Long Sticks and Big Boxes

The first order of business these past weeks was to find out where the sole (the floor for the non-initiated) of the boat will be. This is the straight line in the round boat. It is quite easy to see where it goes in the 2 dimensional profile view, yet another thing altogether to find it in the 3-D bowl that is our boat.

Not impossible though. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process, but it involved a long straightedge, a few levels, a frame sample, a plumb bob, and similar triangle theory. Long story short, we were able to mark a line on the frames.

After that, we installed the long sticks. In the picture below, the 3 sticks/side near the bottom are the bilge stringers and those near the top are the seat risers. Their first function is, along with the keel (very bottom) and inwale (very top), to provide fore to aft stability in the boat. Of course, the seat risers also provide a place to put the seats and the bilge stringers actually run along the sole, and will provide a place to screw in the sole timbers (think of the sole as a deck, and the sole timbers the joists). A straight line in a round boat isn't really straight.


One thing I learned in this step is the impossibility of doing this on your own. Getting the bilge stringers to twist into place took all 4 of us. I suppose you could have built some big clamping scaffolding around the boat, but that would have taken days.

Next step is to install the daggerboard trunks. This is the first place the "specialness" of this boat rears its head. Most boats would have one centerboard or daggerboard trunk. This one will have 3, so the people using it can change the way the boat sails. From this view, you can see the 3 spots where the daggerboards will go.


The daggerboard trunk is just a very heavily built box. Since we are going to put a hole in the bottom of the boat, the box needs to keep the water out. You start with the bedlogs, which fit between the floor timbers.


Next come the head ledgers, which are notched into the floor timbers.


So far so good. . .


Now to fit the panels to complete the box.


If you look closely you can see all the pre-drilled holes. This trunk is only fit temporarily since we still need to drill the hole in the bottom of the boat.

The hole actually takes the shape of the daggerboard, which is a foil. After we did the drilling, it took me several hours to shape it (the keel is 6 inches thick) with a big chisel and a tiny saw (so it could fit in the hole, which is 1/4" wide at one end and 2" wide at its widest).

And here it is! You'll just have to trust me, but the 6 foot daggerboard is resting on the floor of the shop.

The box will be cut off to be level with the seat risers, so the seats can run from the side of the boat to the middle. Maybe next week.

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