A small bit of background and some fun pictures!

                It occurred to me recently that, since not everybody is crazy enough to try building a boat in their backyard, I should provide some description as to what goes into a project like this.  Also I have been feeling guilty since I have been too busy recently to put some work time in on the boat so I figured I will do the next best thing and blog about working on the boat.  I should start off by saying that a much better, more in depth description than I could ever give can be found on this great website, http://spirainternational.com/hp_free.html for anybody interested in learning more.  Here in I will give just a general idea of what is going to be taking place in my back yard over the next month or two.

            Boats have been built for thousands and thousands of years by man, and the construction methods are as varied as the marine life on a coral reef, but a few general types of construction are as follows.  First would be what is commonly referred to as a ‘dug out’ or ‘dugout canoe.’  This is basically a tree trunk that has been chopped down and hollowed out using an axe or axe like tool.  Many native peoples made dug outs especially those that lived adjacent to navigable water ways but these crafts were limited to the size of the available tree trunks in the environment.  A more sophisticated form of boat construction is the outrigger, or double hulled canoe, which are basically two canoes in parallel linked by struts in between.  These boats are extremely stable and can be quite large.  The Polynesian people used these types of boats to populate the many hundreds of islands in the South Pacific Ocean and may have even used them to travel to the western coast of South America!  The next type of boat construction is one that most euro-centrally minded people will think of when you say “I am building a wooden boat!”  This is called lapstrake construction, or plank on frame construction.  This is ‘yea-olde times’ kind of boat construction which includes laying out rib frame components and attaching planks of wood to them (and to say that is an over simplification is like saying the pyramids were built by piling some rocks on top of each other).  Lapstrake construction has been used for centuries and is still used today for wooden boats, the problem is that it requires quite a bit of high quality wood (which is very costly) as well as a crazy head for math (which despite my copious amounts of education still eludes me).  Obviously none of these kinds of construction methods are the ones I am using for my boat.

I think that if you were a yacht-y boat snob type you might say I was cheating, I say I am employing exciting and new innovative modes of small boat construction by building what is called a ply-on-frame construction method.  Basically this boat consist of rib frame elements (made out of 2x4 planks) held together by a ‘keelson, chine logs, and sheer clamps’ all skinned in ½ inch plywood, fiberglass, epoxy, and in my case a Kevlar cloth bottom; now, when I first read the words ‘keelson, chine logs, and sheer clamps’ I said to myself, “Self, what the heck is a keelson, chine log and sheer clamp?”  Well it is actually pretty simple, as you can see by the picture to the side the rib sections make up the vertical elements, or skeleton, of the boat whereas the keelson (in the middle) the chine logs (on the left and right bottom) and the sheer clamp (left and right top of the boat) make up the longitudinal elements of the boat structure that hold the ribs together.  You also might notice that everything looks a little upside down, that is because it is, all the outer hull components (ribs, keelson et al, ply-wood, and fiberglass) are assembled upside down on what is referred to as a ‘strong back jig’ which helps align everything and keep it straight.  The first major stage of construction is getting all the ribs in place and attached to the horizontal elements.

The next step in assembly is to skin the boat in ply-wood.  This is all pretty straight forward mostly holding the ply-wood sheets in place long enough to trace out the shape of each section and then I get to play with my new jig saw!  Seriously though, power tools are NOT TOYS, (but if you can manage not to cut your thumb off they sure are fun).  After a whole lot of shaping and shimmying into place (since all of the ply-wood has to sit flush on the rib sections) the ply-wood is glued and screwed into place and the glue is left to cure.  Once the ply-wood is secured in place it is time to carefully shmear a whole bunch of epoxy over fiberglass cloth that has been laid out over the hull a couple of times (I am doing two coats of fiberglass on my boat).  At this point you have the option of leaving the fine wood finish showing OR throwing an awesome paint design down on the hull which I think I will attempt.  Either way after everything is cured and dried the boat is flipped over and a coat of wood finish, epoxy, and paint if desired, is applied to the inside of the hull.  And FINALLY, after all that the construction of seats, oar-locks, storage compartments, well gussets, motor mounts, and other accoutrements can start!

Again I must emphasize that I am by far not an expert at this, only an over zealous enthusiast.  So, if you get it in your head to build a boat I strongly urge you to DO YOUR HOMEWORK, read up on what you are getting into and be sure you are ready for the unbearable derision of your loved ones for taking on such a preposterous hobby!

A great boat building resource!  check out the link to the side for more really  intereseting info!

Ponderings on youth and the start of construction in ernst.

I remember distinctly as a child my father saying “Nah, I wouldn’t want a boat.  A boat is a big hole in the water a guy can throw his money down…”  and then he would look out on the lake we lived near looking rather wistfully at the people in boats having what seemed to be a nice day on the water.  Well I suppose he was right to some degree, boats are pretty expensive, but that is why I am building my own right?  I just hope it does not end up as a big hole in the water, or worse a big hole in the boat while on the water. 

  I remember this old 12’ fiberglass skiff we had that my dad got when he was a kid, it was green and had a 10 horse power mercury outboard.  Mostly I remember it upside down on saw horses in our back yard as he tried to patch this hole or that scratch, it eventually gave up the ghost when I was about nine or ten.  Actually I cannot remember when we got rid of it, like many childhood memories just a vague realization that it was no longer in the backyard and it did not really matter to me too much, I mean, I did have transformers to play with…let’s not forget what is really important here people.  I certainly cannot explain why I have been obsessed lately with building a boat of my own, maybe it is a childhood wistfulness for the bygone days of youth, maybe I need a project to fill the time with, but at this moment I think it is just the newest transformer out there…and let’s not forget what is really important here people.

As far as progress goes, it has been slow but steady.  Quality clear grained wood has proven difficult to find, and expensive, but I think it will be worth it for structural purposes.  With the wood I have purchased I have put together three of the frame elements, the transom, and the first and second rib.  On the transom and the first frame I used this ‘marine’ epoxy putty that I found at home depot to glue the wood together and it still has not cured fully.  You can see in the picture that it is still clamped in my garage waiting to cure.  I am kind of concerned that the joints will not be strong enough so I think I will just soak the jointed areas with 2 part marine epoxy when it comes from my internet source.  This type of epoxy is much less viscous than the putty and I think it will penetrate the joint well enough so that the cured putty and epoxy will give the desired structural strength. 

The second rib frame went together pretty easily, the 2x12 I used for this element was just slightly warped (cupped for those in the know) not so much to preclude me from using it, since it was the cheapest piece I found at 77 dollars for an 8 foot board, so one joint is firmly in place but the other is just barely separated.  Again when I get the more liquid 2 part epoxy I will attempt to saturate this area so as to gain a stronger bond.  That is as far as I have gotten construction wise since the weather has been slightly disagreeable for outdoor work, but sure is nice to work in my garage with a cup of coffee and listen to the piter-pater of rain on the roof.

As a side note, to anybody that has spent any amount of time hand planning a piece of wood, much respek!  Holy cow this was a pain!  I seriously looked at the inch I had to shave off the block of wood below and said "no prob, easy peasy!"  not so my friends.  The plans call for tapering the vertical lengths of the ribs of the boat from 3 1/2 inches to 2 1/2, I believe for weight saving and aesthetic purposes.  Let me tell you it was harder than it looked, for the second piece I shaved off most of the wood with a circular saw then planned out the taper with the hand plane, which was still no small task.  Anyway, it was fun AND a work out at the same time, double bonus for me!

I plan on doing some more tonight and again on Sunday.  Until then, happy thanksgiving everybody!

First Work Days

OK!  First post, gotta make it a good one!  Well now I just feel a lot of pressure....

Oh well, here we go-

I just started the first days of actually building and putting stuff together.  It is all very preliminary right now so, it does not look like much but believe me there has been quite a bit of figuring and calculating about how this whole thing will go.  The first step in the build process is to build what is called a 'Strongback Jig' from which all the ribs and boat frame pieces are aligned and attached.  Here it is;

You can see that I had to shim the feet because the concrete of my back yard is a little uneven, but all told not too much work to nock this piece out.  Just some heavy box nails, joyce braces, and some cutting.  I will add some kick stand 2x4's later since the whole rig is kind of wobbly front to back. 

Here are just a few more photos of the legs going together and the 4x6 beam with the directionality listed on it.

This project has been swimming around in my head for a while now and fortunately enough I find myself in a place where I can manage it without too many distractions as well as added costs.  I went to school in Northern California and fished the large rivers up there and often looked on wistfully as I watched drift boats meander by on the current with jovial looking fisherman having a good day on the river and thought to myself how much more water I could cover with a boat like that, so, now I am building my own! 

Something like this is a big project to take on but I have confidence in my construction abilities.  There is always trepidation when starting a daunting process like this, but especially now since this thing could potentially hold my life in the balance one day.  With that in mind you better believe I will be taking my time and building this thing with precision and accuracy in mind.

I will be updating this blog as much as possible throughout this process so stay tuned, same boat channel, same boat hour!  (hehe, I crack myself up sometimes.)