March 2015

March 8, 2015.  

We are still having cold weather in Huntsville Alabama in March.  Instead of gluing more strips on the hull which is difficult in the cold weather, I decided to start tackling the keel filler strake.  On this boat the keel filler strake is just 3/4" plywood filling the gap where the hull panels meet at the keel.   I will have to cut and fit plywood into this pocket.  The following images detail how I will do this with the first short (4 foot) section.

This is an image of the keel pocket that we will need to fit the 3/4" filler strake into.  This image is facing the stern.  I have hammered nails along the edge of the pocket.  I then clipped off the heads of the nails so that they are all around the same height but more importantly the top of the nails are now sharp/

I then place a the piece of plywood that I want to cut to size on top of the nails.    The piece of plywood is rough cut to size.  This particular one came out of my waste pile and was about the right size.

I then take a wooden mallet and tap the wood pushing the cut nail heads into the wood.

I removed the cut nails and nailed them lightly into the piece of plywood where they previously made indentations in the wood.  A wooden batten can then be held against the nails and a pencil mark is scribed along the batten.  I use a spring clamp holding the wooden batten against the nail.  This gives me an extra hand.

I use drywall screws to hold the marked piece of plywood in place  since there is not enough room to use clamps.  The piece can be cut using a jigsaw or circular saw if the curve is slight enough.  In this case it was but I had to clean it up a bit using a sander. 

Drill a hole where the bolt and nut are and tap the piece in place.  Vola!   it fits.  There is a bit of waste on the left that will have to be trimmed.  

This technique will work very well in this situation.  I will wait until most of the hull is finished before installing the filler strake but it's nice to know I have worked out the details needed to get the job done.

And, here are the next two pieces loosely fitted into place.  I'll label these and store them until the at least all three layers are installed on the entire hull.

I also managed to take care of some things that I have put off such as trimming out the bow planking where it meets the sheer clamp.  I needed to make sure that there was enough bulwark to work with and the bow sprit will still work.  It was also a bit difficult to trim the planking because it was so near the floor of the shop.  The sawzall with a fine blade came in handy here.

Bow port side.  

bow starboard side.

March 15

The first nice weekend we have had in quite a while.  Temperatures reached 70 F.  As with any first nice day for a while there were a lot of things that needed to be done around the house.  I did manage to put in some solid hours on the boat however.  Three more strips on the hull and getting pretty near the transom.  This is the third of four layers on the starboard side if you've lost count.

An image of the stern showing the transom (right).  A few more strips will finish this  although I still have to run out the  bow.  Notice the 'Orbs' in this and the next image.  People like to attribute these to supernatural phenomenon.  In reality they are dust particles near the lens of the camera illuminated by the flash.  I had just finished quite a bit of power sanding only a few minutes before this photo.

A slightly different shot of the above image.

March 28

Well the weather has very nice here in Huntsville Alabama for a few weeks but it has gotten cold again this weekend.  Temperatures are dropping into the 20s (F) tonight and did not get far into the 40s (F).  Nevertheless progress on the boat has been made.  I have finished the third layer of the hull strips from where I started on this side all the way to the transom.  I started as far forward as I could manage for this layer because it is much easier to progress in the direction that the next strip lays on top of the previous one as opposed to pushing the strip up to meet the previous one.  So I still have the bow area to finish but I have made some progress on that as well.  Being that it is so cold this weekend (for using epoxy at least), I have kept busy performing a back log of sanding and trimming.

The third layer is complete for the port (right in the picture) side of the hull.   I also have done quite a bit of sanding;  taking ridges and bumps out.  This is evident from the darker areas around the seams.  Sometimes it is necessary to cut past the first layer of ply and the second layer is always a different color.  This does not concern me too much since this plywood has seven layers and is 1/4" thick.  One layer of ply is therefore only 0.036".  You need to be careful because some plywood is made up of different thicknesses of veneer, this plywood is suppose to be composed of identical thicknesses of veneer.  This, in actuality, is only true to a point.   I've actually found quite a difference in the quality as well as thickness in this marine grade ply I purchased.  Dealing with these difference is just another joy in the process.

I used the technique above to make two more pieces of the filler keel strake as well.  I put pictures of that work up where the others were so as to make a complete story.  I made one mistake with the nail technique which cost me a small piece of plywood (probably can use it elsewhere - waste not want not).  Be careful when you place the blank on top of the cut-off nails.  One of my nails was bent in resulting in a dimple in the finished piece so I had to remake a piece.  It was, thankfully, a short piece and I was able to use the bad piece as a template rather than go through the entire process again.

One not about mistakes.  Mistakes happen.  Sometimes they happen a lot.  On days like that, it's best to put your work up for the day and try again.  But when you do make a mistake, fix the mistake and don't make work arounds if at all possible.  I've learned from experience that it is always better in the long run to stick with the plan and remove the mistake even if it initially costs you a lot of time.