Hope it survives

Have had to take down the gazebo I been building thwarting boat in. Fit out is still only part done but the underside is sealed. Upside down and coveted in a sheet it should survives the rain and wind forecast for the next week!

16 Clamps

Well it took all our clamps, f clamps and G clamps clamps to hold on the inwale and rub rail! The idea was to do both sides in one go but we ran out of clamps! Who would have thought it?

3 Days Later

A lot of hard work and a boat appears !

Dad came over Friday to help me fix the planks to the build frame and fillet the joints.  It was definitely a two man job !  The filleting was a messy job but not as bad as when I was sanding it down on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  Finally I sealed the underside on Sunday filling all the build holes with silica-epoxy paste.

I'm hoping to start dry fitting out Monday night with an aim to epoxying and filleting on Tuesday.  But as the boat has taught me it will always go at its pace.

Fixing the planks















Dry fit

Sealing the joints















Seal the shell and flip

Scarffing Madness

Well what a nightmare.  12 Planks to scarf, how hard can that be, I said.  Very hard!!!  It took all day Sunday.  I am now worried that I won't have the boat finished in the next 8 days as per my target.

The joints looked a bit rough but hopefully will set hard.

Trevor enjoyed getting in on the action with the epoxy treading in one of the fillited joints.  Silly "e"poxy cat !

Left to do:

1. Tape all the plank joints (2 days)
2. Cut the keel to length
3. Fix the planks to the frame.
4. Filet the joints
5. Flip the boat and filet the inside
6. Fix in the seats and rub rails
7. Paint the boat in epoxy
8. Varnish and pain the boat !!!!!

Almost to the bit where I get to start building the boat !

Well all is going well and I'm further along than I thought.
I've cut out all the bits for the boat and now I'm starting on the build frame.  The "ladder" is in place and the 3 moulds fixed to it. Just now need to cut and fix the transom and stem braces. I hope I will be able to start scarfing the planks and laminating the keel/stem.

Almost finished cutting out

I think I'll make my next self imposed target! I've now finished cutting both parts of all the planks out.

All that remains to cut out now is the 6mm laminate for the keel / stem to make it 18mm and the MDF mounds.

A Quick Update

Well I've cut out all of the 2 large sheets of plywood with only the small sheets left to finish cutting out the planks.  If the weather holds I might get to a point this weekend when I start to assemble the boat!!!!

Found this on Amazon it is similar to what I am doing bout I doubt that you would get the support I have from Stanley Small Craft.  Anyway it may be worth a read.

Walking The Plank

Dad came over Sunday and we worked hard marking out the sheets for the planks.  I have decided to mark out and cut the planks in two halves and then join.

As you can see the cat Trevor decided to help!

Anyway despite Trevor's help we still managed to finish the marking and cut out 1/3 of the planks.  It would have been more but the hot weather meant lost of breaks ;-)

I struck on a great idea to cut out the 2 sets of planks.  Rather than cut one out and use it as a template I screwed the 2 sheets of plywood together through the waste wood sections.  In this fashion I am able to cut 2 identical planks out at a time.

The Keel and Stem

I now have the keel and stem cut out. Not bad for only 1 hours work tonight.  The hard part next, marking out and cutting the planks.

When I cut out the transom I thought the boat would be too small, but I am now surprised how  big it is actually going to be.

Getting Started

I've started!  I have all the materials I need (bar paint and rub rails) and have set it all up across 2 workbenches in the gazebo.  I have had my first wobble, the material list recommended a 12mm sheet of marine plywood for seats, transom, keel and stem but later in the plans it refers to the keel and stem being 18mm.  I'm going to laminate the keel and stem with the 6mm off cuts form the planks (when I finish marking and cutting them out).  This has worked out better that if I had done it the right way, as the lamination will add strength to the joints in the keel and stem sections.  Phew disaster averted.  Now to finish cutting out the 12 mm.  Picture so far: ----                                                                                                                                         

This is the boat I'm building

Well I've decided to build a boat.  I bought the plans from Stanley Small Craft in January but only started this week.  It's the boring bit, marking out and getting ready so I thought I'd show you a picture of one somebody has already built.