Gillaroo

Home
Plans and crew
The Build
2003

Design
Model
Workshop & Table
Infusion
2004
Assembling hulls
2005
Hull Bulkheads
Bridgedeck Floor
Superstructure
2006
Completing Shell
Interior
2007
Painting
Interior
Exterior
2008
Completion
Rig
Summary
Time and Materials
Links and Suppliers

The Launch
2008
First time
Relaunch

Cruising
2008

Ireland
N.Spain
Portugal & Tarifa
Canaries

Cruising
2009

St Vincent & Grenadines
Trinidad & Tobago
Dutch Antilles
San Blas Islands (Panama)
San Blas canoes
Panama
Panama Canal
Panama - Perlas Islands
Galapagos
Galapagos
Marquesas
Marquesas
Tuomotos
Societies
Societies
Cooks
Cooks
Niue
Tonga
Tonga
New Zealand


Painting
We elected to finish the exterior in a two-pack paint, the idea being to eliminate osmosis and give us as little maintenance as possible. One of the members of the KSS used group sugrested Devthane, an industrial paint, and by a remarkable coincidence one of my brother Sackville has a Devthane supplier as a tenant in Florida. He agreed to supply our needs and was very helpful in exactly matching the colours we wanted (Oyster white for the hull and “Sunbrella” red for the trim). It took some high specification packaging to be able to ship it over but otherwise it has worked out extremely well.
The hulls had been gel coated off the table and so needed little preparation. We had deceided to dispense with gel coat for the rest of the superstructure to save weight. It seemed a good idea at the time but in retrospect it took an awful lot of filling and sanding to get rid of all the pin holes and must have added some weeks to the project. Final pin hole filling was done with a primer paint and then the whole exterior undercoated and glossed in Devthane. We got a professional in to spray her and he produced an excellent finish. The red trim we did ourselves with the two of us working a ‘roller and tab’ system, it’s OK but not as smooth as the spray job.

Andy our sprayer at work. He had never done such a large area as this before and found it exhausting doing a full day spraying with all the kit.

Sailing canoe.
You cant go cruising without your toys ! The 17 ft. sailing canoe (from a design by Solway Dory) is made in cedar strip with a double bulkhead in the middle that simply bolts the two halves together. Dismantled she can fit into the bay underneath the cockpit.