Taking shape

Almost all of the bulkheads are on!

Bulkheads one, two and three

After the all important morning coffee it was time to head out to the boat shop. The goal today is to get bulkheads one, two and three glued up. After spending the morning measuring and cutting the notches where the bulkheads fit over the stem keel batten and seat front stringers everything is now in place ready to strategies clamping and gluing. But first it is now time for afternoon coffee. Then back out to finish the job. The picture from the aft is taken with me standing in the cockpit of the boat. The stringer on the starboard side is temporary.

Holidays

Progress made between family and friends over the Holiday season has been good. The center case has gone on, as well as the stem and bulkhead four. I was thinking today of how it seems like just yesterday when this stage felt far off. It's exciting to see it all taking shape. Here's some pictures of where we are at now. Also I have the next week off. My goal is to put as much time in as I can over the next few days. Happy holidays!

Symmetrical

The starboard seat front stringer is on! My personality generally likes things to be in order, even, symmetrical... Having only one side on, the bottom panel did not look symmetrical. I think thats why when I finished gluing and clamping the second one on I had this uncontrollable smile it made me almost feel guilty for being so happy. Like I am supposed to save this kind of inward joy for when I have a kid or something. It felt good. I am also starting to master the art of taking a step back and admiring the progress that has been made. My past employer, Mark Cramer started me in this teaching. I remember when a piano had gone through a full restoration and was now complete it meant that a French press and two coffee glasses were in order. Coffee, nectar of the gods!

wood bending 101

You would never know that there is around 2 inches of snow outside the shelter. I was sitting at five degrees inside and over ten degrees when I put the plastic tent back over the gluing area. Last night I brought the seat front stringers inside after cutting scarfs into them and glued them together in the living room. Today the port side seat front stringer got put in place. This was the first wood bending I have ever done. It wasn't a big piece, but still rewarding to see it take shape. I think tomorrow is a Christmas shopping day, so maybe on Thursday I will get to the starboard stringer.

Lost and Found

Finally! Today's temperature has been in my favor. After being able to spend so much time each day after work on the boat and then to have to stop because of the weather for a week was hard. It felt like "something was missing" The only work that was done out in the shop was Christmas tree prep the other day.
This morning I set up a tent over the whole length of the bottom panel with lamps inside and a thermometer. After monitoring the temperature change inside the tent I decided that it was a good day to glue the keel batten onto the bottom. Pilot holes got drilled and counter sunk from underneath. I made sure that in the area of the center case, where the opening would be cut out I had the screws go around the perimeter. There is a scarf in the keel batten so I glued this together at the same time as gluing it to the bottom. It wasn't a lot of time spent but it felt good to be back out there! Crawling around under the boat today and working inside this tent made me think of when I was younger and we would build forts in the yard out of whatever we could get our hands on.

Weather permitting

I'm at a bit of a stand still at the moment, this last week we had a few very windy days which brought a lot of cold air from the north down. With that there was a big drop in temperature. At the moment I don't have a lot of cutting that can be done. Mostly assembly with epoxy. For fear of risking an unstable cure with the epoxy I am waiting for warmer weather to move ahead. According to the weather forecast it should be warmer this weekend and a few days this week. Not like being back home in Manitoba, where once winter settles in it's there to stay for a few months or more. So for now I will have to allow the weather to pick and choose which days I can make progress.

Bottoms done, It can only go up from here!

The bottom is cut out and the raised rungs on the building frame are cut to the right heights. Also the positions of the bulkheads and seat front stringers are marked on the bottom panel. This is where the boat begins to take shape! I remember a couple weeks ago feeling like there was so much to do until I was at this point. Lots more to go!

Scarf Joint

The scarf is done and gluing! It's an 8:1 cut. The plywood is 9mm thick, so the cut is 72mm back on each piece. did it by sight and feel, no jig, with a power hand planer. The pictures below are where I stopped a bit short. After I flattened by hand with a surform pocket plane, a block sander and a straight edge. Then I did one more pass with the power planer to really smooth it out. Turned out great!

Back on track

The centercase is now fiberglassed on the inside and all put together. Everything is now back to normal after the mishap with the side pieces for the centercase. I took some time today and organized all the scrap pieces of wood and tidied up a bit. Now its time to move ahead on the scarf joint. There hasn't really been any point so far that I have felt hesitant about. But for some reason this scarf joint has me. Maybe it's because there are many comments online in various posts and articles about the difficulty of this cut and how it needs to be perfect and you need a jig... I don't really want to make a jig. If I thought I was going to be making a few of these boats then maybe I would make a jig. So instead I'm going to make the measurements and plane away! On another note I have to say I am quite pleased with the progress so far and how things are shaping up. It's a big project but it has been very relaxing and rewarding for me so far. Just one small step after another. With the use of the yahoo group and previous builders blogs, sites, or Flickr accounts I feel like there is a lot of support for new builders. Having those resources has been very beneficial.

What? Everyone else gets a shot of this!

I clamped some of the pieces up, to get an idea

of what it will look like.

View from the aft

Inside of the centercase fiberglassed

Getting ready to scarf