Glen-L.com

El Guapo is just beautiful..... congratulations on a beatiful boat!!!! And since no one else has asked this yet, what is the next project ?

Really nice work

Dick Williams

Thanks for all the kind complements. They mean so much more coming from folks who have 'been there'!!
Some of you asked a few questions I ill try to answer.

billy c asks:
Nice marquetry pattern on the deck! is that all 1/4" stock or thinner veneer recessed into the Sapele decking?
THE DECK VENEERS WERE ONLY ABOUT 1/8" THICK, TAPED TOGETHER (ON THE TOP) WITH GOBS OF MASKING TAPE THEN GLUED
DOWN IN ONE PIECE ON PRE-CUT 1/4" PLYWOOD SUBSTRATE. (I AM APPREHENSIVE ABOUT HOW ALL OF THIS IS GOING TO 'MOVE' AS TIME GOES ON HOWEVER)
...would you mind if we moved this over to the launch area section so everyone will see the finished boat?
NOT AT ALL (WHAT IS THE 'LAUNCH SECTION'?)


ttownshaw asks:
Is that embossed leather for the seats?
NO IT IS JUST A BASKETWEAVE VINYL (Bordeaux) I GOT FROM GARY'S UPHOLSTERY
http://www.garysupholstery.com/basketvinyl.html#specs


DickWilliams asks:
what is the next project ?
MANGO DAIQUIRIS AND MICHELADAS BY THE POOL IN SAN MIGUEL!


DON'T THINK I WILL MAKE IT TO THE GATHERING, WILL BE IN THE PROCESS OF MOVING DOWN TO MEXICO.
BUT THEN AGAIN...WHO KNOWS??

Mark-
thanks for the answer on the beautiful deck work.
i shadowed the topic so you still see a link to it in powerboats but if you look down further in the forum you see "Launching Ramp" where photos and videos (hint) of completed builds are posted.
enjoy your gorgeous boat
-Billy

_________________
(insert witty phrase here)
Billy's Belle Isle website

You have to go through Alabama to get to Mexico!!!!

Beautiful work of art BTW.

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

I am inspired! Beautiful work Woodbooger!

Beautiful boat and I love the deck detail!

I hate to be a downer, but I don't see any vents for the fuel storage area. You have electrical and a non-vented (ie vented overboard) fuel cell in the same compartment. Maybe I can't see them in the pictures. I would hate to hear that you and that beautiful boat went boom.....

Dan,
re: fuel compartment vents.
Thanks for your keen observation.
The compartment is completely open on each side of the bench seat back.
I don't really know what would be considered adequate ventilation but the compartment is not
as 'enclosed' as you might think.

You have made me more aware of the situation though. Thanks.

I was curious if you have any description/photos of how you built that hinged hatch in the aft deck?

I've been toying with the idea of doing something simular on my Malahini, as they seem quite similar, but I am not sure how I would go about making a hatch area.

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Ian (aka Iggy)
My Malahini Build

Iggy,
The SkiTow is the exact boat as the Malahini only slightly shorter.

I regret that I became lax about taking pictures of the building of El Guapo.
Here are a few tips I used in designing/building the 'gull wing' back deck.

I started by laminating four, 1/4"thick by 2" wide 'planks' to conform to radius
of the top of station #1. This is member where the latch is.

I am a big fan of making full size templates or mockups.
In this case, I ripped a bunch of 2" wide strips of 1/4" plywood.
Using light weight clamps, I used the strips to form the plan view of the entire
back deck with all of the strips fully overlapping each other at every corner.
After much trimming and fine tuning at these corners , I then glued and stapled all
of the plywood strips at the overlapping corners.
Basically, I have just made an external skeleton framework of the entire back deck.
See photo below (magenta lines)
I then take measurements and angles directly from the skeleton form to make the actual back deck.

After the back deck frame was made, I then measured for the center
rib piece (green lines). This center piece was ripped in half before final
assembly to the back deck frame. I later sawed the 2 longitudinal pieces in
half with a Japanese pull saw.

In short,I find it much easier to work with forms and mockups using cheap, easy to work
with materials (thin plywood, door luan and foam board. Once the forms are right,
it is very easy to duplicate with the 'real wood'.
See the picture of my foam board template I used to cutout my flooring plywood.

Thanks for the explanation, I think I got it from that.

Your unfinished floor photo triggered makes me wonder what are those strips up the inside of the hull for, the ones between the frame members?

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Ian (aka Iggy)
My Malahini Build

I suspect its the blocking behind a butt joint in the plywood

Ian & Duane,
re: strips up the inside of the hull

Actually these were going to be nailing battens for inside planking.
At the time, I thought it would be cool to mimic the inside of the boat
(from the cowling to the floor) with planking like on the outside.
But in the end I just used 1/4" plywood panels (cut from my 2" strip frame/template method)
and painted and varnished them. I stopped the panels at the tops of the frame gussets
in order to leave a 'toe kick'. It has worked out fairly well.

If you got any photos of the inside walls/floor, it would be great to see them. Most project photo's seem to skim or skip over that part and I am still playing around with ideas on how I want to finish the inside. More ideas couldn't hurt

_________________
Ian (aka Iggy)
My Malahini Build