May 2020

May 3,

Working on the bow framing that will support the deck and general structure of the bow.  The strongback down the center is a 2 inch (5 cm) by 6 inch (15 cm) member made up of two layers of 1 inch (2.5 cm) by 6 inch white oak.  The bowsprit (6 in x 6 in) will match the strongback width and extend over the bow a good ways.  

The strongback notched into the forward bulkhead with a pocket notch in the near horizontal deck beam.

A close up of the horizontal deck beam showing the detail on the exposed bottom of the beam.  This detail will continue for all the horizontal deck beams and deck house roof beams.

A close up of the pocket where the strongback connects to the deck beam.  The strongback will have to have the slight curvature of the deck.  I'll use the belt sander for that later.

This is how the strongback mortises into the stem in the bow.  The bulwark at the tip of the bow will be cut out to accommodate the 6 x 6 inch bowsprit.  It's a little messy up there right now but all that will be cut out and cleaned up later.  

May 10,

Happy mother's day to all the mothers out there.  This son worked on his child over the weekend.

These pockets can be made with a router.  There is enough room for the guide.  I've made two of these guides, one for 3 and one for 6 inch pockets.  I make three passes with the router to get the 1 inch (2..5 cm) depth I need.

The router leaves a bit of a curved corner...  

...which can be cleaned up quickly with a chisel,

This pocket must be cut by hand.  There is no room for a router.  Unfortunately, this is  the situation with most of the pockets on this boat.  I start with marking the outlines of the pocket and then making the diagonal cuts about a centimeter apart.  I can even hand cut the tapper which is not done here but I did do that on the second one I made.  Luckily, my technique and skills improve with every task.

Now I just rough cut out those triangle with a chisel.  It looks ugly right now.

I carefully chisel along my lines taking out a little at a time.

Finally, the pocket is complete.

The entire set of pockets and notches for the framing member.  The notch is started with cutting the sides partly with a hand saw.  Finishing to almost full depth with the SawZall (reciprocating inline saw).  I then use a skill saw to rough cut the middle.  Then it's all chisel work.  I leave it a bit shallow until I check the fit to get the bevel correct on the bottom.

I've dry laid them in for now.  I'll glue and screw them all in at once.  Time for the left side.

May 17,

And now the other side:

It looks fairly nice.  Next, I'll need to drill the holes for the screw.  

All epoxied in.  This proved to be very messy.  I had to stand in between those members in order to be able to drive the big screws.  I got epoxy everywhere but mostly on myself.  I've since sanded all that nasty epoxy away (not on me but the boards) and taken off the 'squareness' of those board so they don't interfere with the fairness of the deck.