May/June 2014

May has seen the first layer of the hull completed.  Only 3 more layers to go.  I need to take some time off from the boat construction to build some scaffolding around the hull so that I can get to all of the surface.  Those longitudinal battens where great to climb on but now they are covered.

I have a few places that will need to be faired and some light sanding to do.  But, there is no changing the hull now, it's fixed.  The subsequent layers will pose new challenges, no doubt, but it feels good to have the difficulties of laying the first layer behind me.  No more edge gluing.  No more making sure the plywood edges line up and are fair.  No  more blocks of wood screwed and stapled across strips (well there will be different blocks of wood, probably scrap plywood squares around 2").

A view from the keel.

The last few pieces are put into place.

April 2014

Hull construction continues as I finish up the rear half of the port side first layer.  I have decided to start a tool section of this blog since I know people are curious about the tools I use and how well they hold up.  Hopefully I'll get something started in the next few weeks.  More pictures of a few more strips on the hull seem kinda boring to me.  I'll continue posting pictures of mile stone events and difficult sections.

February/March 2014

This month I tackled installing the keel bolts.  These are stainless steel threaded rod with nuts on both ends that run through the keel and floor boards.  They are to be installed on all floor boards that are not getting bolts for the ballast keel.  The ballast keel will be installed latter and it will have its own bolts.  Drilling a straight and true hole 20 inches deep is tricky.  You can not rely on your ability to hold the drill at the correct angle.  To get this right I made a jig at every hole to help me drill straight.  The following images will give you an idea of the procedure.

The first thing I needed was a vertical reference.  I clamped this square stock in place and made sure it was vertical with a level.  Make sure to check two orthogonal sides.  This requires an iterative approach because when you adjust one angle, the other invariably is effected.   

I then take two small pieces of wood, one shown above, and place one end on the centerline of where the hole will be.   I then mark where it intersects with the vertical square stock shown on the left.  I make two of these.

I, then, clamp the small pieces of wood to the vertical square stock, one a few inches above  where the hole will be and the other 6-8 inches further up.  Make sure that the pieces are clamped so the mark aligned with the vertical square stock.

With the drill bit in the drill, I can align the bit with the small pieces of wood.  The pieces of wood do not actually touch the drill bit but I can site along them keeping a constant distance between the wood and the drill bit.  You will have to check at an angle so you can keep the space between the bit and the wood constant at the same time you keep the two spaces the same.

Carefully start drilling.  Take your time and clear your bit often.  What I mean by clearing your bit is lifting the bit out of the hole so the wood chips are removed.  If you do not clear the hole as you drill, the bit will bind and will not cut clean.   It will also be harder to keep your alignment.

I also finished the first layer of the cold molded process on the port side.  The following images detail the final stages.

Here, I am getting excited about finishing this side.  The changing hull shape in the last section makes fitting the strips a little tricky at times but the ready access (no ladder or climbing) makes the work go quickly.  I've started marking the strips where they end at the stem and precutting them.  I get a much better result this way.  I lay a pencil flat against the opposite side of the stem and make a mark across the strip after it is clamped in place.  This way I cut the strips where they would meet when the other side is installed.  This will actually result in too sharp of a point at the step bit it gives me the liberty later to decide how to shape the underside of the stem.   I also put a few lines across the previously installed strip onto the clamped strip to ensue that I can easily and quickly align the strip once I lay the epoxy down.

Working on the bow has other challenges as well.  The longitudinal baton twist and change shape radically at this point.  They do not necessarily have the same shape on both sides due to the fact that the lumber cut from different logs with different grain have different properties.  Having two batons laminated does mediate this a little since you end up getting contribution from both although the first baton seems to dominate since it is fixed.  This has required me to laminate thin pieces of wood onto the batons where they do not quite match from port to starboard as well as perform some radical sanding of the batons.  It won't be perfect but it should not be noticeable or affect performance.

I've used quite a few blocks to make sure the hull is fare in the bow.  I also resorted to a few other tricks to ensure the hull is fare such as screwing temporary blocks to the underside to take out bulges and dips in the strips.  I've left the last few strips uncut because they were awkward to place.  This allowed me some freedom in the installation.  Notice how the strips get narrower as the curves get more aggressive.  

Blocks removed, stem cut to shape and some rough sanding performed.

And I've started to make progress on the starboard side of the boat.

Well, I have made some progress on the starboard side of the boat.  Unfortunately there is a wall a few feet away from the gunwales  that prevents me from getting good pictures but I'll try to keep the readers updated.

January 2014

It's another year and time to get back to building the dream.  At the end of last year my focus was finishing an addition onto my house.  Most of January was focused on my wife's surgery recovery and making extra money on the side to see us through.  Now that I know that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, it's time to start working on the boat again.  I have not been idle all this time though.  I have put in a few hours here and there and that enabled a leap forward in the planking phase.  85% of the port side has the first layer of plywood.  She really is starting to look like a boat.

Finishing the first layer of planking to the transom on the port side.  Notice the large number of temporary short boards holding the plywood flush.  These are necessary when the hull is changing shape in complex ways.  I could have elected to install narrower strips but the wider strips make a farer hull in this case.  

October 2013

It's been a slow month for boat building.  I have managed to get a few good days of work in but I have not been able to work on the boat at my leisure (which to tell the truth would be all the time).  Even though actual work has been slow, I have made progress in other areas.  I've worked forward in my head how the next few steps will occur.  Sometimes I can get on a role and forget a few steps in the process.  Then I'll have to go back and figure out how to fix something that would have been easier to do earlier.  Anyone remember the frames on the transom issue.  Turns out I was just about to overstep myself again.  Before I complete the first layer of the hull, I needed to determine how I was going to create a surface to attach the ballast keel and add dead wood to the stem.  On the first point,  I have decided to go ahead make the first layer of the ballast keel from plywood and mark where the keel bolts and the floor timber bolts belong (so they do not interfere with each other).  I can then use this as a pattern to cut the hull material to the right shape at the hull/keel junction.  On the second point, I am adding two layers of plywood to the underside of the stem.  I am having to score the plywood (every inch for 20 inches) around the upper part of the stem where the curvature is most severe in order for the plywood to bend.  I'll then plane the edges of the plywood down to the shape of the hull.  This will give me a continuous mounting surface along the stem for the hull material as well as help bring the hull to a small curvature around the front of the stem.  I'll have pictures soon to illustrate.  Friday I'm going on vacation with my wife to the Florida/Alabama coast on the Gulf of Mexico.  I will dream of sailing, drink beer and not worry about life for a week.

Back from a well needed vacation in the Gulf.  I met Joe Shelby who is building a nice catamaran and is quite along on the project.  We managed to have a good time talking about building boats and drinking a little beer.  When I got back home I started working on the bow.  Dead wood needed to be added to the stem so the hull material can be attached and so that the bow will come to a nice curved front.

Two layers of 3/4" Meranti plywood attached to the bottom of the stem with epoxy and stainless staples.  This will be carved to the shape of the bow once the epoxy cures.

This is a close up of the bottom of the bow where I've added the material.  The filler boards end in a stagger where they will later taper down to the existing keel.

In this picture I have started to carve the stem filler wood to shape.  An electric hand planer is used to remove the majority of wood while a belt sander with 40 grit sand paper is used for the finish work.

Another close up of the stem showing the finished work.  

I've also checked the fairness or the bow.  This is a critical part of the hull and its also where the wood battens undergo the most radical changes.  I'm trying to ensure that not only is the hull fair but the same on both sides.  I have needed to change the angle of the face of a few of the longitudinal battens as well as add material in one spot.

Back to installing the plank strips.

September 2013

Continuing to install hull plywood strips.  Each one takes about an hour to install.  I believe that I can increase the pace once the first layer is installed.  The subsequent layers should be easier to lay down since I can fasten the layer to the previous layer where it does not lay properly.  Of course it will be more difficult to set up an make because there will be no place clamp the strips but then again I can readily see if the strip is misaligned.  Time will tell.

Ten strips are now installed.  You can see where I have sanded the seams.   The strips tend to pop up a little on the edges where there is no support especially where the strips make a hard bend such as the panels on the left of the image.  I've sanded through the first of 7 ply layers in a few places.  These ten are the only 12" strips that I will install on the first layer.  It's time to start using 9.5" strips due to the quicker changes in the hull shape. 

This weekend, I had a few friends over and we managed to install five more strips.  These are the 9.5" strips.  I was very pleased with how well they lay on the frame.  Pictures coming soon.

This is the 17th strip on the port side.  I've clamped it in place in preparation to mark the cut line.

A nice view of the work progressing forward toward the bow.  

A close up of the clamping process.  The flat strips of plywood have to be carefully clamped in place to ensure that they lay flat against the longitudinal battens.  If they do not lay flat then I will cut the wrong shape and it will not match the installed strip.  This will either cause me to recut or if I fail to do that then the plywood strip will bulge out where it is forced to match the installed strip.

Another view of the clamping process.  You can also see a previously installed strip where the temporary boards are placed to ensure that the edges of the plywood match perfectly.

After some of the hull has an initial sanding, It is starting to look  very smooth.

More clamping.  The keel is a nice place to set tools.  

The excess at the keel will have to be trimmed.

August 2013

I have been very busy this month and although I have done a bit of work on the boat, I have not had time to tell you about it.  I'm going to go through the process of installing one of the cold molded strips on the hull not that I have gotten the hang of it.  

The fist thing that is done is the strip is laid onto the hull close to where it will be installed.  There should be at least 1.5" between the new strip and the installed adjacent strip.  There should also be about the same space at the to as the bottom.  The gap in the middle will be different than at the middle. Hold the strip in place so that it can still move around.  Start clamping at one end and move toward the other making sure that the strip is laying flat against the longitudinal battens.  You may have to adjust the entire piece and restart the clamping pressure if the strip wanders to close or too far away at the opposite end.

Strip clamped into place.  There are fewer clamps between the strip than on the outside because that is where I need to mark the cut line for the strip.  Use enough clamps so the strip lays flat on the longitudinal battens.

I've modified an old marking gauge for the next step.  I drilled a hole in one and cut a slot so that a pencil will fit securely in place.  A screw and wing nut holds the pencil in place.  The marking gauge is slid along the last installed strip while marking the temporarily installed strip.  The idea is that you want the these two pieces to fit together so you mark an equal distance from between the two.  Make sure the marking gage is set slightly wider than the widest gap between the two pieces.

Checking that the marking gauge is set just wider than the wides gap between the two strips.

Sliding the marking gauge along the gap to mark the cut line.  Normally I use two hands for this.

A power saw was used to cut the waste off the strip.  I cut to just before line.  I then use the hand plane to finish the cut. This leaves a beautiful clean edge.  

Once the strip is cut and finished, I re-clamp it in place.  I usually have to use a few temporary screws to hold down the edge where it mates with the last installed strip.  I make sure every thing fits nicely and that there are no overly warped places of gaps.  These are caused by either forcing the strip to bend closer to the installed strip or by a strip that is too wide.  Reposition and remark or rip the outside down an inch.  Make sure you cut the outside and not the nice curves side you just made.  Look for gaps that are larger than your thumbnail.  These usually can be fixed by a little hand plane action.  Most of the strips installed so far have needed a little cleaning up in this way.  The strip sits on a slightly different curve because it's closer to the last strip than when you measured it.  This can't be helped.

Once the strip fits nicely, mark all the longitudinal battens along the outside edge.  This is where you will put epoxy.  Remove the strip and set it aside.  I mix my epoxy for this procedure pretty thick by adding silicon filler.  This helps it stick to vertical surfaces without running off.  I'm also pretty liberal with the epoxy since this is a critical junction in the construction.  Make sure you edge glue the strips as well.  Lay the strip on the wet epoxy and start the stapling process.  I use 1 1/2" stainless staples with a 1/4" crown and a pneumatic stapler.  I start about 1/3 up from the gunnels and make sure that the strip is tight against the previously installed one.  Some bulging may occur between longitudinal battens and for this I staple a short 1X4 parallel to the batten about half way between on the joint.  I use wax paper between the board and the strips to prevent them sticking to the epoxy.  Occasionally I need to use a temporary screw into the back of the strip to either side of the joint to make sure the two strip's edges come together flat.  This will prevent one edge from being higher than the other.  This is why edge gluing is important.  I also brush epoxy down the joint between the two strip to ensure a good bond.  Once the epoxy is cured then the edges will hold together and the hull will be fare. I use a belt sander to take off any high spots and the excess epoxy at the joint.  Don't forget to remove the temporary screws.

Strips five and six being installed.  Note the temporary horizontal boards that are ensuring that the edges remain flat together where there are no battens.