Working on the 460 Again!

Wow, it's good to be working on the boat again! I received several emails about the lack of progress and I really appreciate the interest and concern. Just got busy over the summer and had to put the project on hold. Anyhow, I have chased most of the spiders out and started where I left off.

Here's the deck house wired up. I took some pains in aligning the panel joints and wanted to preserve that, so I lightly tacked the joints with epoxy. The house still has to be fit to the deck, which will necessitate bending the lower edge. I am hoping I don't have to undo the tack joints to get a good fit. We'll see when we get that far.


The deck beam was sawn to shape out of cedar, then a mahogany cap was glued and clamped to the lower edge. Here is the beam under clamps. Matt suggested this method. Easy to shape, light, and forms an I- beam of sorts once laminated to the deck under the forward edge of the house.


Deck beam tacked in place. The ends will get filleted and tabbed in later. The temporary cross brace holds it in position nicely.



Here is the house set in place on the deckless hull. Pretty homely looking craft at this point, but there is going to more interior space than I thought. I can sit upright athwartship with several inches of clearance overhead (I am 6 ft.)


The blanks for the deck carlins were ripped from a 2" spruce plank.

Getting Ready to Start Deck Framing

Right side up and the cutouts for the bulkhead hatches are made. Temporary forms are back in to keep the hull tweaked to the correct shape until the deck is on.


Cutting out the house. House sides shown here. Windows will be cut out after the house is assembled and taped. I want to get the house tacked together for reference as I lay out the deck framing.

And a Little Tape on the Stem and Stern

6" tape and 3" tape at the bow. 3" tape at the stern (not shown). Also, put a second coat of epoxy on the bottom prior to turning the boat back over.

Cloth Applied to Bottom

Two layers of 10 oz cloth have been applied to the bottom. Topsides look messy at this point but it won't matter after cloth is applied and the hull is faired and finished. To reduce sanding, the drips were brushed &/or squeeged out right away. Drips were knocked down while the epoxy was still soft.


I am using West epoxy and went with 206 slow hardner even though the shop was cold. Temperature in the low 30s this weekend, so I prewarmed the hull with an electric heater from underneath and had the resin & hardner warm before mixing. (I have a heated room adjacent for mixing and use an electric heating pad under the containers.) After the 1st layer was wetted out, I turned the heater under the boat off to extend working time and avoid bubbles.

Preparing to Glass the Bottom

10 oz cloth is cut with a generous lap up the side. The large lap accomodates outside use of the other half of the 4 oz glass used for the interior. The additional strength above the chine won't hurt either. This is going to be a beach boat and needs to be able to cope with that environment with a certain amount of grace when the skipper is lacking in such. A second layer is cut with a slightly larger overlap.

Interior Glassed & Taped

The interior is glassed and taped. I elected to not apply cloth to the bow and stern compartments and instead taped those seams with 6" biaxial tape. It doesn't look as nice but I am thinking the strength will be adequate.


The tape on the interior chine joint disappears pretty well. The interior will get at least one more coat of epoxy.

Fillets & Glassing

Getting ready to apply epoxy fillets to the main cabin. The fillets are masked off since I am thinking of leaving the salon bright (natural wood). Masking the the fillets helps make a tidy job.


The fillets are in and a layer of 10 oz glass has been applied to the bottom. The bulkhead faces already have a layer of 4oz. The interior sides will each get a layer of 4 oz and the a layer of tape will finish the joints.