A quick update after a rather long day.

The newest piece of plywood to be hung.  

              Today I shaped some more of the framing and hung another piece of plywood.  For those of you counting, this brings me up to about 3/4’s the way done with putting plywood on the sides of the boat.  All I really have to do is hang two more sheets on either side of the bow and then I can start hanging plywood on the bottom, but believe me I don’t think that will be as easy as it sounds.  I am still running into a few rough spots as I shape the frames out, and I think the bow/stem will be the toughest of all because of the more awkward bends created by the high arc at the front of the boat.  But I go confidently into the future with my head held high and assurance that I can defeat any problem laid before me….I think…hope....maybe…

Just another angle of the plywood I hung today.

              On a different note, I think the paint I need is going to be easier to find than I originally intended.  I have read that all I need is epoxy paint, but have not been able to find any paint called ‘epoxy paint’ but I think it is just labeled as ‘concrete’ paint at the Home Depot.  This will be nice if I don’t have to spend a butt load of money at places like West Marine where stuff is ridiculously over-priced.

Looking down into the boat from what will eventually be the
bottom of the hull (it is upside down right now).  

              I am sketching out a layout for the interior of my boat which I will be posting when I am finished so keep an eye out and let me know what you think about it.  I am mostly concerned with the placement of the oar locks and rowing bench, specifically what will be the most efficient spot to row from.  My guess is to put the oar locks at the widest part of the boat and place the bench at the spot where at rest my elbows would be at ninety degrees with the oars straight out at a 90 degree angle from the boat.  But that is just a guess.  Enjoy the pics, check back soon for more posts.

First view of the interior of the boat!
Again everything is upside down right now,
so just flip everything in your head and you will
get a better picture. (this will eventually be the starboard side)

Just a wider view of the port interior. (and some of the messy epoxy drips)

Another view of the interior, this is the port side of the boat.

Looking down the bow along the keelson along the bottom of the hull.

Framing, Faring, and Foul Ups.

              Hi folks, well it has been a long while since my last blog, and to the five of you all that read this I apologize for my lapse in diligence.  Now, apologies aside let me fill you in on all things boat related…

              The framing of the boat has been a bit of a bumpy road.  All of the ribs went on to the strong back jig just fine and at least they all seem to be spaced out within the about a 1/8 inch margin of error.  First mounting the keelson had a few hiccups, not the least of which was breaking a rib after it had been glued and bolted in place!  To make a long story short I ended up re making the rib, sawing out the broken bits and remounting it on the strong back and bolting it in place to the keelson.

Next came the chine log and sheer clamp.  Now, I thought these two elements would be fairly easy to mount, I was wrong.  Getting the grooves cut in the ribs just right turned out to be quite a challenge (and one I am sorry to say I did not conquer to my satisfaction).  I was left with some pretty large gaps between the longitudinal elements and the ribs which I ultimately packed with epoxy putty to provide a better connection.  The sheer clamp (longitudinal on the top rail of the boat when right side up) was easier to put on, but another problem I ran into with all the longitudinal sections surfaced, steaming.  I made a homemade steam tube with ventilation ducting, an old pot and a propane burner.  The problem came in connecting the tube with the pot, I used a steel braided flexi-tube I picked up at Home Depot.  To form the connections I cut a hole in the ventilation tubing and the pot lid and then placed a double ended copper pipe connector.  The whole system was not very efficient  which led me to help it along by pouring boiling water down one end to help increase the internal temp of the tube.  Another issue I had with the chine and the sheer were the scarf joints I used to connect the sections of wood.  Every time I put any pressure on the joints in order to bend the wood to the rib they failed and split.  I finally gave up trying to glue and screw them together and just put them on in separate sections and will use the plywood to bend them into shape and after the ply wood in fastened in place I will glue, screw and clamp them in place.  Ultimately, I got the longitudinal sections on, with quite a bit more to-do than I had anticipated, but I am more or less satisfied with the structural integrity of the frame.

Attaching the chine log

The Pot and Tube I used to get steam into the tube.

The whole steam tube contraption.

Framing completed, with the chine log and sheer clamp in place.

Another angle of the framing.

The sheer clamp, clamped in place.

Me, faring the boat with a door planer.

After framing is completed the instructions call for something called ‘faring’ the boat.  This basically means shaping all of the frame elements into a form that the plywood will lay flat on.  I started out doing this with a hand planner and a rasp, and then promptly ran out to Home Depot and rented a 3” electric door planer.  I would love to lie and say I did it all by hand, but I just can’t do that.  If you ever use a door planer like that there are two things you should keep in mind.  One, they are damned fun power tools, and two, be REALLY careful to not take off too much material.  Unfortunately I did not figure this out until I started faring my second frame.  It ended up being one of those things ‘well I took a bit too much here, so I will just take more off there,’ and so on until you are left with a toothpick sliver of wood.  Luckily I realized that and just let it be, the only problem now is that there are some small gaps between plywood and rib arm which I am fixing with creative use of window shims.  The other tool I rented which has made my life infinitely less stressful is a 4” hand operated belt sander.  This not so little tool has really helped me get a finer shape on the frame elements which will ultimately lead to a better fit of the plywood.  The faring now is more or less complete, aside from some fine finishing when I hang the rest of the plywood on the frame.

A fared and sanded joint.

This all leads me up to what I did today.  I got more sanding done with the belt sander and shaping out the frame elements.  I know it sounds like no big deal but it actually took me most of the day, not to mention I looked like 50 lb sack of flour exploded on my head afterward from all of the sawdust.  On the plus side the belt sander is probably about 12 pounds, so I got some great isometric workout for my arms as I lifted it up and down on the vertical frame elements for about 6 hours straight.  Complaining aside, I got a good bit of shaping done. 

Plywood that is attached to the aft, port side of the boat.

Shaping is one thing, but what I am most stoked about is what I did for the second part of today!  I hung my first plywood sections on the aft end of the boat.  I got two small sections on today before the light gave out on me.  They were only small sections because the bend of the boat is so severe in the back that I decided to cut the plywood in half and add it on in smaller sections in order to make it easier to bend to the frame.  I really feel like I turned a corner with starting to add the plywood, not only did it go on with relatively few snafu’s, but I really feel like I am getting a lot done and things are running more smoothly (knock on wood, pun intended).  My goal is to have the hull skinned in plywood and ready for fiberglass by early next week, and then ready for paint by that weekend.  I have to put myself on a more rigid time table now because I will be leaving in early April for my job as field biologist assistant in southeast Alaska, so I will definitely be doing more, posting more, and generally doing more in the very near future.  Thanks for reading! And as always, try not to cut your thumb off. 

Stern views of the first pieces of plywood to be hung on the boat.

Another view of the stern.

Just a Quick Update



All frames completed and ready to be blocked up on the jig.



              Things have been moving at a pretty fair clip in boat land.  I have had some time off so I have been doing as much as I can.  I finished all of the rib elements in the garage since it rained for about six days straight, but I am now officially all moved out to the backyard now since there is not really any more fabrication to be done that I can do inside.  As far as outside goes I have been having some trouble finding a level area for the strong back jig, and had to settle for shimming everything into place and then weighting down the feet so everything is steady.  The good news is that the whole thing is solid as a rock, the bad is it is still slightly uneven (but it is all uneven in the same fashion so I should be able to just align all the elements along the same plane).  Also in the mean time I have spaced out and blocked up all of the rib sections to their respective place on the boat.  One cool side note is that, one evening when it rained I put a tarp over the jig with the ribs on the blocks and the tarp formed to the rough shape of the boat so I got to a little preview of what it will look like.  Needless to say I was pretty freakin stoked to see what my boat is going to look like. 



Notching frames to accept the keelson.



              Up next I have still more framing to do.  One thing is to complete the stern two rib framing.  These two frames are attached to the transom via well gussets, an outboard doubler and a motor mount.   This basically a box of 2x12 that sits inside the boat which the frames are attached to, but also provides a kind of protected area for gas cans and batteries if I want to put a motor on the back someday.  After I put the stern together I need to attach the stem and then I will be ready for the keelson.  I got a pretty good deal on an 18 foot 2x6 for the job at a local lumber yard so I have my choice within a couple of feet of what section to use.  First thing that needs to happen before I attach the 2x6 is that I need to put together a steam box in which I will steam the plank so that it forms the severe bend of the hull shape.  This was kind of an expense I was hoping to avoid but do not have much of a choice after looking at how much the keelson and other longitudinal elements have to bend.  Well, like I said this was just a quicky update on progress, thanks for reading catch you next time.



Some of the frames notched.





All of the frames notched.












A cationary picture.  MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE!! I had to remake this rib because I cut too deep witht he jigsaw.  DOH!

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.)