There has been a lot going on, nothing terribly exciting. After vacation, I worked on the twin a little more, getting in the mast partners. Since my new camera is on the fritz, that story will have to wait. But she sails, and beautifully.
For now, I'm going to skip ahead. We've started the next project. It is a 23' daysailer called a Mermaid. It was designed/built by Butler&Earl on Mt. Desert Island back in 1948. Remember that Herreshoff 15 I was drooling over in the last post? Well, this boat is awfully similar. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased to be on this project. But can you believe it? I can't find a picture on line. There was one a few weeks ago since there was a Mermaid for sale, but the posting has since been taken down.
Oh well, you'll just have to use your imagination.
There is a lot going on here, but first a close up of the top so you can see what I'm talking about.
This should look a little bit familiar. The 2 piece keel is being clamped together up top. The first plank will be installed into the notch that is created when the 2 pieces are put together. Just like on the last boat.
But what is up with all the notches in the molds? And that batten sitting in them? I'm glad you asked. This boat will be carvel planked, as opposed to the last one which was lapstrake planked. Carvel means the planks will be butted up over one another rather than overlapped, giving the boat a smooth hull. Since the planks are not going to be fastened too each other, we need to install the frames first. (On the lapstrake boat, we installed the frames after we planked and flipped the boat over). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, we built the molds, same as last time. But we subtracted the size of the frames (7/8") from the molds so they end up smaller than the actuall cross section of the boat. Next, we notch the molds to accept battens (in this use, they are called ribbands). Once the ribbands are installed we will steam bend frames over them and then we'll have something onto which we can install the planking.
Confused? That's ok, I'll have more pictures soon!
