Sheets and Sheers

Man.  Time flies!  It's been far too long between posts.  

We've been keeping happily busy on the boat these last weeks, and making progress- progress that feels pretty big!  We've begun to attach the plywood to the frames!  She's looking more and more like something that will someday float...  hopefully...  

We've put together another little time-lapse video for you-  entitled:  "How Cody and Beth wrestled a 16 foot by 4 and a half foot, 165 pound sheet of plywood up onto the bottomsides of the hull." 

 Or something like that.   

 It's a good thing we have access to some climbing gear.  

And that was just the first sheet!  These days, we've got both of the big amidships sheets on, as well as the aft sheets.  Tonight, we're putting the first pieces on the topsides.  You can see one of them in the next photo, just being cut and fitted.  

The plywood sheets really make a difference to the look inside the hull.  We've flipped these next photos upside down- to make the boat look right side up.  

Looking forward, down at floor level.  

Looking aft, at the handsome transom- complete with stern post.  

There's a lot of bracing in this photo, which makes it kind of hard to see the boat itself.   

In order to be able to attach the topsides sheeting, which will go along the sides of the boat, we need to get the sheer piece laminated into place.  You can see it in this photo- it runs along the bottom of the frames, is curved, and has a few clamps on it.  The sheer line is the most important aesthetic line of the boat.  It's important that it runs fair and smooth, which is why we're upside down on the table trying to get a good look at it. Looking at it right-side-up makes it easier to see the curve properly.    

More clamping!  Laminating a sheer piece into place.  

I hope you all are having a happy weekend!  We certainly are.  Yesterday was quite the Saturday, filled with sunshine, some granite routes with the Mannions,  a drive to the Great Salt Lake Marina, a cold coke with a 107-year-old Navajo Sailor named Paho, a few introductions and invitations to go sailing, a little bit of sanding and epoxy work for good measure,  some chinese food, some frozen yogurt, and this.

Whew.  Good times.  

Chine of the Times

The latest development on our boat has been to install the chines, or chine logs as the salty old sailors would say. As you may have noticed, the center section of our boat has a hard bend, much like that of a power boat, this is called chine.  When the plywood planking comes together at this hard bend it creates a weak point and you need something to give support and allow the plywood to be fastened to.  Now when the plywood meets at that corner it will be supported and there will be no weak point.

This chine has too much curve to try and bend the wood on, so we scarfed together smaller pieces to form the curve.

 

This was the first chine piece we installed.  It doesn't quite go to the ends of the boat.  It would have been too difficult to lift a 30ft. curved 1X8 into place so we installed it in several pieces.

This is where the chine meets the stem.  I used a circular saw to make a bunch of cuts at the correct depth, and then knock out the pieces with a chisel.

Here is the finished product, the chine now sits flush with the stem and is glued in place.

We are almost done shaping the stem, it has come a long way.

We added a "knee," just a piece of wood on the inside corner of the stem to give more support to a vulnerable spot on the boat. 

I accidentally made two of the same frame, so I decided to test the extra to destruction.  We stuck one end of the frame around the telephone pole outside the shop and tied the other end to PJ's truck.

 It took several attempts to break.  It needed much more force than we expected.  You can just see the frame stretching and warping.  It bends quite a bit before it breaks, have a look.

The Result couldn't have been better. The frame broke the wood and not the glue joints.   It is reassuring to have hands on proof of the incredible strength of epoxy.  So far there is not a single mechanical fastener on the boat just lots of epoxy. 

Just for fun, Beth and I wrestled a sheet of plywood onto the boat today, we are getting so close to sheeting the hull.  It is very exciting.