Unicorn, a small electric fantail launch

Varnish Nearly everything is varnished. Lot's of education and frustration with the varnishing. I never learned how to get a perfectly smooth, bubble-free surface. Rubbing hard with brown paper bags after the varnish has dried smooths out the bubbles, but they are still visible. I put four coats on the plumbing cover, bow foot well floor, gunwales, and helm station post; six coats on the benches and table; and eight coats on the rear deck. Here's a picture that shows the true color of the hull in early morning sunlight, which has been a rare thing lately! I made two chairs out of White Oak boards that I bought in the 1980's to make a boat out of. The chairs fit in the open bow area of the boat, but can also be used as beach chairs. Obviously they are not done in these pictures. The head rests will be rounded over and then everything will be sanded and varnished. The long legs sticking out the back have been shortened because they looked silly. The seats are from the Eckerso...

 Everything is Installed! Very short post. The picture above shows the fully assembled (minus the canopy) boat. Note the unusual jam cleats on the rear deck. I modified a design that I stumbled upon online that the poster said he could not find any reference for who designed the cleat. They are made from "wormy" American Chestnut. First a picture of clamping the deck front molding lamination. The wood is more of the mahogany that was used in the keel and the deck itself. The molding is 4 layers of just over 1/8" thick. Lot's of small challenges with this glue up, and I learned an important lesson (that I knew already but decided to ignore...): Make a jig, glue up the lamination on the jig first, then put it in place. This probably wouldn't have actually worked because the deck is not flat -or symmetric! The small brass screws are holding little oak blocks under the deck. The lamination is epoxied and screwed to the blocks and to the edge of the deck. You can also...

Bollards, Chocks, and an Eye All the hull-mounted hardware is installed! This picture shows the beautiful bow eye. The bow eye is bolted thru the Angelique wood bow stem and Shagbark Hickory inner stem so it is very strong. All the deck hardware is "bedded" in polyurethane caulk. Bedding seals the interface between the hull or deck and the piece of hardware, preventing water from getting into the wood. Bedding compound comes in at least two varieties, the very expensive and very popular 3M 5200 caulk and the very cheap and nearly as good PL S30 Polyurethane Roof and Flashing Sealant for about 1/3 the cost. I used the cheap stuff. The left picture shows the 3D printed bow chock and bow stem extension (see earlier post), and the unusual Clam Cleat Bollard. The right picture shows all bow hardware. Aft of the bow chock is a very unusual "Clam Cleat Bollard". This strange thing has a tapered clam cleat inside it which is shown holding the black line. The harder the line...

 Helm Station I have  -finally-  (almost) completed the Helm Station. From the very beginning of deciding to build Unicorn, I intended to monitor every aspect of the propeller drive motor so I can get a complete picture of how the motor is performing. The gages on the Helm Station are: Voltage across the motor terminals Current thru the motor RPM Motor housing temperature Accurate low speed speedometer Battery voltage Note that the voltage and current are at the motor, not the battery. This will tell directly show how much power the motor is using. Combining that with boat speed, motor rpm, and motor temperature (and a lot of maths) I can figure out electrical losses and hence overall motor efficiency. I wanted to do this for two reasons. The first just to satisfy my curiosity, the second to have a starting point to compare the efficiency of different sizes of propellers and to see if and how much a Kort nozzle (also called a ducted propeller) as used on some large tug bo...

 Seats and Plastic Parts The seats are built! All of these seats (benches, really) are removable to reduce weight when moving the boat around on land.     There will be a small floor in the cavity in front of the tank so the bow seat will have almost normal height leg room. I expect this seat to be the most comfortable of all. It is also high enough so our little dogs can put their back feet on the seat and front feet on the breast hook so they can see out. I'm leaning now towards covering the main floor with a grey low pile outdoor carpet rather than wood. Carpet is WAY cheaper, lighter weight, more comfy on bare feet, and less slippy. Turns out there is a whole industry for bass boat carpeting so there is a lot to choose from. Who knew. There will be 2 additional wicker folding seats that are free standing that can go anywhere on the front floor. Like this maybe? Made by me, or purchased? I have been making plastic parts for the helm station and other stuff. Here is the...