Chris Atwood - Zip (cont'd)
The Chine and Sheer are made from Mexican Purple Heart, its
more flexible than Mahogany but heavier and denser which
makes it more difficult to sand/plane/screw but it worked
well for bending. The frames are all ¾" African
mahogany. The side planking is ¼" Mahogany
veneered plywood.
I used the Glen-L Poxy-Grip for all structural gluing and
the Poxy-Shield for fiber-glassing and encapsulating. I
really liked these products, they cure faster than some
others which saves a lot of time.
The bottom fiberglass is 7oz cloth and the sides are
4oz.
I painted the Zip with SuperMarine primer, paints and clears
but I wish I just stuck with the tried and true brands of
paint and varnish instead of this new age one part stuff,
it's not as durable as the two part systems."
I decided against any dash instruments to try and keep costs
down. The dash only has switches for running lights and a
bilge pump. (But the boat has never leaked a drop of water,
even overnight, which I attribute to not having any holes
below the water line, not even a drain plug.)
The sole (floor) is ¾" Ash Planking, which is a
detour from the plans' plywood floor. The decking
cover-boards and planks are also African mahogany that is
3/8" thick. All of which I had my local hardwood
supplier re-saw and plane from three
14"x22'x1"' pieces of African mahogany
stock. The decking lies over a ¼" marine plywood
sub-deck. The thin, light colored strips of wood in the deck
are Basswood that my friend cut to size on his table saw for
me.
All of the deck cleats, step-pads and lights were found on
eBay. The bow handle was found at the local boat junkyard and
re-chromed. The windshield brackets are cast aluminum from
Lakeshore Casting which I had chrome plated then simply cut
out Lexan inserts for. The polished stainless steel transom
bands, bow cutwater and upholstery are the only things I did
not do myself although I did the design work for each.
The motor is a 1975 Mercury 402 40hp which I bought in the
condition it is in from a fellow on craigslist.com. It took 6
months of constant internet searching to find a good motor.
The 40 hp motor runs the Zip perfectly. You can expect around
35 mph with two adults on board and it can easily pull a 180#
skier with this motor.
We just made the deadline we were shooting for by launching
our boat which we named "First Born" a week before
the 4th annual Glen-L Gathering in September 2010. We had a
great time giving rides to all the other builders at the
Gathering in TN as promised. I really surprised myself, it
came out nicer than any of my r/c models ever have and is one
of my greatest achievements.
We only had the boat out about 6 times before winter but it
has proven to be perfect for us, it can pull a skier and two
people have plenty of room to fish from it but we really just
like Zzzzipping along on a warm summer day then stopping in a
shady spot for a picnic lunch in the boat. It handles other
boat wakes and moderate lake chop just fine. We slow down for
the bigger wakes and don't even get wet with wakes
slightly higher than the bow. A bass boat or ski boat wake it
just skips over smoothly at speed.
In the garage, on the road and in the water the Zip always
draws plenty of looks and comments, people want to know what
year it is and are amazed when I tell them "It's a
2010, my wife and I just built it in our garage!"
The build took 733 hours over a 16 month period. The total
cost of the boat, motor and trailer and all supplies was just
over $9,000. The build was challenging enough to be fun
without being overly difficult. The Boatbuilding with Plywood
Book by Glen-L Witt and the online builder forum are all the
resources one needs and were instrumental to my success.
I'm confident that anyone that can change a flat tire on
a car can build one of these boats. All you really need is
the will to see it through.
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