> I bought a Pygmy Coho two months ago. It's still in the box. I didn't have
> the guts to assemble it right away; after months of checking out this
> website it became clear there is a big learning curve involved with
> getting the desired, 'proper' finish, whichever one a person decides upon.

Oh, boo. You only need to worry about the finish AFTER you have the boat assembled. Don't wimp out early on. If you only put on enough resin to hold the thing together it will look `finished' enough to attract an audience at any launch site. Additional sanding, varnishing, waxing and buffing can wait a bit. meanwhile you can admire what you have, and plan for any improvements to its finish.

> Maybe I was needlessly intimidated by the display of experience and skill
> I see here, but there you are.

Many of the boats you see here are first efforts. That means the people who built them were not more experienced than you. Honestly, we all lie about our skills.

> I guess my fragile ego would have been embarrassed to paddle around in a
> self-assembled craft showing all the flaws of a beginner. Also, I
> hesitated to put myself at risk if there was a built-in flaw to my
> methods.

So, are you saying you would be happier rowing a dinged-up, leaky, aluminum rental rowboat which shows all the flaws of the previous thousand users?

I do not deny that there is risk in life, but I continue to cross streets and drive my car. You may call me a daredevil, but I do not always wear a helmet when I ride my bicycle, either.

Built-in flaws tend to show up early in the life of a boat like this. Temporary repairs can usually be made with duct tape. If the damage is too great to be repaired by duct tape, you make a dugout by felling a tree (either with an axe, or by building a fire around its base) and hollowing it out with several small, slow burning fires placed along the length. Then you paddle your dugout home.

> So after messing about with some small panels, I decided on an
> introductory project first: a shell for my pickup truck, also known in
> other parts of this country as a topper. Nothing elaborate, just a
> roof-high enclosure, but made using the stripper method.

Excellent idea.

> I figured it'd be
> better to have a wet truck in case of failure than attempt a self-rescue
> in the Great Wet.

What negative vibes are these that I sense here? Since when is it better to have a wet truck? What failure? Think positive. Think DRY truck. Think success. If you must have a self-fulfiling prophecy, at least make it a positive prophecy.

Self rescue? What ever happend to the buddy system, and paddling with a friend? Even if the friend has no place for you in their boat they can at least take pictures of: A) Your marathon swim or B) Your encounter with sharks.

> The project contains many if not all of the elements of boat building:
> figuring a design, building a form, milling strips, assembly methods,
> glass cloth and epoxy, sanding, etc.

Actually, the truck cover would be more complicated as there are no established plans to work from. You have to do everything from scratch. With most boats you can buy the plans, and sometimes you can buy, borrow or rent the forms. Let's not forget that specific instructions and advice from previous builders are also available for all established designs. You had none of that when you went after building a truck topper. My compliments to you on your ingenuity.

> Make that a LOT of sanding, which I
> take to be the #1 indicator of a beginner.

Au contraire. This is the indicator of a concerned craftsperson. A lot of sanding means that you are either using too fine a grade of sandpaper to start with, or that you are obsessed with an immaculate finish. Even major runs and flaws in resin can be rapidly removed with a coarse-grit belt on a belt sander. Once the major removal of excess wood or resin is accomplished the finer grades smooth the roughness caused by the initial sanding. It is the same for boats or other woodstrip projects.

> Some aspects turned out to be good beginner learning points: As the topper
> is just under 7' long, readily available 8' lumber was convenient. Most
> all the curves are gentle, so I just used 1/4" strips ripped out of
> 2X4s, and after bead and cove milling, I had 1 + 3/8" strips. The
> size of the project is also less demanding of precious shop space.

> So it's on the truck now while I wait a few weeks to varnish. I haven't
> yet figured out the rear end panel so it's simply open at the back, but it
> doesn't look too bad at all, and now that we're at the beginning of the
> rainy season up here near Seattle I'm glad I can keep most of the rain
> out.

A few suggestions for the back. First, on a flat surface, make up a panel of strips slightly larger than the space you need to fill. Cover your work surface with saran wrap or newspapers to keep from gluing the strips to it. Lay out the arrangement of strips you will use. You can use short strips and butt joint them. After you have this jigsaw puzzle arranged, separate the pieces, coat the edges with glue or epoxy, and rapidly reassemble. Use staples where needed to hold the pieces together until the glue sets. Then, pull the staples, sand, and cover with fiberglass and resin. Flip the panel and sand and 'glass the other side. Trim the panel to fit the opening.

You can attach this panel using fiberglass tape and resin, which would look neat, but not give you easy access to the pick-up bed. Instead, I suggest you install cleats, or 1 x 2 wood strips, running vertically along the left and right sides of the bed cover. These go from the bottom of the cover to somewhere around 5 inches below the top of the cover. I don't know the exact from of your cover, but I assume there is a point wehre the walls curve to become the roof. Your cleats end an inch below this point. When you press your panel against the cleats it should be flush, or slightly inset. Mount a small block of 1x2 on the inside of your panel, near the top of the cleat, using glue, resin, or screws or bolts through the panel. A hole drilled through these blocks and into the cleat will allow you to insert a dowel, or metal rod, for a pivot, allowing you to raise the panel to gain access to the pick-up's bed.

Or, you can try making flush hatches on the sides of the bed cover.

> One of my secret hopes is that someone else with the same model pickup
> will buy it right off the truck, then I can do it again with the benefits
> of prior experience.

Once you post your secrets on the internet they are hardly secrets anymore. Put a sign on the thing with the words `for sale' prominently displayed. Either that or build a kayak rack on it and your pickup cap will make an excellent, coordinated, method of conveying your kayak to water.

> Seems to be the kind of thing that one gets better at
> with every project.

Absolutely true.

> So anyway, if you're one of those folks out there like me who want to
> craft and build a boat someday but are somewhat unsure of your skills,
> consider trying something else first that uses those skills. I'm no George
> Roberts (yet!), but I can aspire along those lines, and there is enough
> room in this field to keep a person interested for a lifetime.

I hold a contrary view. Sorry. I think you should make the boat first. Your skills will develop after the first few strips. When you finish the first project you at least have a boat ( primary objective) Otherwise, you have your second objective, and still haven't started on the primary objective.

As for wanting to aspire to be another George Roberts... There are already two people on this board with the name of Paul Jacobson. Do we need two Georges, too?

> Thanks to all you folks, regulars or not, who contribute their thoughts
> and experience to this website. I've stolen as many ideas as I can, so I
> thought I'd toss this one out there.

> Anyone else do something similar?

> I laid out the Pygmy parts on the shop floor last night... .

Send pictures. It should look marvelous when you have it done.

Best of luck to you. Paul Jacobson