Well Guys, I was going to lay low for awhile, but, when the opportunity to build the Jersey City presented itself, well, you know how it is

Upon first inspection, I found the quality of the kit to be every bit as good, or better than one would expect from a Dumas kit. Unlike some of their earlier tugs, this one has a beautifully molded, Gell Coated fiberglass hull, with the top side primarily of expanded PVC plastic--actually, there's very little wood in the kit. Having worked with the PVC on the 19' Racer, I learned to like it right away, and can see where that will greatly simplify this build also.

The kit contains only one CAD drawn (60% reduction) plan sheet, along with several pages of suplimental detail drawings, as well as a step by step written instruction booklet which makes reference to the apropriate detail drawings.
Along with that, there are several dye cut PVC sheets as well as laser cut ply detail parts and a large bag of metal detail parts. The first thing I did was to inventory the kit and seperate the metal parts into a plastic compartmentalized box. Also included is a bag full of preshaped wood tires.

So far, I have the hull cleaned up and ready for prime. A large mold part line was removed from the hull centerline, and the top edge of the bullwark trued up and sanded. A dab of bondo was needed to clean up a couple of flaws in the seam, and a light sanding to knock the shine off the gell coat.
The first step in preparing the hull is to build up and glue the equipment tray in place. Bondo was used to secure the tray to the hull bottom. The next step will be to get the stuffing tube and motor mounts in place.
Stay tuned--PAT

Made a little progress on the hull today. The motor is mounted, and the inner deck supports are in place.
A friend who recently built his JC told me that glueing the 1/4 sq. spruce rails in the hull was a problem, but I got mine in without a hitch. I started by drawing a reference line on the bulwark at the proper location, then clamped the stick to the hull, aligned to the reference line with two large clamps. Then, stationary clamps were added to hold the stick tightly against the hull side. Finally, a bead of medium Cya was run along the top and bottom edges of the sticks, and allowed to air dry. So far, so good.

The kit recomends the 6V Pitman motor and 3:1 Gear Drive. I had a MAS drive unit laying around, so that's what will be used. The mount is fabricated as described in the instructions, and went in without any problems. The instructions aren't real clear as to what the front drive shaft support is to be made from, so I made one up from 3/16 ply and glued it in place at the front end of the shaft. The next step is to glue the deck in place.
PAT

I'm building the Jersey City too. I'm so glad you're placing pictures in here of your build. I got the running hardware with the stuiffing box and propeller which is a good heavy one and well made. Wait until you get to the pilot house. It's a bit of a bear getting that PVC curved around. Also, be sure to measeure the placement per instructions or you'll have more left on one side as I did. Not noticeable as I just trimmed a little off. Post as many pics as you can. Thanks.

Once the drive system was mounted, it was time to glue in the main deck. It's built from 2 sections of PVC, joined at the center. The seam was filled with Bondo and sanded before the deck was glued in place.
According to the instructions, the hull might be too wide and require clamping while the glue is drying. My hull was almost 1/2" too wide, so I pulled the sides in with home made clamps and filled the remaining gaps around the edge with 30 minute epoxy and micro baloons. While the mix was still unset, I squeegied the excess epoxy flat and even with the deck and bulwark. A little sanding and the joint should pretty well dissapear.

Using 30 minute epoxy and micro ballons means you really have about 10 minutes working time So, have everything at the ready when you mix up the glue. I loaded the slurry into a syringe and shot a bead of glue all the way around the 1/4 sq support rails, pressed the deck in place and clamped it in. Then, a second batch of "hoopy goopy" was mixed up, a little thicker than the first, and shot into the gap around the edge. To level everything up, dip a bodo squeegy, cut down to about a 1" width, into denatured alcohol and pull the excess material out of the corner, all the way around. Use an alcohol wetted towel to clean up the residue before things get too sticky. If any gaps or air bubbles open up, go back and add more epoxy mix as needed. Then, let it dry overnight, and remove the clamps. Finally, sand the edges to remove any remaining epoxy residue.
The bulwarks will go in next, so stay tuned for the phots as they come.
PAT

Now that the deck is in place and sanded, the bulwarks are added. The inner hull side is skinned with dye cut PVC parts to eliminate the need to finish the glass work on the inside of the lay-up. The verticle ribs were glued in place and trimmed into the top edge of the bulwark, and are ready for the cap railings.
Before the cap railings go on, the hatch combing was added, along with the rudder servo mount. Slow but sure, it's starting to look like a boat!
PAT

Looking great can't wait to see the rest

Joe

Joe, Thanks, I have a good bit more done, but don't have the photos worked up yet. Will fill in the details tomorrow. Basically, the hull is finished and all the running gear is pretty well in place, now it's in to the super structure--which looks like it's going to be fun.
PAT

The cap railings are all on now and feathered in nicely. The fantail hatch cover is done and in place too. I haven't seen any provision for holding the hatch in place yet, so I'll come up with something simple to hold it down a little later.
So far, things are going together just great. Between the fiberglass hull and the plastic parts up top, construction is very basic and very little "finishing" is required to prep for paint. Once you get used to working with the plastic parts, I'm thinking it would be tough to go back to wood.

When Dumas sent the kit over to review, no power system parts were included, so I used what I had here. As it turns out, the rest came in a secound package that arrived almost a week later. So, I removed my system and set up the running gear just as the Guys at Dumas designed it.
The running gear package contained a pre-assembled stuffing box with an oiling tube, the prop and attachment hardware, and the 3:1 drive unit. The drive unit was assembled according to the detail plan sheets and installed as recomended. A mechanical speed control is being used, so a second servo was required to actuate the throtle lever. The servo was mounted on the rails provided for the rudder servo, making for a very "clean" looking and well organized installation.

I deviated from the building sequence at this point. I decided that as long as the running gear was going in, I'd skip ahead and get the rudder set up now, so all the exit points in the hull can be wrapped up and made ready for paint.
The rudder bearing tube block was drilled and shaped, and glued into the hull using bondo as an adhesive. In a polyester hull, bondo is about as good as it gets to glue things in place, it sets up quickly and is more than adequately strong. The next step will be to get the HUGE brass rudder shaped and assembled. Then once everything is hooked up, all the external drive parts will be removed for final paint prep.
PAT