We're back ....

First off, we haven't stopped building the boat. Thomas went to Grandma and Grampa's for two weeks, and then his Mom and I took off two weeks together. Thomas and I made a little progress on things while we were on holidays, but our backyard pool was lonely and needed attention. Pools actually stay much cleaner when they are used!

This will be a long post with lots of pictures to show where we are.

Here's a picture of the completed outside shell. When we left off blogging, the basic framing had been done and the outside panels attached. I made a few minor changes from Eric's build plan - moving the daggerboard trunk to the centerline, and using West System epoxy in some places instead of the construction adhesive. I did end up using the PL Premium for some jobs, as it was really nice, fast and appropriate for the design.

In this picture you can see the centerline daggerboard trunk. The panels are 1/8 inch Luan, and they are re-inforced with the pine stringers and cleats everywhere. You can see the stringers adding strength and squareness to the floppy ply panels - with the stringers attached it all gets rigid and becomes a boat.

These photos were taken after a major job was done - laminating the sheer clamp together. When you are actually building the boat, there is no sheer clamp at the rail of the boat. I opted to cut 1/4 thick by 1/2 deep strips of Oak for Thomas's sheer clamp - about $35 worth at Home Depot. Two boards - 10' 1"x8" (3/4 finished) and a 10' 1"x3" were used. I cut the strips using my table saw and help from first my sister (Elizabeth) and then a neighbor (Ron). Handling the 10' planks is not a one man job if you want to be accurate.

The strips were laminated using Titebond III (waterproof glue) from Lee Valley Tools here in Ottawa. It would have been painful to do this with epoxy (cure time blues and mixing). As it was it took several days of one or two strips a day. Bend, glue clamp. You can see my sloppy glue drips on the inside of the boat from laminating. I tried to clean up as I went, but just didn't make the time to be as neat as I could have been.

I had to obtain a bunch more clamps - it takes about 15 - 20 clamps per side to get each strip exactly how I want it. Thomas is now expert with both hand clamps and C-Clamps. C-Clamps are used about every 10-12 inches to force location and hand clamps everywhere else to keep the glue under pressure.

After the outside of the hull is together, you have to cut and fit the Styrofoam as it is a structural part of the boat. This is a picture of the foam in the sides of the boat. You use the side panels as a pattern and cut it to fit around the bulkheads and frames. It cuts very easy with a hand saw. I used a Japanese Dozuki (back saw) from Lee Valley Tools for just about every job on the boat. Thomas uses it too - he had some minor Band-aid action going on his finger from learning to be careful with sharp tools. One quick lesson taught him more than days of me yelling to be careful with tools. He now respects saws. No real damage done, but he did break the skin and saw a couple drops of blood.

Next, the Styrofoam for the cockpit floor was cut and fitted. You do not need to "fill" every space available with this, as it provides vertical support to the floor panel above it. Oh, yeah - it also provides flotation in the event the hull was breached.

All the "inside" panels you see in these photos are "dry-fitted" and not yet glued in place. Basically, I wanted to be able to create a photo series in one day, showing all steps.

This picture show the floor panel dropped in place (it is not trimmed or fitted yet). This panel is one of my "off road" excursions from Eric's build plan. The boat as designed uses 1/8 inch (3mm) Luan for this and I substituted the 1/4 inch shown. To make it a little more eye-candy, I routed a small V-notch every 2 inches to simulate Mahogany or Teak planking on more expensive boats. The panel is Luan ply, but stained with a reddish Mahogany color and then sealed with epoxy. Each V-groove was darkened with a black Sharpie after staining and before the epoxy. Some people may find it cheesy, but to be honest, it attracts more attention than it deserves from the neighbors and spectators. People seem to think the boat is far more attractive because of the simulated planking. Go figure. The dust and bugs in my garage formed the basis of the non-slip surface.

This is some detail of the bow of the boat - showing how I've just kept the Oak laminations simple and at 90 degrees to the panels. There is a one inch lamination on the outside of the boat, extending one half inch above the panel. All the subsequent laminations are 1/2 inch across the 2 inches for the Styrofoam (plus the 1/8 for the inside panel), and then there is another 1 inch strip to cap the side of the boat. The "cap" is not installed in this picture.

This picture shows the amount of curve in the sheer clamp. I can't imagine how Robert and Eric bent the 3/4 by 1/2 Pine for Eliane's boat - I had enough trouble with 1/4 inch strips! The Oak is heavier (a lot heavier) than the Pine which is why I made it smaller and will be rounding off the edges with a router still. I think Thomas' boat will be about the same weight as Eliane's (maybe slightly heavier) due to choosing the 1/4 panels for hull bottom and floor), but his much higher weight (over 100 pounds) and general roughness on things make this a good idea even at a slight weight penalty.

Transom view. The floor panel is not fitted here and will be a bit lower when done. This photo shows the Maple transom bar and open drainage.

More to come as Thomas and I actually fit and glue things together. I hope this shows we've been making progress building, although we've been not so good about blogging!

Cheers, Bill & Thomas!