My (Sort Of) Sea Knight Build

[froberts]

Hi Everyone,

I suppose that it's finally time that I emerge from my fortress of solitude and start posting some progress pictures of my (sort of) Sea Knight build.
I've wanted to build my own boat for quite some time and with a little encouragement from my 86-year-old grandfather and parents I decided to take the plunge!

I’d like to first start by saying thank you to those that have taken the time to post their builds as well as those that regularly share their opinions, expertise, and support to those that are just starting out! Not unlike many on this forum, I am by no means a skilled carpenter or wood worker, nor have I ever built a boat, and so seeing so much support and wealth of information has been tremendous. Reading this blog is ultimately what gave me the confidence to say, “I can do this.”

Now onto the good stuff!

After a massive number of hours researching various boat building sites, companies, and designs I finally settled on a plan that I felt checked all of the boxes for the type of boat I wanted to build, the Sea Knight! My Grandfather, who has built a few smaller boats himself and has had several larger boats built for him has been helping me since the very beginning. Here we are at our weekly “boat and brunch” meeting.





The main reason this thread is titled as “my (Sort Of) sea knight build” is that, from mostly my Grandfathers encouragement, I have decided to make several special modifications. Hopefully I am not committing some terrible form of blasphemy. The beam has been widened by four inches and the length has been stretched to 20½ ft. I will be adding a couple additional items to ensure that strength is maintained down the line.

My first big chore was to clean up the shop and get it ready to go!


Lumber was then ordered and promptly delivered thanks to the fine folks at Westwind Hardwood over on Vancouver Island.


Got to love it when Christmas comes early!


This is strictly boat lumber and I will still need to head out to a local shop to grab lumber for my build form. The frames will be cut from VG douglas fir, the keel, battens, chine, etc will be cut from white oak (damn this stuff is heavy), and all plywood is Hydro Tek Meranti Marine Mahogany BS1088.









Once I got all the lumber pulled into the shop and sorted I couldn’t resist drawing out the approximate shape of the hull! The first step will be to get going on the build form.


I will do my best to document the whole process and keep the progress pictures coming!

[mrintense]

Welcome froberts,

Always glad to see another cabin cruiser on the forum. There are several of us here building (or have built) a variety of cabin designs including Craig Aho's Sea Knight, Bill Edmunsen's just (or nearly just) completed Bartender 24, myself with a Vera Cruise, Bob Maskel completed a Sea Knight several years back and is a regular at the Gathering in Tennessee, and David Ellingston who is further along in a Vera Cruise build, Ray Macke and his True Grit, Tim and his Bo Jest. Then we have Steve in California building the biggin',, a large Klondike trawler. We also have a few Geronimo builders Matt from the East Coast and Bob in California. The Geronimo shares the same hull as the Sea Knight. I'm sure I missed some others but they escape me at the moment.

And of course there are numerous other builders here building the runabouts, skiffs, speedboats, utilities, and sailboats. All of them are experienced in various parts of the build. even better, since most of these designs follow two paths to completion, you can count on getting advice that's relevant most of the time. You can certainly count on encouragement.

Looking forward to seeing the progress of your build.

[hoodman]

Welcome to the forum. I'm curious why you have chosen a 16 foot design an are stretching to over 20 feet as well as widening instead of just choosing a larger design to begin with. The Vera Cruise that Carl is building comes to mind.

[froberts]

Thanks Carl!

Thanks Matt, a coupe of the main reasons behind modifying the sea knight (which is drawn at 17ft long with a 7.2ft beam) rather than selecting a larger boat such as the Vera or Two Plus were that I wanted; a hull with less freeboard than the larger plans showed (such as the vera), to get as close to a 3:1 LOA:Beam ratio to help maximize performance for the type of boating we will be doing, and to just give me more of a headache during the build (JK on that last one....hopefully)

I've really enjoyed reading your Geronimo build and Carl's Vera build, both were hugely helpful in helping to decide which plan to undertake!

[froberts]

And we're off!!!


I’ve noticed that some people hold off on building the form until they are have cut out the frames, fortunately I have plenty of space so I figured I would get the form done so I could completely focus on the boat. Adjustments have been made to account for the increase in length and was secured to the shop floor by way of several concrete screws....which was a fun task

The BEST PART was that the whole structure was made from left over wood we had from past projects (the only piece I had to buy was the main 2x6 that lays on the floor). There is a slight bow on the port side rail which I will have to either plane or sand still but the hard part is over right?

It looks like I will have the day off tomorrow so I hope to start tracing and cutting frames! Woo Hoo!

[mrintense]

Regarding the epoxy, if your builds ends up being anything like mine, you will find that buying stock in System Three might be an good investment!! Actually, what I am trying to say is that I ended up needing way more epoxy than I thought I would need initially. I would suggest however, that the build will progress at its own rate and you will find that there are going to be times of heavy epoxy use and times when you don't touch it for a while. My suggestion would be to budget for it, but don't buy it all at once. Rather get a reasonable amount for you needs. As long as you plan ahead a bit, you shouldn't have to worry about running out.

When you get to the point of fiberglassing the hull (some time off I'm afraid), you will go through a considerable amount of epoxy wetting out the fiberglass. I used the System Three Silver Tip and loved it. One thing to remember though, be sure to either apply the second and thirds coats within 16 to 24 hours OR if you cannot do that, then give an adequate sanding to give a good bit to the subsequent coats.

Another real important thing to remember. Although not too much of a problem with Silver Tip, there are other types of epoxy that blush, leaving a waxy film which must be removed prior to any sanding or subsequent coats. Fiberglassing and epoxy is a fairly involved process so its best if you read up on this and practice before diving into it. Glen L has a great book on fiberglassing and there are others available from System Three and West Systems.

Good progress so far. Wish I had the room you have!!

[hoodman]

I bought a three gallon kit and I am a little more than half way through the kit at this point in my build. That includes putting two encapsulation coats on all the frames and inside of the transom. You will need much more than you have in the end but you have enough to get you a good ways down the road.

[Craig Aho]

What a nice location for your build. I am surely jealous. My wife, youngest daughter and I will be spending a couple of days in Victoria this Sunday/Monday. We also visit Vancouver and Whistler from time to time and maybe someday we can see your build. Anyway Best of luck with your build.

Craig Aho
Seattle area Sea Knight builder.

[froberts]

Thanks Matt and Carl for your advice regarding epoxy.

Craig, you (and anyone else on this forum) are more than welcome to visit any time! I live in Steveston, which is in Richmond and right on the water. It would be a great place to visit on your beautiful Sea Knight!

So I got right into it this weekend and thanks to some nice new bandsaw blades(3/4" blade)

I managed to get all of my frames drawn out and cut!




Once they were cut out to the pencil line on the bandsaw I spent some serious time getting to know my new oscillating belt sander really well!


Next up was to draw and cut out gussets, chine blocking, stem, etc out of ply.

Here you can see the method I used to transfer the patterns onto the wood. I started by tracing out all of the patterns onto tracing paper, using a quick dry spray adhesive I stuck the patterns onto the wood and from there it was full steam ahead! This is a method I have used many times in the past and has always worked very well. (word of caution, always test out the type of paper and glue you are using as it can be a real pain to get the paper off cleanly sometimes. Ideally you should be able to pull the tracing paper off in one clean go)


I used my trusty jigsaw for majority of the plywood cutting.

[hoodman]

You got some nice tools! Should make certain things a little easier.

[Bill Edmundson]

froberts

Looking good now. I love seeing the before pictures of the tools. You may not recognize them when you finish! Best of luck.

Bill

[froberts]

Yes, I am extremely fortunate to have access to such a nice shop with such nice tools. The shop was designed by my grandfather to be able to handle a boat up to 30ft and he stocked it with all of the tools required to get the job done!

Today's post is brought to you by "SawDust" my new best friend!


Slowly getting all my frames to their correct shape and matched with the correct gussets. Please ignore the gap in Frame 5's top piece...I wasn't thinking when I drew it out and it ended up as two piece instead of one. I will correct and recut shortly!



Lots of sanding, checking, sanding, and checking to make sure I get that perfect fit. (I don't know if I'm being a little too fussy but I figured I would spend a little more time to ensure that everything fits together well



Here's my sanding station!


The next task will be to sand down my Stem, chine blocking, transom knee, etc. Having such a blast so far. I realize that I have a ways to go still but hey even a marathon starts with a first step!

[Roberta]

Looking Great!! My guess is you will need about 6 gallons of epoxy to encapsulate and fiberglass just the hull. You may also want to consider using CPES before epoxy coating to deep seal the wood. The decking and cabin will need additional epoxy. You will need much more Gel Magic, as well. Once you get to gluing things up, you will be better able to gage how much. Nice fireplace for burning the scrap wood.

Roberta

[hoodman]

Those frames look familiar. Brings back old times!

[mrintense]

Fraser, nice work. Quick too. I would suggest taking the time to layout the sheer, chine and other frame reference points on a board so that you can hold them in correct position when you start gluing everything up. My first attempt moved and had to saw them apart for redo. Some form of weight to hold them flat is good too. I used cinder blocks over wax paper. Cheap and plenty heavy enough.