A few days of preparation

The boat doesn't look all that different from last time.
Except, of course, it's up in the air.


We finished up the 2nd layer of decking, but didn't have the Dynel in, so we shifted gears and started working on the keel. Before I get to that, here is how the Dynel will fair into the boat.


Look closely, and you can see a 1/8" X 3/4" rabbet cut into the boat. Starting at the edge of the boat and going down you see the 2 layers of plywood, then a light strip which is actually the planking, and then another dark strip, which is actually a corner. I used the fancy plane modeled in the picture. I never got to use all the depth and width fences before. Works really sweet. The Dynel will be put onto the deck and wrapped around into the rabbet. It will be wet out with epoxy which will hold it down and seal the deck.

But no Dynel yet. So we put the boat up on popits and started messing with the deadwood. The first step is to fit the top of the deadwood to the bottom of the boat. It took me about 10 fittings before I was satisfied. Getting that wood clamped into position was not all that much fun, but it was a good workout. The deadwood weighs around 80 - 100 lbs.


Next we gather all the pieces together.


The deadwood pattern is back, and screwed to the boat. At this point we have drilled small holes (8 of em) through the bottom of the boat and just barely into the deadwood where all the keelbolts will go. We then stick a long drill bit through the holes while the pattern is in place. We mark where the drill bit wants to go on the pattern, line up the pattern on the actual deadwood and now know where to drill the big holes in the deadwood. It takes 3 of us (1 to drill, 1 to sight left and right and 1 to sight fore and aft), but we can then drill an accurate hole through the deadwood.

One reason we drill the deadwood first is that it is the easiest to fix if we screw up. The landing pad for the longest bolt (33") is about 1 1/2" square at the top and the bottom. And the bolt is 3/4" wide. Not a lot of room for error. But if we can get the deadwood drilled correctly, it will be pretty easy to drill thru the floor timbers and lead, using the deadwood as a guide. And if the deadwood is not drilled correctly, you just tap a dowel into the errant hole and do it again the next day.

Here the deadwood is set up for drilling out the lead. You can see the lines that indicate where the holes are. We clamped these together and Pat spent a couple days drilling lead. Once the lead was drilled out, we put the deadwood onto the boat and drilled the other direction, up through the boat.




The bolts are ready. . .


The deadwood and lead are now temporarily bolted together. This will allow me to fair the oak into the lead. I have to take off about 1/8" on one side.


Today we thought we were pretty much ready to put the keel onto the boat. Unfortunately, when Pat drilled out the last hole, we found a huge void in the middle of the lead. Oh well, we'll have to do a miniature lead pour on Monday. But after these few days of preparation, the keel and deck should be on next week.

"The boat just got a lot smaller"

Lots of boat stuff this time, but first, some atmospherics. I woke up to light snow, fog and low tide last week. None of which is surprising, but when they happen all at the same time (especially first light) the effect on the waterfront is striking.

Inside, there are a few more things to do before we put on the deck. First up, the knees. The big ones are located at the front of the cockpit. These are traditionally constructed knees. One piece, taken out of a piece of hackmatack with the proper grain direction (see the pre launch post from June 2009). These guys were a challenge to fit. They fit tightly against the deckbeam, the sheer clamp, the frame, and, since they are quite a bit thicker than the frame, the planking. A total of 6 faces to get right.


There is also something called a "web knee" in the center of the cockpit. This one is made out of plywood. It serves two purposes, to strengthen the boat as a knee or bulkhead would, and also to act as the center support for the seats. We think they look like toilets.


The last pieces to make before decking are for the cockpit combing, which surrounds the cockpit and helps keep the sailors dry. These pieces are 14' x 8" x 3/4" oak which takes a big bend and twist at the front. So we'll need to steam them. They will not be installed until after the deck is on, but right now we have a lot of things to clamp to which will be covered by the deck. So we set up a bending jig right on the boat (note the carlin is the back 1/2 of the bending jig). . .


Gather a bunch of friends. . .


And voila! The next morning we can take of the clamps. Since these pieces (we did 2 separate steamings to avoid conflict at the front where the 2 combing pieces come together) won't be used for a week or so, we'll clamp them to the bench with some blocking and tensioning devices which will help them keep their general shape until we can get them permanently installed.


While the combings pieces were the last pieces to make, the last thing to do before decking is fair the top of the boat. We aimed to have all the deckbeams and blocking be a little proud of the final deck location. This way, we can put the camber gauge on a beam or a block, see where it hits, shave off a little wood, and repeat until the camber gauge sits nicely across the boat. The one rule is that you can't shave off the sides of the boat, the all important sheer line. This keeps the boat fair going fore to aft as well as side to side. A few places we had a gap in the center of the boat when the camber gauge was resting on the edge. In that case, the deck beams were too small (or we were too aggressive in our planing) and a little shim is required (see the foreground of this picture).


Once we are satisfied the plywood will lie fair on the beams and blocking, it is time for the deck, which is extraordinarily simple after all those fussy knees and bulkheads. You just lie the plywood on the boat, have someone sit on it, and mark out the edges of the boat, the cockpit, the blocking, and the beams from underneath. We can trim it later, so we don't even have the cut out the pieces all that accurately.

The deck will be built of 3 layers. 2 layers of 1/4" plywood covered by a coat of Dynel wet out with epoxy. The Dynel is the petroleum age version of canvas. Very non-traditional. One might ask after all that plank on frame stuff why switch to a more modern construction method? Turns out traditionally build decks simply do not last that long. They leak and cause problems with all those pieces we just installed (deckbeams, blockings, etc. . . ) Since these leaks are invariably fresh water in tight spaces, they lead to rot. So the decks often become the place of compromise for even the most fervent traditionalists who scoff at the idea of a cold-molded boat being called a wooden boat.

Back to the first layer of decking. This layer will be temporarily screwed down while a flexible marine glue (we use sikaflex) sets up. First we paint the bottom of the deck (much easier now than later, especially in the watertight compartments fore and aft). Remember how we scribed off where the deckbeams were? These marks allow us to tape off the deck support locations so we have a good glue surface (which paint is not).


And now some before and after pics, which caused our instructor Kevin to give me the title for this weeks post. . .