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!?!?

My gunwales scarf themselves

Thats how I roll. I dont have to scarf my gunwales, theyll do it themselves!

Check my mad scarfing skills:




So I decided to officially scarf my gunwales today, since Im using temporary cheapo cedar to hold the shape of the hull. Last week I milled two .75"x4s (approx) into .75"x2s. Very close to the metric shape called for in the plans, actually, a little thinner and a smaller, but close enough. So I take one gunwale and just for kicks gently bend it around the starboard stern and CRACK!!! it breaks in two. Im a tad perplexed, I didnt even it get it close to boat. So I grab the other gunwale from the 2nd stock, and it bends fine, as does its mate. Now I suspect the wood itself. I pick up the mate from the broken gunwale and ever so gently press it against the floor... CRACK! it splits in two with hardly any pressure what-so-ever on my end. I am dissapointed and perplexed. Its very fine Douglas fir with a nice even tight pattern, but now it would take multiple scarfs to get it to work.

Otherwise, I removed the screws from the bottom, ended up breaking the heads off of three of them, leaving the shafts in the wood (dammit). I also sat her down on the floor to see how she balanced and to enjoy that beautiful rocker. Shes pretty.

Gluing boat together 1

Today I decided to glue the boat together instead of pre-coating the sides with epoxy for several reasons:

1: I have the time to watch the boat as it cures of tonight and tomorrow
2: The temperatures were in the 50s... in a few weeks who knows how cold theyll go
3: I had the place set up in the garage
4: My gut told me to go for it.

Gluing is a pain in the ass. There, I said it.

It sucks, its messy, its sticky, and when youre by yourself its a teeth-grinding frustration fest. ARGH!

BUT!!! This is how shell come along.

Today I glued the BHs to the sides, making the dry-fit a goodness-for-real fit. I ran into a few problems, namely some gaps around the stem, and BH1 and BH2 were another wrastling match to get them into place as usual, except this time they were all lubed up with glue and were slipping all over the place. In the end, I got them in, though they might be ever so slight askew, if by just a few mms. Initially when I saw them askew I almost lost it, but I cant lose sight of the fact that Im building a boat, its my first boat, and dammit, if the thing floats that will be a good thing.

I started out from the bow to the stern. From what I understand from the plans, you can remove a BH at a time and move aft. To start with the stem, I decided to remove BH1 and BH2 so that there would be less pressure pulling the bow apart when I tacked the stem back together. This, in hindsight was a mistake. The stem fit in nice and neat, but when I went to put in BH1, it pulls the sides apart. By the time I was done with BH2 (goes in a little easier than 1) I had pulled the sides back out to where they are supposed to be, and gaps between the stem and the sides appeared.


I want those gaps filled, Im pondering a few different ideas.

BH3 went in smooth, but there are gaps between the sides and side arms:


Those too, will have to be filled.

BH4 needed some wrestling, and the transom would have been downright impossible for one person if not for my wonderful wife who showed up from work at exactly the right moment!!! So yay wife, and the boat was finished. A quick sightline down the centerline showed BH2 out of kilter. The port side needed to go down a bit, so I unscrewed the port side, and pushed down. Its still not perfect, and Im not sure why (except the fact that its almost impossible to do this single-handed) but I have to accept that and walk away. All in all, a long, tiring, sometime frustrating day, but when it comes down to it, the boat is in one, permanent piece.


You can see signs of BH Wrestling in this pic. Notice the temporary gunwales using old cedar strips that were laying about.