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.