i be sailing

14 March to 17 March - Marking and cutting the big panels

Working mostly on weekends and at night, after work. We got the panels drawn and cut and the bottom and side panels joined together at the front in the similar fashion that the uncut plywood sheets were joined together. As the space in the carport wasn’t at all flat, most of the drawing and all of the joining had to happen in my living room. All of the cutting for the panels was done by Andrew with a handsaw, amazing how true and fair the curves turned out, I tried my hand at cutting with a jig saw and no way can I follow a line like he does. here’s are a couple of pics showing the two pieces joined in what is called a butterfly:

The bottom and side panels are mirror images of each other and were cut at the same time while the two sheets of ply were clamped together.

The pic on the right shows the where and how the side and bottom panels were joined together to form that curved bow shape.

They’re called a butterfly because eventually these will be tied together and at the centerline (rightmost edge of the picture) and opened up like butterfly spreads its wings.

19 March to 20 March - Bulkheads, and Transom

Next to do was drawing and cutting all the pieces for the bulkhead and transom, these I left to the able hands of Andrew. While I attempted to make the knees and breast hook for the corners of the boat. I was able to borrow a Jig Saw from a friend Anthony, I used that to cut the knees. After three tries and wasting around five feet of a 1 x 10 plank, I was eventually able to get it right. for My first two attempts I tried to cut the knee shapes at the same time by stacking the two pieces on top of each other. Bad Idea! the thickness of the wood and the curved lines that I was trying to follow caused the saw blade to bend and make a beveled cut.

Here’s a picture of the finished bulkhead pieces and the breast hook and knees:

The nesting bulkhead on the bottom has five holes  drilled at the corners that will be filled with epoxy once the boat is ready to be cut in half these holes will be drilled again and bolts in the holes will hold the two halves in together. I also solicited some under-aged labor to do the sanding of the nesting bulkhead.

After all the bulkhead pieces were done, the boat was ready to go 3D. Andrew also made a couple of saw horses to make the job of working on the boat much easier.

25 March - Going 3D…almost.

First to do was to stitch along the centerline . I first went with using all plastic wire ties, thinking they will hold. They didn’t. First mistake. While opening up the butterfly the ties at the bow started to give.

<— cholo wiring along the centerline.

The plans specified using 10 oz. fiberglass tape for the butterfly joint, but only 6 oz. fiber glass cloth was available at Polymer. I went only with a single layer since the butt joint with the plywood panels seemed strong enough. I wasn’t.  Second mistake. While opening the butterfly the seams where the join was started to rip. It eventually went, and the joint was useless. Had to redo the butterfly join, This time I doubled up on the tape.

26 March - 3D At last!

In order to avoid a repeat of the other day’s disaster, metal wire were used to tie the bow and the butterfly join was re-enforced with wooden blocks. Steel wire was also used to wire the bulkheads to the hull. In areas with little stress plastic wire ties were used.  This was longest time we had to work on the boat but it’s actually where I had the most fun. I actually forgot all about the frustration I felt the day before when the butterfly broke. It’s a great feeling seeing the boat come to life like that. The hardest parts to wire are the bulkheads and centerline nearest the transom.
Total Man hours to get to this point, around 39

COOL EH?

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