From Boatshop to Gallery

Taping the deck to the hull, again.

Back home, to the kayak
My boatshop time is running out. Spring is here and we need the gallery back. For a couple of years now we host the Deer Isle - Stonington High School student art show. It's a good way for the community to see what the students are up to in their art class and nice for the students to see their work in a gallery setting. It's a good time for us to paint the walls and rehang the gallery with new work for the season. ( The art teacher does most of the work, hanging the show, and keeping the gallery open.) But it means I have to move the boat out for a few days. I really wanted to get the deck fiberglassed before moving it, so it would be stronger, but had to settle on getting the deck attached.

In the top photo I am taping the deck to hull. This is it, if I don't get it lined up correctly, I'll have a crooked boat. Luckly, I spent a long time getting it lined up the first time I taped the deck to the hull, when I epoxyed the deck, so it wasn't too difficult this time. Just few extra push pins and clamps this time.


Then I epoxy the seam, later filling any gaps.

Now it's really a kayak.

Time to move out. Removing the cradle.

I have to admit there was something a little sad about taking the table apart. I had grown fond of the old crate table, splinters and all. The boat is far enough along that I should be able to finish the rest on saw horses. I have to say that although the boat is taking longer than I thought, it has been very enjoyable.

The boatshop dissapeared for a few days and my studio has moved back home. Within several hours it was a gallery again.

Deer Isle - Stonington High School Art Show Opening Reception

This Old Shack

B movie?

This isn't a still from a bad movie but a shot of our week "vacation". This is me trying to break up some concrete. We spent almost a week in New Hampshire working on this little shack. The place is beautiful, we spent time with my parents and a friend, but the weather was so windy and cool it was hard to be outside. I did get a couple of paintings done. And the cat had a blast playing outside.


We replaced the old mossy roof. We, being Michael and my dad; I was wheelbarrow girl, carting off the shingles and going on hardware store and donut runs.

The new roof.

It looks like we will have to replace the sill, and more. But that will have to wait until the fall.

So you may be wondering what this construction project has to do with "painting, art, boats, and living on the coast of Maine" but it does indirectly. This little shack will be a sort of studio/work/storage area. It is tiny, but can get paint on the floor...... and it needs us.


The day we left we had beautiful weather. Here is my mom in her Chesapeake Light Craft Mill Creek that my dad build for her a few years ago.

links for this blog
CLC Mill Creek

Fiberglass inside of hull

We've been away for a week but here are a few photos of the boat before we left.

The inside of the hull is fiberglassed using two pieces of cloth. The cloth starts a couple of inches below the edge of the hull. The green and blue in the photo is tape that holds it in place until I am ready to saturate the cloth with epoxy.


The excess cloth from one end is used on the other.


I was worried that the cloth wouldn't fit and I would have to patch some pieces together, but it worked out perfectly, with less than an inch to spare.

I somehow forgot to take photos of saturating the cloth with epoxy (could be because I had my hands full of epoxy) but it looks about the same as the other parts of the boat that have been fiberglassed. I am getting better at this fiberglassing by now, and didn't put on a saturation coat of epoxy first. I was running out of time and I seem to have the problem of putting too much epoxy on rather than too little.

Most of the fiberglassed areas on the boat have a couple of fill coats over the fiberglass cloth. The inside of the boat doesn't need it, but I put an extra coat on the area where my feet will be so it's not as rough. But I do wonder if the roughness of the cloth will be a problem to clean or be rough on items stored in the boat.

Fillet in the bow

Busy studio, messy too!

The studio is feeling a bit small as I am trying to get this painting finished while working on two boats. The one in the front here is a nutshell pram my dad and I built four years ago. I realized when we moved to Stonington, that if I wanted to do paintings of boats, I needed to have a boat to get out into the harbor to see them. It's been a couple of years and a few knocks around the dinghy dock and is now time for new varnish and paint.

The kayak
I removed the temporary frames from the hull. I was wishing I had used a lot less hot glue to attach them when I realized that epoxy had come through the wire holes and was holding them in place too. It took quite a while to get those frames out of there, still could have used a lot less hot glue. Then I cleaned up the inside of the hull, removing blobs of epoxy that came through the wire holes (next time should tape them up), rough wood, and gummy hot glue.

Fillet in bow

Then I filled any wire holes that didn't get filled with epoxy and put a little in the seams so the fiberglass will lay flat. I also added the fillet on the keel in the bow and stern. This makes the ends stronger and smoother for the fiberglass cloth to lie on. And put a couple of layers of fiberglass strips over the bow seam to reinforce it. Today I will fiberglass the interior on the hull.

Pots in progress, kayak too

New pots

Today I had my clay class with Frank Pitcher. Here are a few pots I am working on. These are dry but not fired yet. They are made on the wheel then cut, shaped, and grated.

Here's Frank (with his cups in front) talking with Maureen.

Spring is here. You can tell, not by the weather, but how busy everyone has gotten. Summer is our busy season in coastal Maine, whether your work is tourist based, fishing, construction, whatever. Most meetings aren't held in the summer, the potluck dinners end, adult ed classes and dancing lessons are all on hold while people concentrate on their work and businesses, gardens, and visitors. So spring is preparation for summer, the boats are painted, the brochures go to the printer, the plans for summer festivals and events are finalized. Monday I worked on a t-shirt layout, poster design, had a Lupine Festival meeting, Chamber of Commerce meeting (only went to half of that one), and Deer Isle Art Association dinner meeting. I also varnished my nutshell pram, worked on the kayak, and managed to get a bit of painting in too. Why didn't I have time to write my blog?

Even though I have a tight time frame for getting the kayak done, I like the quiet directed work that it takes to put the boat together. There are some parts that just can't be rushed. The kayak continues....



The deck is remove from the hull and turned over for reinforcement. I add three layers of fiberglass tape to the seams of the butt blocks.


A layer of fiberglass will be laid down over the recessed deck to give it strength. First I fill in any area that might keep the fiberglass cloth from lying flat or might trap air.


Fiberglass tape is used the strengthen each seam. Then a layer of epoxy is used to coat the whole underside of the deck. Then another layer.

Back to building a kayak

The building of my coho continues on, through the storm, power outages, and taxes. I have now fiberglassed the outside of the hull and am ready to assemble the deck.


First I trim off the excess fiberglass cloth from the hull. Then the hull is turned right side up and the pieces that form the deck are wired together.

The deck panels are wired together.

About this time I am beginning to wonder about the estimated 70 hours that it is supposed to take to build this boat. The simple directions call to align the deck panels to the hull panels and tape in place. It took hours. I don't know if it was my need for perfection, the fact these panels are several years warped, I don't know, but hours later, and with lots of extra wires, pins and yards of tape.....and clamps.....

IT LOOKS LIKE A KAYAK!

tape, pins, wire, and clamps

Next, epoxy is filled in the seams. The green is tape to keep the deck from getting messy. I have to admit I am getting kind of fond of green on this boat. I am still thinking of painting the hull, maybe orange, maybe a green stripe....

A few more storm photos

People drive around to view the storm and check on boats.

Big waves in the harbor, (this boat is not sinking)

Boats, Stonington through the rain in the background.

It's very difficult to photograph a storm. The waves look smaller in the photo, the color is different, and you really can't see how windy it was or cold it felt, and there's no sound. Most people I've talked to made it through the storm just fine. There were a few washed out driveways and some dock damage, and the power and phone lines were down. Being on an island, we don't get flooding like so many others had with this storm. And we get enough wind here that the fisherman have figured out how to keep their boats secure.

And then today was beautiful, that first perfect day of spring.