Ch 18 & P. Golden Eye

Posted by RonC on Aug 10, 2004

Some general observations on the construction process of the Pygmy Golden Eye and the Chesapeake 18.

Unpacked the G.E, (purchased from an individual who never opened the box) and found that the packing newspaper was dated back to 1995. Unpacked everything took inventory and all of the parts were there. The instruction book, 14 pages plus 4-6 supplemental pages was well written but took several �reads� to get a full understanding of what needed to be done. No plans. All of the parts were labeled, Bow/Stern, Left/Right, which was a big help in sorting out the 8 hull panels and getting them oriented correctly. The instruction book went into sufficient detail with drawings and instructions on how to lay out the hull and deck panels to the correct shapes for the initial glue up.

The standard G.E. kit supplied, epoxy, and wood flour, no Cab-o-sil. I had leftover Resin, Hardener, wood flour and Cab-o-sil from my previous boats so I will be using the products that I am used to for the construction of both the G.E. and the CH 18

This was my first encounter with butt joints, having built two Chesapeake�s in the past (MC 15 and CH 17) I was familiar with the scarf joints that I will need on the CH 18 that will be built alongside of the G.E. I found that the butt joints were easier to get lined up than the scarf joints, in that there was not as much �prep work� to be done, i.e. taping the edges of the scarf joints in order to avoid the inevitable �smooze-out� of the epoxy. In addition, getting the scarf joints lined up perfectly takes a bit of experience/intuition/luck to get them lined up perfectly.

As far as the accuracy of the panels on the G.E., I found that if I just butted the 2 halves of the panel together, it would be within 1/16-1/8 of the offset shown in the manual so, rather than having a small �vee� in the panel to get it exactly to the offset I just went with that. Besides, trying to measure within 1/16 of an inch against a chalk-line is a real P.I.T.A! We�ll see how that works out when I start wiring up the hull. Instructions called for the butt blocks to be attached with epoxy and wood flour, I used the epoxy Cab-o-sil instead.

My temporary worktable is 19�x 2� so according to the instructions, I am only gluing up 1 side of the G.E. at a time. Instructions call for flipping the panels over and tracing around them in order to get the proper line up on the mirror image panel. When I did the panels on both of my earlier boats, I glued all of the mirror image panels on top of each other, which saved some time and insured that the panels would be identical. I�ll do the same on the CH18.

Once I get all of the G.E panels and deck glued together, I�ll unpack the CH 18 and glue the panels together before I de-construct the temp worktable.

So far, so good, although I do prefer to work from both an instruction book and a set of plans, I don�t think that will be too much of a problem with the G.E.

Ron C

Replies:

• Re: Ch 18 & P. Golden Eye by Mac on Aug 10, 2004
  • Re: Ch 18 & P. Golden Eye by RonC on Aug 10, 2004