More gaps between BHs and bottom

Today I planed down the chinelogs to flat, in order to fit the bottom at some point in the near future. Unfortunately for me, something somewhere didnt add up.

When I cut the notches in my BHs, I was very careful to use an actual slice from my chinelog to trace a pattern for the notch. Somehow, my notches were too deep laterally, I have gaps there that need filling. Today I now realize that they are also too shallow vertically... after planing the chinelogs flat, I have a gap between the bottom of the BHs and the chinelog. Take note from BH3:


When I fit the bottom onto the boat, the gap is clear (boat is upside down):


This is especially frustrating because:

1: I measured the notches using an actual piece from the chinelog
2: I was very careful to do my best eye-balling job that the bottom of the ply appeared to meet the bottom of the BHs

In retrospect I should have:

1: After the dry-fit turn the hull upside down to get a good look at what was going on
2: Do a test plane portion to see where a flat chinelog ends up in relation to the BHs

So now I can do one of three things:

1: Fill the gap with loads and loads of epoxy when I put on the bottom
- Risky because I could deform the bottom if I screw too hard placing it into position
2: Fill the gap with a strip of wood that is painstakingly cut and glued into place
-Annoying work, AND it wont match the BH bottom frame
3: Continue to plane down the chinelogs until they match the BHs.
-I lose freeboard AND it could make the boat too wide at the bottom and the pre-cut ply for the bottom wont be able to accomodate the new width.

For all its worth, heres the boat with the bottom kinda on:


Ive just decided that solution #3 is not a good one.

I have now just decided to go with option #2.

Interestingly enough, BH1 came out perfect!... WTF, Over?

Slow going

More slow going here in NH, very very little has been accomplished as of late. Between work, 5 F. deg. temps, and a sore back, Ive been laying off my boat for a bit.

In the meantime check out my compatriot in CA!

The GIS fleet is building, people are getting STOKED, sailing will be going down! What are YOU waiting for!?!?

Getting small items done

Slowly but surely, carefully, things are coming along!

My second gunwale is scarfed and glued! As you can see, the epoxy will glue your bricks to the wood too! I had to chisel the brick off the wood, and it left brick behind which was further chiseled. This is my nicest, tightest scarf to date... on this side. Little more of a gap on the other side which is too bad, because the tight side will be glued to the boat due to a curvature in the wood that already nicely conforms to the hull.


My mast step and mast partner are glued up, in place, and ready to be cut open to fit the mast and then glued down. I doubled up the mast partner because the top of BH2 can be easily twisted by hand. By doubling it up, it stiffens it considerably. This makes me feel better after the chaotic gluing job around these bulkheads:


My bow knee came out well except for two things 1. I forgot that it was to be placed OVER the stem. My stem comes up to the edges of the ply, no room to slip it over. This means I will have to either slip it behind the stem or on top of it. I will ask Storer for recommendations. My bow was also considerably wider than the number provided by Storer for the knee. I would highly recommend tracing real world bow to your piece of lumber prior to cutting. Remember to keep the gunwales fastened. My stern knees, by comparison, came out great (I traced the real deal and did not go by the numbers provided by Storer). The great thing about my stern knees is that they are interchangeable, as in, both corners are the same! Yes! Precision building yes! Notice my mail. This is where I throw my bills. Then when I glue on the aft seat, they will be sealed in forever, and all my financial problems will disappear!

Because my workshop is a walk from my assembly point in the garage, my hull is becoming my new holding bin/workshop.


Its also dusty in there! My lonesome bike, covered in wood dust. Primarily this dust is from the wood cherry countertops being built by my brother in law right behind me, but the picture is cooler if everyone thinks its coming from my boat!


In addition,

1. my side arms for BH2 and 4 are cut and beveled to the sides (again, I waited until I got my boat assembled to match them to the actual hull)

2. inwale spacers are cut

I would like warmer temps in the garage before I start gluing things. As of right now, strictly hull, non-gluing, I need to do the following:

1. Cut out the mast holes in the partner and step

2. Scarf inwales

3. Finish fitting bow seat (waiting for gluing of seat cleats)

Other than that, rudder, daggerboard, mast and spars, centerboard trunk.

I am very close to having a totally completed hull.

Filling gaps b w BHs and gluing bottom

Today was spent filling in the gaps around the BHs. The first gaps to be filled were the ones in the notches between the chinelog and the BHs... the intrepid reader will remember I cut them too deep laterally. My wonderful wife who proved very adept at filling gaps around the stem went right to work on these notches, filling them with epoxy and shaping them with ply wrapped with packaging tape.


Once that was set, we glued on cedar spacers to fill the gaps between the bottom frame of the BHs and the bottom of the boat, which appeared because my notches in the BHs were too shallow, despite careful measuring. I didnt fool with cutting down the spacers before placing them, I glued them in place and Ill plane them down to match. I wanted to make sure to do the repair correctly rather than eyeball a piece that would look like it fit.



Finally, I glued together the two halves of the bottom. Very self explanatory. Shooting for gluing the bottom on Tuesday.

Seat cleats gluing daggerboard

Ok my pretties:

Today I decided to start gluing again after a long hiatus. My back is good enough now that I can bend into the boat now if Im really careful. We had a couple days where the temps were above freezing by a few degrees, so the garage temperature came up as well. With a well placed $12 heater from Lowes, I glued up the seat cleats for the bow, center, and stern seats.

This was another typical gluing disaster, messy and sticky. The bow went first. I decided to use two screws to get the side cleats into position, the ply-leverage method is a good one, but I didnt need the added stress of a cleat swimming out of position. Two 1 1/4" drywall screws and I knew nothing was moving. Youll notice that the vertical post has yet to be glued, Im waiting for everything to harden up so I can just get an accurate measurement.


Afterwards, I threw some plastic over it to make a heating tent thing. Very rudimentary, but quite effective.


Next up was the stern seat cleats. You may notice the bricks holding down the cleat along the floor. I did not use fasteners for this one, or its mate in the bow. Alternating the bricks supplied the weight and kept it from sliding around. Also, two screws per side cleat.


I did get some small gaps along some cleats, but when I pour glue all over them for the seat fitting, these will fill adequately. These are not necessarily structural, though they hold the seat which through its fillet along the side will be, but theres enough glue there. Also, no water gets in here anyway. Or put another way: If water gets this watertight compartment, Im really screwed anyway.


AND FINALLY

Ive started on working on something other than the hull. The daggerboard/centerboard and the rudder. Technically, its a daggerboard. Storer and others likes to use the word "foils" which I guess it correct, they are foil shaped, as in airfoil, but Ive never heard that term before, ever. Its always been "blades." So Im sticking with blades. Maybe its a New England thing.

I ripped up my 5/4x6" cedar planks to strips between 1-2". My bro-in-law is making a cherry countertop for his renovated kitchen. I was welcome to the scraps. So my daggerboard has cherry leading and trailing edges, with a middle spice-it-up stripe. The rudder, whose stock is not complete due to wood lackage, will most likely get two strips, for and aft, though I really would like a center stripe to match. This blank was also joined, as in, I used a joiner. Tight. I really went all out for this one!

Back in action

OK ALL

Been on a bit of hiatus. Ive been working like its going out of style, my back has been totally thrown out (getting better slowly), and I havent been feeling motivated. Thats changing. Im running out of wood. There are things to do. Im hoping to pick back up the momentum and get this project back on track!

The past month hasnt seen much project. Ive been piecemealing it together bit by bit, but essentially, the seats are cut out and the seat cleats are cut and beveled. No gluing because the temps have been hovering around 34F 2C in the garage. All easy and self explanatory, except for one thing (bow seat) which I will get to next. Bevels were marked, by the way, by lining up the cleats to the BHs and taking a pencil and marking my boats angle... Storer recommends 11 mm on all cleats, I do not recommend that it would be too much on some portions of my boat. A custom and accurate bevel is just as easy as a pencil mark!!!

Some obligatory GIS pics:

First: Framing for the bow seat. Notice the shim on BH1... If you remember, dear intrepid reader, BH1 is the only BH that sat correctly on the chinelogs, every other BH sat too high and I had to shim the bottoms to meet the bottom panel. Hence, on BH1 I had to shim the top to meet the bow seat. This will necessitate a shim underneath the ply that will back the center cleat on BH1 as well.


Bow seat almost in place:


Detail of the cleats meeting at the stem. Notice rudimentary notches cut to accomodate the fillets around the stem:


The seat slowly moving forward. My experience with the bow seat thus far will differ from the plans. I would strongly suggest marking out the bow seat on the ply per the plans in the manual, (remember the 15mm extra!!!) THEN take measurements from your boat itself and map them out on top of the lofting youve already taken for comparison. My boat has a slightly different shape in the bow than the plans are expecting, and my seat will fit, its just going to take lots of shaping and a little luck to make it fit without any significant gaps. Dont sweat it like me, just back up your measurements with what you have on the ground in your workshop.


Stern framing, note my space heater for when I decide to glue. The transom center cleat support had to be notched to fit around the backing I glued on for the rudder bolts. Woops, I didnt leave 6mm to squeeze the support in. Also, the angles are all off. Something doesnt add up, either the height of the transom cleat, BH4, or the angle of the transom itself. OH WELL!


Rear seat is fit. This one went smoothly, just a little annoying. A little gap on the port side, but no big deal, it will be covered by the epoxy fillet. This seat fits better than the bow.


No vertical supports have been cut yet, Ill do that when I glue everything else in place, that way Ill get a nice solid measurement and they will custom fit without things moving out of the place.

Im struggling with scarfing the "real" gunwales, they are not going as easy as the chinelogs did. Next up, mast step and partner. Maybe after that a marathon gluing session and then I can work on blades, mast, spars, etc. etc. Onwards into the new year with my GIS!