First Whale Watching Trip

Well, I should have posted this a few years ago but here are links to our first Tadoussac Quebec whale watching trip.

• Tadoussac Album 1


• Tadoussac Album 2


• Tadoussac Album 3


• Tadoussac Album 4


• Tadoussac Album 5


• Tadoussac Album 6

Day 49-61

Day 49, I have fallen a bit behind on updating the blog but here are the stats from days that have been un-accounted for:
Sanding both boats 12 hours
Varnishing with Sprayer and Sanding to 400 grit 10 hours
Weather stripping hatches 30 min
Attaching rigging for hatches 3 1/2 hours
You notice in the photos below the pic of the broken windshield on my dad's car. Yeah that was my bad, I'm kinda a clutz when it comes to tieing down the boats and dropped the tie down clamp on his windshield. No fears thouhg, Auto Glass Specialists are going to take care of that for him tomorrow.

All that is left now is to put in the seats, attach the deck rigging and put them in the water!

Day 49 Photos
DAY49-001
DAY49-002
DAY49-003
DAY49-004
DAY49-005
DAY49-006
DAY49-007
DAY49-008

Day 48

Day 48, 1 1/2 hour of work done. Tonight we sanded the hatch rims that we just put on the boat. We also sanded the openings of the hatch to make them nice and smooth. Put a quick coat of stain on the hatch rims for the blue boat, and the starte to epoxy. We were able to coat the hatch rims and hatch supports, and well as the coaming. With some of the left over epoxy we sealed up some bare spots on the ribs of the hatch covers.

Day 47

Day 47, 2 more hours of work done. Finishing addition of hatch rims on boat 1 & boat 2, seal between deck and forward bulk head completed since the deck did not seal tight to the bulkhead. Had a small mix up on one hatch rim... glued the wrong side, Boy was dad pissed. But all is well in the end.

Day 47 Photos
DAY47-001
DAY47-002
DAY47-003
DAY47-004

Day 46

Day 46, 2 more hours of work done. Cut out Hactches on boat Number 2. Finished sanding the cockpit on boat 2. Also install the hatch stiffner on boat 2. Attached the hatch rim on Boat number 1.

Day 46 Photos
DAY46-001
DAY46-002
DAY46-003

Day 45

Day 45, 5 more hours of work done. It was another good day for building since it is April 23rd here in Michigna and under a Winter Storm Warning. Prediction was for 4-6 inches of the white stuff after we had a wonderful week of near 75 degreee weather. Cleaned up the hatches on boat 1 and layed out the hatches for boat two

Day 45 Photos
DAY45-001
DAY45-002
DAY45-003
DAY45-004
DAY45-005
DAY45-006
DAY45-007
DAY45-008
DAY45-009

Day 44

Day 44, 2 hours of work done. We set the coaming on boat number 1. We used almost every clamp we owned. The hardest part was fitting all of the clamps in the area. It worked out well though.

Day 44 Photos
DAY44-001
DAY44-002
DAY44-003
DAY44-004

Day 43

Day 43, 2 hours of work done. Day 43 ended up with no pictures but we worked using a cabinet scraper and a handle scraper to remove the gobbers on the side and deck of the boats. These tools worked beautifull and made the job much simpler. By doing this we can cut down the ammount of sanding we would have to do on the gobbers.

Day 42

Day 42, 2 hours of work done. Put on a thin layer of epoxy on both boats. Used a cabinet scraper to remove the glue globs we had here and there on the boats. Those tools are worth their weight in gold! Had a little help from my new dog Jack. He makes a good shop foreman.

Day 42 Photos
DAY42-001
DAY42-002
DAY42-003
DAY42-004
DAY42-005
DAY42-006

Day 41

Day 41, 3 1/2 hours of work done. Laid the glass out on the bonzia dragon and put the first coat of epoxy on. Dad alsp put a little hood ornament on his boat.

Day 41 Photos
DAY41-001
DAY41-002
DAY41-003
DAY41-004
DAY41-005

Day 40

Day 40, 3 1/2 hours of work done. Laid the glass out on the blue boat and put the first coat of epoxy on. Dad had a good idea he picked up from the message boards to put tape on the side of the boat about 1 1/2 inch down. Then once the epoxy has thickened but not compleley solid, use a razor knife to cut the glass along the tape. Then peal the tape off. This gave us a nice sharp line and no annoying little fiberglass frays.

Day 40 Photos
DAY40-001
DAY40-002
DAY40-003
DAY40-004
DAY40-005
DAY40-006
DAY40-007

Day 39

Day 39, 2 hours of work done. Cut deck to fit, plane the edge then round over getting ready for glassing. When cutting the deck this time we purposly went a little wide. This was to make sure that the saw didn't mare the hull, and to give us pleanty of wood to work with for rounding the edge. To get the excess off Dad used a plane and we found this was much easier than using the saw to get super close.

Day 39 Photos
DAY39-001
DAY39-002
DAY39-003
DAY39-004

Day 38

Day 38, 2 hours of work done. We have the deck on boat 2. Used a new trick to try and get the deck to form better as the nails go in forming a better joint at the shear clamps. We placed two 3' long strips of scrap wood underneath 2 straps to hold the deck down in a nice and uniform fashion. This really helped hold the deck in place as we nailed and required less muscle while trying to form the deck.

Day 38 Photos
DAY38-001
DAY38-002
DAY38-003
DAY38-004
DAY38-005

Day 37

Day 37, 4 hours of work done. We cut off the overhang from attaching the deck and rounded the corners with the sander. We used some of the leftover stain to touch up the new edge we have and it looks really sharp. We are almost ready to glass the hull but first need to fill in the deck/hull joint in some places.

Day 37 Photos
DAY37-001
DAY37-002
DAY37-003
DAY37-004
DAY37-005
DAY37-006
DAY37-007

Day 36

Day 36, 5 hours of work done. The deck is on the blue boat! IT is so good to have them looking like a kayak instead of a canoe now. Putting the deck on was pretty hard. Took a lot of preasure in some places to get the deck to form the way we wanted it to. Also it was really hard to get the shapre right over the scarf joint where the epoxy was cured. Using straps over the bluck heads and deck beams really helped to hold the shape while we nailed the deck down and the glue set.

Day 36 Photos
DAY36-001
DAY36-002
DAY36-003
DAY36-004
DAY36-005
DAY36-006
DAY36-007
DAY36-008
DAY36-009
DAY36-010
DAY36-011
DAY36-012
DAY36-013

Day 35

Day 35, 6 hours of work done. Tonight we planed the shear clamps. Talk about a lot of work. We put almost all of the shavings in bags since it will make great firestarter. Kelly gave us an idea of putting dryer lint, wax, and wood shavings together to make a long burning quickstarting mini log. We're going to try it out and test it why we go camping next.

Day 35 Photos
DAY35-001
DAY35-002
DAY35-003
DAY35-004
DAY35-005
DAY35-006
DAY35-007
DAY35-008
DAY35-009
DAY35-010
DAY35-011
DAY35-012
DAY35-013
DAY35-014
DAY35-015
DAY35-016

Day 34

Day 34, 2 hours of work done. Put the final coat of epoxy on the outter hull on both boats. We are almost ready to start putting the decks on!

Day 34 Photos
DAY34-001
DAY34-002

Day 33

Day 33, 1 hour of work done. Put some more coats of epoxy on both boats.

Day 32

Day 32, 2 1/2 hours of work done. Dad came over while I was out and trimmed the glass from the side of this boat. I came in as he was putting the second coat of epoxy on his boat. I was able to keep him company as he was rolling. The boats are turning our great. The naked finish Dad is using looks really sharp, and I love the blue stain we put on mine. Can't wait to get these bad boys in the water.

Day 31

Day 31, 2 hours of work done. Dad and I worked hard and fast to get the glass laid on his boat and to get the first coat of epoxy down. We also used some leftover epoxy to do my hatch covers.