Inwales daggerboard case

OK, first a very rare off-topic rant.

The Mens Downhill is a huge event, very important to me. A Swiss man (Didier Cuche) and an American (Bode Miller from NH) were two top contenders. NBC in its totalitarian control over Olympics coverage DOESNT AIR SHIT when its actually happening (1:30 EST). Theyd rather sit on it until Prime Time, and show you a few select races instead of the whole thing. This is blasphemy. For Chrissake I never watch sports on TV, but this is one thing I dont like to miss, its on every 4 years, whats it take to show the whole thing live? I miss Switzerland in this regard, very very much-- I took complete coverage of one of the most important ski races for granted apparently. I looked everywhere online for live streaming, but couldnt find anything free, no matter how much I tried. Canada in theory offers it, but it would never load.

In the end, Didier DEFAGO of Morgins, a few villages over from mine, took gold in a mini upset (Ill post the run once I find a good link), knocking down Bode to Bronze. I wouldve loved to see it, not knowing what was coming.

I bet Im missing a great party over the pond.

I mean, Ive got a million ESPN channels showing 20 year old basketball games, but only one damn station covers this Olympics!?

NBC, I hate you, go to hell.

************************

Well, my back and I are arguing again at a very good clip. Its frustrating and limits boatbuilding.

That being said, with the aid of my lovely wife I have installed the inwales.

It was relatively simple. A second person is a help in the initial installation, but I did the starboard one solo. A few dry runs, few coatings of epoxy to seal everything, some thickened epoxy on the inwale spacers, a few clamps, some clean up, and the inwales are installed. These bastards really make the boat. She shines.


There are a few things that are not perfect. The inwales lined themselves up with the spacers nicely, though in some areas the inwale rose above the spacers, in others below. Some sanding will even it all out. The port side, interestingly enough was more exaggerated in this regard compared to the starboard side... the port side was also the copied side. Maybe that had something to do with it. Be sure to get the inwale flat up on the spacers, there be some twist in there, arrrr.

ALSO, some intrepid readers will remember BH3 sidearms not meeting the sides. This has been rectified with careful thickened epoxy application, some tape covered wood bits to act as dams, and also a spacer split in two, and placed on either side of the arm to provide extra strength. A good fix, rather than sucking in the side and losing a bit of fairness down the gunwale.

Two days ago, I also glued together my mentally challenged daggerboard case:


I was really intent on only using the wood I had available. For instance, I had leftover pieces from my daggerboard itself, which is more-or-less already the same thickness as the daggerboard will be (a little more since the board will be planed down some). This meant these leftover pieces were ideal. So I put them together the best I could. The vertical lighter pieces that guide the daggerboard are cherry, the same as the front and back end of my board. Again, leftover pieces. The hardwood will provide banging and clunking protection. Youll notice the lower right frame overhangs a bit. This is on purpose, since the shape of the trunk itself, as described in the plans, did not fit what the boat actually was. I have a little less rocker coming out of amidships, apparently, than Storer was imagining. Again, this is why the amateur should not cut specific pieces such as seats until the hull is 3-D. Just my opinion. Side cleats along the bottom will fill the gap that is left, of that I have no worries, but I wanted the base of the wood along the bottom of the hull, for strength.

Onwards!

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!?!?

Gluing down the bottom

After gluing together the hull, I came to several decisions, one of them being that gluing is a pain in the ass.

Yesterday I glued down the bottom, and yes, gluing is still a pain in the ass. So much so, that I swore off building another glue-only boat next time, that Ill take fasteners thank you very much, this sucks!

This morning, when I peeked into the garage at my nemesis glue-job-boat, my heart softened a bit, and I feel a little better. But I came close-- In my mind I saw a big bonfire at one point.

Yesterday I smoothed out the seam between the two bottom pieces, scoured the chinelogs and BHs with a rasp to provide a rough gluing surface, planed the transom flat, and screwed the bottom down in place. This took a while, and I was so concerned getting it on straight that it went on straight, but offset by about 2mm or so. I realized this after I screwed it on. This is not a big problem, theres supposed to be a gap of 90mm between the buttstraps for the daggerboard trunk, and I left 95mm for just this scenario. Storer recommends placing the bottom on with the centerline marks on the inside, to line up with the centerline marks on the BHs. A good idea, but then I would lose out on the markings up top that showed where the edges of the boat were (bottom is overcut by 2omm) and they provided a good guide as to screw placement. A better idea would be to have a centerline on both sides. Needless to say, lots of crawling under the boat and back, and shifting the ply ever so slightly.

Screws were placed every 300mm (lines from lofting) and along the BHs (3 for 1+2, 5 for 3, 4, transom). This was insufficient as you shall see later on.


After the bottom was screwed on I made special note of where I had some larger than normal gaps between the bottom and the sides. In these areas I would apply extra glue. Everything appeared tight and for the most part, everything fit together really well. I was impressed.

Next up, I unscrewed the bow of the boat, lifting it with 2x4s. After pre-coating the chinelogs and bottom with unmixed epoxy (more crawling around under the boat), I applied what I thought was copious amounts of glue, using the ziploc-bag method which I still dont like, but it seemed to make the most amount of sense. Mixing the glue with the silica is still a bear, I still dont know how to judge how much silica to add so I eyeball it until I get the appropriate consistency. This takes time. Then, the application. 3 pumps of resin with 1.5 pumps of hardener covered approximately- maybe- 4 feet. Hardly anything. This was going to take a lot of glue.

I moved down the line, sending the 2x4s down to the stern and gluing and screwing in their wake.

(notice me mixing always mixing more mixing in background with knee pads that didnt come off between 10am and 11pm)

I think I made 3 moves aft, covering large sections at a time. The port bow had a little bit of a gap between the bottom and the side, and needed even more glue. This was going to take a lot of glue, as I mentioned before. This is when I started getting frustrated. When I put too much glue during the BH construction phase, it poured out all over the place and was a giant mess. Now, I was putting large amounts of glue onto the chinelogs and when the bottom came down, nothing. No excess squeezage, nothing. Let me just say this: Gluing the bottom takes a lot more glue than you think it will.

About halfway down, I realized I forgot to line the sides with packing tape to ease clean-up. SOB. So I had glue dripping down around the bow, which means Ill be sanding forever. Out came the packaging tape around the aft sections and the transom. By this time my wonderful wife took pity on me and she applied the glue while I mixed it. This doubled the speed of the operation, since mixing takes a long time-- at 3 pumps of resin per bag, there was a lot of mixing to do. She has a knack for how much glue to apply and when we screwed down her end, a perfect amount squeezed out. Damn.

With all the screws down (she held up the stern bottom and gently lowered it as I screwed it down moving aft), we inspected for a gaps. There were a couple small ones along the chine, and a few gaps that needed more screwed to hold the ply down. I would recommend a screw every 200mm at least, as opposed to every 300mm.

Then we flipped her over:






Hot damn, I have a completed hull (above pics are after the "clean-up" (used loosely)).

Clean-up was a super pain in the ass, by this time a lot of my squeegees were gluey and tacky and my rags were used up and I was running out of mixing cups and no matter how many new gloves I put on, I was sticking to everything. Some glue was firming up nice, which meant a struggle to clean it up as is smeared everywhere. Be ready to spend some serious time bent inside the boat cleaning it up. My glue station aftermath:

This took me a few hours of prep, followed by about 7 hours of gluing/cleaning up. Solo, it was slow going, no doubt.

The bottom is still not done, I have to trim the excess off, which will be another pain because its covered in rock-hard epoxy, but as far as Im concerned, the big jobs in this are completed. From now on things can be accomplished in short spurts as opposed to 12hr marathon sessions. Thank goodness. Im tired.

Did I mention this takes a lot more glue than you may think?

Gluing on Front seat

YO.

Today I glued on the front seat. I also epoxy sealed the rear watertight compartment.

Im just going to let you know that today was the most productive, least disastrous, most efficient gluing event yet on this boat. Still some mistakes, but NOTHING like gluing the boat together or putting them bottom on. Which makes me worried that I screwed up or was deficient on the most important parts of building, but alas, what I have, I have, and well see if she sinks or swims. Hopefully, she soars.

Anyway.

When I realized that the garage was holding steady at 44 deg. F (7 C) I decided to get with some gluing. I mixed up about 3 pumps of resin and the corresponding hardener and dumped in a bunch of thickener, and applied it to my pre-coated seat cleats and BH1 + 2.


I just really dumped the thickener into the mix. I figure this: If I have a tight fit, less silica, if I have a loose fit, more silica for a more filling mix. It took me this long to figure it out. This, with some valuable information from the Storer forum has helped me make better epoxy mixes. One rule to follow: Pulling the mixing stick out of the glue, if the point droops, its good for gluing, if the point stands tall, its good for filleting. Variations apply to temperatures, however, as you will soon find out.

After I applied the glue, I realized it was stiffening up because of the cold temps in the garage. This is not conducive to smearing and filling holes. I grabbed a hair dryer and tried to warm it up the best I could. Using this information that is stiffens, I kept my fillet mix a little thinner than the point "standing tall." I applied the seat and it dropped right in nice and tight. I threw some bricks on it to weigh it down, and took a few pictures from inside the compartment to see how I was faring with the glue. Here, were looking towards the bow:


As you can see, good squeezage on the middle cleat, not so good up around the bow. I added some bricks. I DID have good squeezage from the sides of the seat upwards, so I know I have good contact. Im not bothered I dont have excess spilling off the side of the cleat. Next up was some fillet work. I was using a squeegee and then a PLASTIC SPOON that did absolute wonders to throw down a sweet sweet fillet. Nice and clean. I kind of eyeballed what looked good to me, and this was the result:


I think thats sufficient. Heres the forward seat glued in position with the forest of bricks:


Im pretty happy with the result. However, after I was done I wandered into the kitchen where my beautiful wife asked me what I did.

Wife: So howd it go?
Me: Oh it went great, Im the man, Im the next Herreshoff, I glued on the front seat. I am The Man.
Wife: Great! Youre great. Im so glad I married you! Thats the watertight compartment, right?
Me: Yup! The seat forms the forward watertight compartment!

Then I wandered downstairs to get a beer and realized... Son of a GUN... Do I have any gaps between the plywood seat and BH1 that forms that watertight compartment? OH NO! Look at this picture again, pay attention to BH1 starboard side and glue amounts:


Now look at this picture snapped from within the mast-well between BH1 and 2 looking forward on the starboard side!


Gaps! And while I dont think they run through, there are photodocumented gaps on the inside of the tank as well. Dammit.

Im too tired and whooped to worry about it tonight, I will make sure to squeeze some epoxy in there in the future. Its also a strange spot to get to, I have to get into the boat to make this one work, and shes up on buckets, so it will have to wait.

Thank you, wife.

OH YEAH, heres my heater tent. I can keep it 56 F (13 C) in there with my little space heater.

Rudder stock design 4 Mast gluing

In yet another installment of "I try to re-design the rudder stock" I have received yet another set of plans from a Goat Island Skiff builder in New York.  He has graciously supplied me with these two schematics of his own design, as a solution to removing the tiller from the rudder assembly without having to take the rudder off the transom.  It is self-explanatory:

I really like this design, it is better than mine for two reasons:  1. It maintains Mr. Storers rudder stock design and hopefully solves the structural issue that he was concerned about, 2. There is less time fiddling over the transom pulling very critical pins over water of yet-to-be-determined depth, if you get my drift.  I can remove the tiller from the safety of the cabin.  Unfortunately, I will still have a stub of tiller sticking into my domain, but I think, for now, this is the idea Im going to go with.  The great thing about the rudder stock is that it is simple and easy to construct, I can always make another.

In other news, the mast was glued in its first step today.  In the previous post, I shaped the narrow staves.  This was a workout, but I worked carefully, and Im happy with the result.  Then, off to make the spacers for the ladder frame.  I used a piece of fir that was lounging around the garage, some stud material.  I used some good parts, and cut them to fit.  The base plug meant a trip to Lowes.  This is the first wood part of the boat that was not bought at either of my two local lumber stores.  Sorry guys.  Anyway, an 8 piece of 4x4 cedar.  I thought about using fir, for a few bucks less, but I went with the rot-resistant cedar.  Its an important piece, its light, and it should be good.  The other spacers Ill goo up with epoxy and make them plastic.

Well, that was interesting how the photos lined up, but I like it!  Notice the base plug.  After a quick mock-up my lovely wife and I took one of the uncut stave stock pieces and brought it into the basement, where I can get an even floor workspace and a slightly higher temperature, better for quicker gluing.  We made sure that we could get the wood in and out of the basement two different ways, so I dont build the mast and then get it out.  I am positive I can get the mast out of the basement.

Layed out ready for the dry fit:

Sweet, I did it again, but I dont know how.  The mast is quite straight, but I decided to use one of the wide uncut staves as a backbone for gluing, that way I could ensure that the mast is straight with no wobbles.  It also gives me a good even workspace for gluing too.  I covered one stave with packing tape, and glued away:  Notice too, the hardwood runners that will be glued to the bottom of the hull, they are long ones and needed to be scarfed.

It went well.  The bricks are slightly nudging the mast into a straight position.  Youll also notice that you dont see much of the wide stave underneath this glue-up, thats because the tolerances are super tight.  I overcut my narrow staves by 1mm and it pretty much ate up all the space on the wide stave.  I briefly considered re-planing the staves, re-working the spacers, and then gluing, but my lovely wife stopped me with some business graduate degree mumbo-jumbo stuff and talked me out of it.  I might have to plane a little extra off the base to get it to fit in the mast step, and I can (with difficulty) enlarge the mast step as well if need be.

Tomorrow, gluing the wide staves and completing the box.
 

Gluing BH2 3

This morning I glued up BH2 and BH3, this time precoating the pieces with straight up epoxy and then mixing a thicker glue with the silica which makes me cough like the dickens, hopefully that stuff isnt setting up in my lungs. Things definitely went a little smoother this morning. One person over at the Storer forum suggested drilling small holes and dropping in some nails in the holes to hold the pieces laterally. I did exactly that this morning, and it works quite well, I am pleased with the result. Unfortunately, haste makes waste and I put one piece on upside down, so I turned it around and applied more glue after ripping it up, and a put another piece down 180 deg. of what I wanted, but it works in that position anyway but not as aesthetically pleasing, so I left it in place. The side arms on BH3 also extend all the way up beyond the ply, and I precoated the whole arm even though that was unnecessary. Oops. One more BH to go, and then I can tackle that transom.

My big day

Today was quite the day. Im over my cold, as in, I dont feel like super-crap anymore, but my head and chest are still congested to hell and back. However, since Im slowly on the up and up, off to the basement for a little R+R.

Last night I realized that I had beveled the bottom of BH1 in the wrong direction. Today I fixed this by re-beveling it flat, and just leaving it as such until later. If I have to bevel it in the correct direction, so be it. Its only 2mm so its not too tricky.

Second, I found this:

Delamination in the ply on my Starboard bow, inboard. Approximately 4"x6" or so. Nothing on the "mated" side, the Port stern, so Im assuming it is only this piece that has the problem. I sounded it out with a pencil, and Ive got a good idea of its shape. I poured straight epoxy into the hole, then squashed it with bricks.

Third, I discovered this:


Thats my finger pointing at where the bow SHOULD be. OOPS. Im slowly coming along with the dreaded stem, and I went to match the stem to the bow and it came up a couple of cm short. Either my stem was wrong or my bow was wrong. I busted out the lofting map for the sides and for some damn reason, I measured 55mm from the end of the ply to the point of the bow rather than 55mm from the last 300mm mark. Damn, bro, good catch! So I re-marked the bow and cut them anew on both sides. The stem fits perfectly now, with room to spare for the bow knee.

Then, I got gutsy and ripped two of my cedar planks and and scarfed them for the chinelogs:

This is my scarf. Some of you are really going to hate this, but I eyeballed it on the table saw, and then planed them to match. Not perfect, but close enough for this amateur! I used a 1:6 ratio, so that would be 1 1/2" : 9".

THEN, I cut out the buttstraps and glued my scarfed chinelogs and my side together!


Here we are now in the garage. The buttstrap gluing kinda blew, I was by myself and I rushed it. I was sure I put on enough glue, but very little actually oozed out from underneath the straps. Im actually a little concerned I may not have put enough, but maybe I put just the right amount, I tend to go overboard with the glue. So well have to see about this.

Finally, I glued on a little piece of ply for backing on the transom for el rudder. Thats Spanish. That in itself was a mini-adventure, because the ply I chose for it initially starting sliding around after I glued it up on the old epoxy from the frame and the seat cleat. WOOPS. So I pulled it off quick, tore apart the garbage for an old jigsaw blade, and holding the jigsaw an inch above the ply ripped a small piece of one end so it could sit better between the frame and the cleat. Of course I got wood dust all over the backing, and I scraped it off, threw on some thickened epoxy, and called it good. I thought this would have been a simple operation, so I didnt wear gloves and holey moley my hands got sticky.

On a blog-related note, I am deleting the timing scoreboard from the blog. Its beginning to get inaccurate and more difficult to keep up with. Today I did a million things and Im not keen on attempting to figure out what was what. So maybe from now on just a tally total.

Gluing gunwales spacers and BH2 side arms

Ahoy mateys!

Another bunch of small items taken care of over the past few days to share with you.

First up, I decided to bite the bullet and glue those gunwales on. Pretty much the whole show was waiting for this to happen. Ive also decided to delay gluing on the rear seat until I get the rudder hardware. Technically, the rear seat should be glued down along with the front seat, and then the gunwales, and then the spacers at BH4... However, everything fits really nice, and the boat is dialed in really sweet. Id rather just have the space to work with rather than screw around through an inspection port to get my rudder installed.

The gunwales, as you may remember, were already clamped into position and screwed in place to suck them in where need be. I carefully removed the gunwale, left the screws in position in the sides, and coated everything with epoxy. Then, I mixed up a bunch of glue, made it quite thick, and coated it on the gunwale. With the bow end propped up on a bench, I screwed in the stern, and worked my way forward. I then inspected the gunwale for gaps above and below the sheer. The gaps on the underside of the gunwale can only be corrected really with screws. Fortunately I had my can of ply-backed screws nearby, and added a few more per side depending on where they were needed. A line of packing tape kept things nice and clean.



Then, I decided to throw in the side arms for BH2 and 4. It had come to my attention through the Storer forum that the side arms for BH2 are oversized. I had cut mine like the others, and theres not enough gluing area for this high stress location. This was a bummer, because my sidearms were really nicely shaped with a good fit. I whipped out some cedar, traced the old BHs down, and in a few minutes had new sidearms. You can see the difference below.


Tonight, I glued up the starboard inwale spacers. They fit so nice, only a little bit of glue is needed. Some very gentle playing with the clamps and some thick glue and I got every spacer to sit where I wanted it. PHEW. It takes two hands per spacer but theres a definite feel how to get them to stay in position so they dont float.



Heres a nice picture of my boat with her gunwale glued on, and planed to match the ply. Shes looking good!



AND, heres a quintessential boatbuiling pic that I swear was not staged. Clamps, hand planes, shavings, inpsection port, this picture has got it all.

Beveling bulkheads

I also recently started beveling my BHs and transom since they are all glued up. Despite my initial fear of beveling, it is quite easy, even for a beginner. I mark the edges of the BH first and draw a line for the bevel, and then on the face that is to be beveled I draw a line connecting the two edge bevels. That way, I have a nice visual of what needs to be planed off. Heres an example:

Heres a side of BH1 all beveled up:


BH 1 and the Transom are easy to bevel because all the frame pieces are on the same side. I am running into problems on BH 2 and 4 because I need to make bevels but cant get my plane to the end of the BH because a frame on the opposing side blocks it. This is frustrating. I glued everything up as I was supposed to, minus the side frames that are added after the boat is glued together (this is me saying to the skeptic: I read the directions and followed them to the T). In retrospect, I feel like I needed to piecemeal construction of the BH and bevel a piece at a time. Heres an example of the problem on BH4:


Above is BH 4, looking along the bottom edge that is to be beveled. The bevel drops from left to right, so the high side is on the left. The side frame in the distance will block the plane from finishing the last section, unless I can get a bevel on the side frame. Then plane should pass over it no problemo. Heres another example but on a side frame now:


So this is looking down the side of this particular BH. I have marked the bevel I need on the side (2mm) with the continuation on that bottom frame. From this perspective imagine the plane is coming down the side of the BH towards you, the viewer. As you can see, it will be blocked by the side frame unless I can bevel that too. I dont know how to easily bevel this so I can bevel the rest.

UPDATE: Someone over at the Storer forum mentioned a few options, of one them being a rasp. I took care of this problem in 5 minutes... my brains just not working today. Theres a reason Im not at work!

New post!

With nothing in it!

Work on the Goat Island Skiff has been temporarily stopped due to a return to work/on the road status.

I have pictures of some work I did just before I left, but they are unfortunately inaccessible at this point in time.  Stay tuned until next week!

A note on tools

A few things on tools that I have found out the past few days.

A japanese pull saw is awesome. I doubted it at first, hemming and hawing for months before getting a small one-sides saw. A FANTASTIC PURCHASE. Versatile, sharp, easy to use, and precise. Practice first, because youll saw through something important quickly and without realizing it (trust me).

My random orbital sander was a $9.95 DEATH DISASTER I purchased at cheap-tool-emporium Harbor Freight. Its so frustrating to use I want to throw it at the cement wall. I will have to go buy a better one that actually secures the sandpaper.

Most importantly, I was perusing my jigsaw blades and saw something called a "scrolling blade." It was small and skinny. "Hmmmm, I betcha this is for going around corners a little tighter than the normal blades!" Hmmmm, I reckon I was correct... and this was after I cut the hole through the transom, BH2 and BH3. Boo me, for not knowing my tools. Again, amateur style is my building style.

Small progress daggerboard gunwales mast step partner

Ok!

I continue to slowly progress on the boat. I am really stymied by the fact that its been all of 0 deg. F (-18 C) here at the house for quite a bit now. The garage has been holding temperature at just under freezing. Im not interested in doing major epoxy sealing work in these condititions because: a) its cold, b) the epoxy thickens and is difficult to spread.

However, I can do small spot gluing jobs. For instance, I installed the mast step and partner yesterday:



My Step was placed in first (obviously) as a whole piece, as in the 6mm ply backing was already glued in position. The fit was relatively tight, but not perfect because my BHs are not exactly perfectly parallel along the bottom. Im talking a few mms here, but still. Anyway, when you drop something into a tight spot to be glued, pay attention as to how youre going to place it in and glue those places accordingly. To clarify: Dont put the glue on the location that is going to get scraped by the incoming piece, put it where it will be squeezed in so the glue remains.

The partner went in nice and simple, except I dropped it on my heater fan. My partner deviates from the plans as in it is two pieces, with the bottom piece extending underneath the seat cleat on BH2. This is for stability issues, I could twist the top of the BH with my hand. This partner makes it very burly.

Notice my heater and my brick compression system. Its a $12 heater I bought at Lowes. With a plastic sheet, temps went up quick.

Next up I screwed the gunwales into place. I didnt want to necessarily do it, but its almost essential.

The next picture illustrates a non-screwed gunwale. Basically, the flare from the sides of the boat in the stern and amidships is translated to the gunwale to the bow, where there is minimal flare, the sides are relatively straight. Only muscling the gunwale with my hands could I make contact. Not conducive to gluing, as you can imagine.

Storer (el designero) promised that screwing the gunwale would pull it in. I had doubts and didnt want to deal with it, but I tried. Working from the stern forward, I placed one screw in the stern, two amidships, and two right in the bow area where the twist was most apparent. I used the 1 1/4 screws with the ply pads from the bottom screwing event.

SOB, it worked:


Nice and tight, all pulled together. This makes me happy. All ready for gluing. Screws were hidden underneath the areas where I am going to place my inwale spacers. Speaking of spacers, all of them are cut, and I have marked where I will be adding them. I started at the seam between the two pieces of ply for the sides, one will join them at the top, then one will be place next to each BH sidearm, with BH3 sidearms getting two small ones on either side due to the fact that it does not meet the side near the top. Re-enforcements, if you will. I need 52 spacers for this scheme.

Next up, I glued my daggerboard together.


I precoated the sides to be glued, then made a thin epoxy mix with the filler, not too much since the wood had been run through the joiner. The typical GIS clamp scheme as seen below:

And were off to the races! Looking good. Looking good.

She arrives, one step at a time boys, one step at a time.

Second Gluing

I just went back and glued on the side arms to BH1. This time it went much better than the first time. First, I used 1 pump of resin to 1/2 pump of hardener. Again, I tried to put it in a ziploc bag, but the whole thing turned into a mess, and I said screw it. So another pump and a half pump into a yogurt container, and I mixed in enough silica to make it thick like peanut butter, and then I spread it over the plywood with a stick. I took the remaining to coat in the inside of the arms. This time, it was much easier to work with. Im relatively pleased this time around, but Im still getting "creep." As in, my side arms are slowing sliding around to where they want to go, not where I set them and want them. Im not screwing my frames into the BH ply, but maybe I should? Theres not real method to the creep, the top and bottom frames crept inward, but my side arms creep outwards. I hover over the entire assembly and readjust as necessary to keep things were I want them. I dont know how else to do it.


What a mess. Again, "mY Fisrt Baot."

Im definitely saving the transom for last.

Transom glued up!

Ok. Ive been off the radar for a few weeks for several reasons. Namely: Job related problems now solved, my marriage, my inadvertent cutting-off-the-tip-of-my-finger winterizing my garden which led to a giant bandage and stitches, and my work that takes me on the road. Im suposed to be on the road today, but Im not because I have a massive head cold and I think my eyeballs are going to pop out of my head. So no work for me.

About two weeks ago, I glued up the transom. Storer recommends not using screws in the transom, I think this is for aesthetic reasons. I did use screws as opposed to the nails I had been using for the BHs, primarily because I could get a slightly tighter fit. I did not use nails on the transom head-board because I wanted to maintain the visual integrity of that piece, and I was able to secure it in spot with clamps through the tiller-hole. Everything came together really nice and I am pleased with the result. I was careful to wipe away the excess, and I was sure I had gotten everything, but I didnt. I came back and found hardened drips that materialized sometime during the night and they dripped onto the stern-stern of the transom. Using a chisel to cut them off, I ended up mucho-biting into the top of the transom and took a chunk out of the ply. OH WELL. I saved the piece and will epoxy it back in.

Otherwise, I think the transom looks good!

Epoxy coating the interior and more turtles

Today I took advantage of some free time and some of the most glorious weather you can imagine in beautiful New England this time of year!

Drum roll please.......

I epoxy coated the interior of my Goat Island Skiff! Yeah!

This is big for two reasons:  One, I wasnt looking forward to it, Two, my back has been in such a state that I havent physically been able to do it.  Being able to reach down in there and coat up the inside was a real good feeling, lemme tell you!  I was stoked.  Again, physical therapy = awesome.

So, coating the interior is much like the exterior.  It came out very neat, too.  I am pleased with the result.  Heres a romantic picture of her in the sunset, just her and me:

 

 She looks good.  So far, Ive done two coats of epoxy.  Im supposed to do three, which I did on the exterior, but I feel like two is good enough especially since its not going to be saturated in water.  Not to mention its going to be covered in two coats of primer and two coats of paint.  I should be ok.  Maybe I will do three layers on the bottom and chinelogs...

That all being said, I want to point out again how she can ride on her side when turning her over:

This is HUGE.  To those who have extensive dinghy experience, you all know exactly what Im talking about:  Turn the boat over, get it on a side, attempt to balance it on the gunwale, fail, catch the boat, wrestle around one of the ends in an attempt to get to the other side, fail, watch boat fall to ground in a random direction, wince at possible damage, etc etc etc.  It sucks.  This baby, she rests on her side.  You can walk away.  Drink a beer.  Pick your nose.  Go on vacation.  She will sit, on her side, patiently.  Awesome.

Finally, I caught a Painted Turtle today.  This is a quite common turtle on the North American continent, and not as big or as long lived as the Blandings Turtle that I found a few days ago.  Whats neat about this one is that Ive been trying to catch one for a year.  Now, that doesnt mean Im out everyday like its my job, but many attempts and sneaky approaches have been tried, to no avail.  Catching this guy, while swimming, is a minor coup for you know who.  Me.  Quite beautiful.  Hissed at me when I picked it out of the water.  I put it back where I found it, and I hope it forgives me.

A little grumpy.  

Oar Prototype 1

I lost power and internet for a bit during the big blow the other day, and never posted pictures of the oar. The following day I decided to shape the oar up. Using my plane, block plane, random obit sander, chisel, and wishing that I had a spokeshave, I went to work. In about three hours I got the below product. As you may notice, there is a kink where the blade meets the loom. Also, I screwed up the shaping a bit.



I mean, for a first oar done in three hours, not bad.

The blade is kinked to the loom most likely because each measurement station was taken off the edge of the board as opposed to off a theoretically straight line connecting the two ends. So if there was any deviation in the way the board has been originally cut (most likely) then the oar would reflect that in waviness-- and thats what happened. My next oar measurements will be based off a straight line down the board.

Second, I started shaping the oar without squaring it first. This would have been an easy endeavor, however I was excited to get started and planed the thing into an oval. If I had made sure all 4 sides were square, it would have been a circle.

The grip is also oval, I think it might be rough on the hands. I should not have cut it out in the blanks, and shaped it at a block, that way I could have made it a circle with a 1 1/4" diameter as opposed to the 1" it is now (a little small for me).

In the end, an easy plan, a nice looking oar, its light, and with the pine was easy to shape.

Prototype #2 is in the works. This too, will probably be a scrapper because I already cut out the grip and then realized the advantages of cutting it out when the blank was glued up.

Moving along

A bunch of small items were taken care of today despite my continued head cold and heavy congestion. Sneezing and coughing and snotting all over my boat was a great experience, really.

Anway, All the BHs are beveled, I notched the top frame on BH3 where the middle 90mm was supposed to have never been applied (room for centerboard case), and I cut and traced out the timber for the stem. I also cut the holes into the BH 2 and 3:


Theyre still rough, I havent sanded them smooth or even yet. You may notice I went for the trapezoidal shape on BH2, this was at first done because I was a little nervous doing circles with the jigsaw a la transom. After I did it, I thought, damn, that looks bad. But then I realized that without the curves I can stuff more equipment (picnic basket, wine, beer) in that forward space between BH1 and 2. So I liked that, but then I waffled back to cutting a bigger hole to get curves. At this point my wonderful wife wandered in as I sat perplexed, and she gushed at how imaginative I was for mixing and matching shapes for the holes and how great it looked.

The trapezoid stays, gentlemen.

Up next:

• Shape and finish the dreaded stem
  
• Cut timber and scarf chinelogs
• Apply re-enforcement on transom for rudder
• Cut notches on BHs for chinelogs
  
• Coat all BHs with epoxy (I may do this later because Im getting impatient to see the boat)
  
• Glue up the sides
• Touch up with the plane
• Screw it all together for a dry fit in the garage
• Freak out as I try to find a warmer place than the garage to put it for the winter so I can work on it.