My PT Spear build progress

Builder's Forum
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It’s been 2 1/2 years now since starting my PT Spear kit build, I’m a first time builder and I feel like I’m finally getting close enough to finished that I can almost taste the salt air. I haven’t posted photos before now because I was embarrassed that my boat didn’t look as pretty as the others in this forum. I would hope that these pictures will encourage other builders with less than perfect projects like mine to post also. I think I have made every mistake possible along the way and my epoxy work was full of drips and bumps but with a little perseverance was able to repair the mistakes and move forward. I’m on page 206 of the manual now- preparing to fiberglass the gunwale top, inwall and breasthook. Here are a few my observations:

I was planning to paint the outside of the hull with Interlux Perfection following Russ Brown’s book Rolling Perfection but it looks like Perfection has been discontinued by the manufacturer. What would be a good replacement bottom paint?

While fairing the hull I was starting to sand into the fiberglass so I stopped and applied Total Boat TotalFair compound. Wow, this stuff is great! It’s like Betty Crocker cake frosting, it made fairing so easy. It sands easy and applies with a drywall joint knife. Since the TotalFair was such a success I added 2 coats of TotalProtect barrier coat/primer with a 10% thinning. It went on great and made a very nice surface for the final paint. Warning: TotalProtect with thinner melts cheap foam brushes!

I’m going to attempt to fair the inside of the hull and use epoxy on the inside for the natural wood finish. Let’s see how it goes! Here are the pictures.

Gunwale top sanded and fiberglass strips laying in the boat ready to be applied:

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The hull after fairing. Green is the TotalFair compound. The hull came out very smooth, I’m super happy with the result.

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The boat is flipped back ready to finish up the inside. I made a cradle to hold the boat steady with some carpeting padding to protect the paint.

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Front view. Yes, my shop is very messy. I can’t wait to get the boat out just to get the place cleaned up.

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Comments and suggestions welcome. Cheers, Jay

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There is definitely a big learning curve with epoxy. As a first time (for the most part) builder myself, it has been the thing causing the most struggle. After learning about their use, I have used micro balloons wherever I can. I filled the weave with micro balloons on the bottom of my boat. I’m not sure how much time its saved, but it stretched the epoxy a lot further and the sanding, while more of it, was much easier.
I’m coming up on the 1 year anniversary of starting my Southwester Dory, and I have several weeks left. Mostly painting and tying up loose ends, but with only a few hours per week to spare everything stretches out. I didn’t keep close track, but I should be just a bit over the 250hr estimate for completion. I thought I could do it in 6 months though.
You’re getting close! The PT Spear is a really nice looking boat.