a good surface to glass to. We repaired some rot, and began reconstruction. Because we removed all the frames and floor battens, we felt it was necessary to put a little more substantial structure in the boat. As you can see, we 45'd the new bottom frame both forward and aft and one end nearest the keel so that we could glass the frames and the entire bottom.  We did this primarily because of the additional horsepower that is in the boat. We will, once this is complete, roll the boat over and remove the plywood that the previous boat yard put on to stop the leaking. The original mahogany bottom was in reasonably good condition considering it's age. We are glassing it inside and outside to make it into a boat that you never have to worry about the hull structure again, and eliminate any rot possibilities.

10/16/08        Week 8- As you can see, we have made some substantial progress. We finished all the interior glassing, glassed the bow deck, cover boards and cleaned it all up We have completed the transom, and the boat is roughly faired. We laminated up, and installed the stem cap.

10/28/08       Weeks 9 & 10- This week we have installed what will be the floor supports and the engine stringers. We have designed the engine stringers to go from transom to bulkhead, so that the engines will be pushing on the whole bottom, not just a piece of timber bolted to a floor frame. Using them also as deck supports creates an eye-beam effect and makes a very stiff overall boat. The engine stringers will be cut down to the height needed. As you can see, they are all glassed in. The engines were originally set not parallel to centerline, so when we reinstalled the engine stringers, we set them up the same way. We also installed the sheer guard this week, the forward bulkhead, strut and rudder port blocking. We are now ready to roll the boat over and remove the bottom plywood.

10/30/08  She is upside down now, so that we can remove the plywood from the bottom.

10/31/08     Week 11- Man what a job! Removing the bottom plywood back aft was fairly simple, but when we got up forward some of the original planking had been replaced, and a large number of screws were used to hold the planking in. Once the planking was removed, as we had found out from the inside, the original planking was in reasonable shape for it’s age. We ground it and cleaned it thoroughly.  Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of it. But we built a tent over the bottom out of plastic, which we taped to the chine area. We then hooked it to a gun heater, and we blew hot air over the bottom of the boat. We got the bottom of the boat quite hot, and kept it there for long period of time.  This did two things. It not only dried the bottom, and pulled the moisture out of it. It also pulled some of the oil that had been saturated into the wood.  We finished by grinding the bottom one more time, and degreasing.

11/18/08 Weeks 12 & 13 - As you can see, we have moved on. Once we got the bottom as dry and as clean as possible, we covered it with a special West System epoxy called G-Flex, it is made for hard to laminate surfaces. I was very impressed and pleased with the result. (Not a paid endorsement ) We followed it up with 2 layers of an 18oz fiberglass cloth, rolled on a layer of resin with glass bubbles so that we could sand and fair. We also installed a chine (or spray rail) to cover the transition between the varnish side and the bottom.

12/01/08 Weeks 14 & 15 -Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Lots done in the past 2 weeks! First we sanded, faired, and stained the exterior so that it became all one color. Then we covered it with a light layer of 3oz glass cloth, and used a resin system with ultra-violet inhibitors. We also got our first coat of varnish on the outside. We painted the bottom section below the waterline with a primer, and then painted on the bottom, where we thought it was going to be out of the water, with a matching mahogany color. We have her upright now, and it is time to put her all back together.

12/16/08 This past couple of weeks, we had a new fuel tank built and installed, along with the rudder shelf. We also installed shaft alleys, struts and rudder ports. Fortunately we were able to reuse the struts and the rudder ports. We also set the engines in the hole, laid out for, and built the engine beds. As you can see we are in the process of glassing them.  We also put dams in the front and back of the engine room. WeI installed the rest of the floor framing as well as the engine hatch rings. If all goes well we will get the floor in the week after Christmas and try to go for a boat ride.

            Training apprentice to drink coffee.                                        The reason I shaved my beard!

01/06/09  We are back from the holidays. This week we finished cleaning out and painting under the decks. We put the bonding straps in, and bonded the fuel tanks, struts, and rudder ports.  We are now making ready to install the deck.

01/15/09 Time to install the engines and muffler system and hook it all up!  We are also sanding and blocking the varnish to get the perfect finish.

01/23/09 – We’ve sprayed our first coats of final finish. We will block this and spray one more time, sand, and buff.  The deck is going in!

06/26/09 - We are back to work on the Emancipator. We got side tracked with a couple of other projects, and the boat owner was not in a hurry.  But I have decided that it is time to get finished. We have done several things since our last set of pictures. The deck is in and glassed, we also built the engine boxes, which will be uphostered. There will be one seat facing forward and one seat facing aft. As you can see, we have the side sealings installed, and we decided to do a mahogany deck with a white seam. We also decided that the boat needed a small toe rail. This was not an original feature, but it sure makes the boat a lot safer. We also built the forward hatch out of teak, as well as put teak blocking in for the anchor shoot. We tried to replicate the windows, building the frames out of mahogany, but then we put on a laminated teak cap to hold everything together. When varnished, the teak and the mahogany will give a pretty contrast.