Re: Mill Creek 16.5

Posted by Doug Arndt on Oct 9, 2007

Tom, so far, i'm only up to the deck installed and first coat on deck glass. Limited experience, but no complaints on the building. Some thoughts and comments. The left and right side panels are the "same size", however, there is a slight difference to the looks between the top and bottom of the wood sheets. When the pieces were cut, instead of shipping "mirror image" parts, two in the cut stack were sent. ie two "lefts" or two "rights", like i said, they are the same size, so they fit, BUT, they don't look the same. The result is, you can see a difference in panels. This is only a concern if you plan to varnish everything, since i'm painting the hull, it was ok. Otherwise i would have been upset.

As others have suggested, if i do this again, i would tack fillet between the wires, then remove them and finish the fillet. Following the instructions gives a rather wide fillet. If you paint the cockpit, this won't really show however.

Some tips: mix small batches of epoxy (one pump) until you get comfortable with it. Apply it carefully and you'll minimize the sanding.

Temps ... everyone keeps saying winter project, and i started in Dec too (in a heated garage) .... but unless you can keep everything very warm 70+ the epoxy is thick, messing with lights, heaters, etc is a pain and only proves it needs to be warmer. Once the weather improved, how much nicer it was, how easy the epoxy flowed. Maybe after you've built a couple of boats, THEN you have the experience to work in the "cold". Now that winter is coming soon, once the temps drop, my project will wait until spring. Also, while the epoxy is low-odor, it still gives me a headache, get a good respirator, both for the epoxy and the dust.

It's a good kit, I'm looking forward to getting it into the water.

In Response to: Mill Creek 16.5 by Tom P on Oct 8, 2007

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