Seats fitted

The seats are all fitted to the boat. The glue is cured on the supports, the vertical supports have been cut to fit (they will be glued next session) and the seats are in place. The side-arms for BH2 and 4 are cut and ready to be glued. The knees are cut and almost finished. Inwale spacers are cut, the inwales need to be scarfed and theyll be ready too. Things are moving.

Heres a great example why you want to diagram out the dimensions of the front seat per the plans, and then trace something to what youve actually got in the boat before you cut:


Unless youre a very gifted woodworker, of which there are many out there (this is an AMATEUR BLOG, remember?) tracing will be beneficial. The dark black lines are per the plans for the GIS. What you see is what my front seat ended up being to fit in the bow. A little wider up front, very close in the middle, and then wide again in the rear. Ive got a few ideas how this came about, but Im glad I didnt just cut and then try to fit it only to find huge gaps both in the boat and in my wallet as I shelled out 60 bucks for another sheet of ply. This is not a big deal in the end, its truly a slight variation of shape up front, and so it goes.

Heres a few exposures of my beautiful craft as she comes together. Looking good!

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.

Bottom surprise! and limber holes and gaps filled

Today I overturned my bottom after gluing it last night. I was all very nice and neat and did my best and I was welcomed to see the fair bottom of my speed-demon boat with THIS:


HELLO DRAG. A giant glue mess that I will have to sand smooth. Which, if I estimate correctly, will take forever and a half. I shoulda woulda coulda put packaging tape around the seam, but my side panel job came out so neat (probably because I didnt put glue between the panels) that I didnt think I would see this. Also, note the glaring holes from my finishing nails that I used to pin the buttstraps in place. SOB, I went right through the ply. This is very embarrasing, I havent gone through the ply anywhere where I didnt want to, this is the first time, and I have no idea how I did it. Again, I didnt do it on the side panels, so why now?

In other news, I planed down the new shims that will fill the gap between the bottom and the BHs, and cut/chiselled some limber holes. They look nice and neat from this angle because the ply is on the other side, which is all chipped up. I shoulda woulda coulda dammit scored the ply to get nice smooth cuts first, before going after it with my chisel.


Notice the stringy thing coming out of the limber hole... thats some fabric coming out from IN BETWEEN the layers of the ply! OOOooooooooh, mystery!

You may also notice the cloudy color, that because Ive sanded the layer of epoxy there in preparation for bottom being glued on. Ive decided to put in mini fillets along the BHs and the bottom for practice and to re-enforce the double seam, one between the bottom and the spacer, and the on between the spacer and the bottom of the BH frame.