Building Moms Boat

Building Moms Boat

Building Moms Boat

Building Moms Boat

Breast hook and quarter knees

This weekend saw good progress with the addition of the breast hook. A solid piece of mahogany spiled to fit at the bow of the boat and connect the inwale and stem.

I later decided this looked a bit plain and cut a mortise in the center to inset a peice of cypress.

I believe the looks much better and helps kick off the breast hook.

The quarter knees ar cut from mahogany as well and spiled to fit flush to the sides and trasom.

 This took a lot longer than expected because I wasn't pleased with the first attemept using a laminated bentwood quarter knee. I hade made these at the same time as I made the knees for the twarts. The look was just not what I liked for this area, so I stepped back and created this version that gives the trasom a strong caracter.

With these completed the shear of the boat is complete and I can begin work on the interior fit out. You may notice in the last image that I have also glued the risers in. These peices are placed at a given depth from the shear and run parallel down both sides from the trasom to the forawrd thwart.

As always they are screwed in until the epoxy cures then the screws are removed and the holes will be plugged.

The stem has also been trimmed down and shaped.

On to the interior fit out...

The twart cleats are now spiled and cut to match the curve of the the risers. These are screwed to the riseres at the points where the thwarts will be placed. The act as an extension to the riser and give a support for the twart to be screwed to.

With these in place the twarts are measured and spiled to fit at each of the three positions, fore, aft, and amidship.

 The aft twart has a beam under it and I have cut this and given it a slight decoration.

The picture below shows how the laminated bentwood knees will be placed on the forward twart.

Time to kick it up a notch

I can work evenings and weekends now in the shop. With the new shop improvements I am able to keep a constant 72 deg. even when it's 100+ outside.  The wife may not ever get me to come in now.

Well this week was spent doing the lower rubrail. A simple 5/8" x 5/8" pice of cypress bent arround the lower part of the shear strake.

This is glued on with temperary screws to hold while the epoxy cures, then the srews are removed and the holes are plugged with cypress plugs cut from the same wood.

While the rubrail cures the gunwale is made. Again from cypress I have used the router to put a nicen 3/4" half round curve on the lower edge of a 5/8" x 1-1/4" strip. This is glued on using the same process as before.

This view may give a better idea of how the gunwale is shaped. The curve in the lower side will reccess the rope bumper that I will make to wrap around the sides and bow. You can also see the cypress plugs glued in to the wholes of the lower rubrail.

The next bit is cutting and glueing up all the spacers in between the gunwale and the inwale.

During the curing time on these I began work on the dagger board.  This is to be solid mahogany with a cypress handle sandwiching the top.

The dagger board slot will get cut in the bottom as soon as I get the nerve up to cut a large whole in the bottom of the hull.

With the epoxy cured I will be able to place the inwale. This goes on the inside of the hull on the spacers and creates the whole ladder look of the gunwale that we are familiar with on old wooded boats.

I finally surcome to the heat

The Texas heat and draught braught me to my knees. I gave in and stopped worked on the boat so that I could insulate the shop attic and put the cieling in.  This took up most the weekend but I was able to acomplish a few thing.

I created four matching jigs with scrap wood. These are to bend the 3/16" cypress slate around to create the bent wood knees that the thwarts hang from. I glued these up and set the aside to cure.

 Spent the rest of the weekend claeaning the epoxy drips from the interior of the hull.

This is acomplished with a heat gun and scrapper. It is surprising how easily epoxy will scrap off when softened with a heat gun. Scrapped and sanded the interior is starting to look nice.

Anticipation

Okay I have been busy building the boat and have not blogged about it. so I will give a large report it severel posts.



Two planks to go



I continued to plank the boat by creating truss templates. This was a first for me. A truss template is done by using two long battens place on the top and bottom lands. Then using short batten pieces, hot glued at angles, alternating between the top and bottom battens, what looks like a truss is created in the form of the plank.  The removing this truss from the forms, It is laid on the plywood and traced out. I was nervous with the first attempet so I traced it onto 1/4" MDF first and cut that out to do a test fit.

 I was very pleased with how well this method worked. When I do this for the next boat build I will take pictures to better show the process.



A Toast



Anyway the planking went very smooth and the whiskey plank(last plank) was laid and a toast was given.

With this celebration completed, it's on to carving the skeg, outer stem and keel..

Outer tim fit

As you may recall we laminated the outer stem at the same time as the inner stem was build. It has been setting aside waiting to be shaped and placed.

Shavings

Shaping the the skeg and the keel were done, mostly at the same time. With a dri fit and scred to the hull I spent close to a whole weekend just planning and shaping. 

This creates a lot of shavings and a very tired boat builder.

With all this done and the two bildge runners made and fit, It is all perminetly glued to the hull with temperary screws to act as clamps. These screws will be removed and all holes pluged.
At last it is time to flip the hull over and remove the forms.

The Planking Begins



Now with all the forms, transom, and stem shaped, squared and beveled, the battons are laid out on the plank lands. These will be used to derive the plank templates from.

Plank battons laid out on forms

With a wide length of 1/4" MDF clamped down to the keelson and first botton I am able to trace the actual plank shape onto it from the inside; both at the land and at the keelson. The MDF is the removed and the traced pattern is smoothed out, then cut and planed to the line (constantly checking for fairness by eye and feel).

When the template is cut, I test fit it to the forms again and clean up  any issues of fairness that might occur. When I'm happy that the template is fair and ready, I lay it on the marine grade 6mm plywood and cut two of these out. One is flipped to be a mirror image of the other. This gives me the first plank, (garboard) for each side.

 

I apologize for the lack of photos for this proccess. I got carried away in the work and neglected to take any photos  Here is one of the planks after they were on.  A small batch of thickened shmoots (peanut butter thich epoxy) is mixed and applied to the transom, keelson, and stem where the strake will be clamped. Screws are then driven thru the strake into the keelson and stem to hold it in place while the epoxy cures. These screws will be removed and the holes filled with epoxy during the second plank application. I coat the screws with a little bar wax (soap) to help them come out and keep the epoxy from sticking to them.

 

Rolling bevels

With the garboard strake cured I can remove all screws and clamps. Then begin the beveling of the lap area for the second strake.  This is done much like the way I beveled the transom. Laying the edge of a plane on its side and checking the angle all along the length of the strake with each of the forms.  This rolling bevel will allow the next strake to glue flush the the garboard strake. 

Rebait or Gain

 

At the bow I make a rebait (gain) starting about 7" back from the point and easing down all the way to the last ply at the point. This is so that the end of the strake eases in flush with the first.  This is only done to the bow ends of each strake.

 

The same proccess is continued again and again for each of the 8 strakes (per side).

Monday morning and I have 4 of the 8 strakes on each side now. I will attempt to get 1 strake on each evening during the week.  With the addition of the keel and skeg in between glueing of these strakes.

If all goes according to plan, I should be ready to flip the hull by the 4th of July weekend.

From Stem to Stern

Throughout the past week I beveled the keelson, transom, and the inner stem by hand. Keeping a good sharp plane and sharp chisles is key to a smooth even bevel.

Laying battons across the forms gives the angle at which each strake will lay at the stem.

With a Japanese pull saw I make a thin cut into the stem at the angle the botton shows. This will be my guide for planing. Each cut for each strake has a slightly different angle and when joined together by planing, will give a smooth rolling bevel.

This same proccess is followed again  for each strake land on the transom.  Very slow but relaxing work, as you bring the wood into shape for the planks. The feel of the wood shaving off is very zen like.

At this point I have put about 35 hours into the project and feel very comfortable with the progress that has been made.

The Forms Take Shape



Transom blank ready to cut.

With all the forms transferred and cut, I now mill the mahogany for the inner keel. Taking a some time aside to build up the forms for the inner and outer stem laminates to be bent around for lamination using the strips that were milled the other day. 

Next I transfer the transom pattern to the glued up blank and cut it out.



Now with a coat of thickened epoxy resin slathered in between each of the slats that were milled earlier. I slowly clamp the whole sandwich to the form; which has been covered in duct tape to keep the final laminated stem from sticking to it. setting this aside for 24 hours to cure.

Clamps and wenches remove

Once cured the the stem is removed from the mold cleaned some and covered with duct tape, as it then placed back on the form and the next set of slats are glued up for the outer stem. These are then clamped to the form against the inner stem. With this process, the outer stem will be sure to match exactly the inner stem when they a joined up after planking is complete.

By the end of the weekend and with a lot of sweat in a 80f shop the forms are mounted an aligned with the transom, keel, and inner stem glued in place. Next step is a lot of hand work, planing the bevels onto all of these parts so they will accept the strakes (planks).