Three Dimensions....

My holy hell, that took forever.

5 weeks people, 5 weeks. First the shipment missed the truck, then got on the next truck but was hung up because that truck wasn't full for 2 weeks. Then to add insult to injury, a load of flooring couldn't pass customs. Another week on the loading dock. Finally, it trickled into the store, and I happened to get there BEFORE they unloaded it. I helped the stockers unload 15 other sheets of ply before we could get down to mine in the stack. Ugh.

In the meanwhile, I had to keep myself occupied:




In an earlier post I referred to (and showed a pic of) a Dave Beede designed Summerbreeze. A little scrap ply, some random extra redwood and doug fir laying around (note: redwood sucks for gunnels, both broke, one broke twice) turns into a nice little rowboat. A neighbor gave me some housepaint, which Ive used to prime the panels. Better than a kick in the teeth I s'pose.

On to the star of our show!

Of general importance on this episode, is working with epoxy in an unheated shop. I chose not to heat the shop as it is uninsulated, but to heat the materials to cure the epoxy. 70 degrees is our target, but 40 is the working temp to achieve. Using a 1500 watt quartz electric heater teamed with a pair of 250/500 watt quartz worklights we had a nice random looking assembly which successfully got a solid cure on the epoxy overnight with outside temps in the teens.

The menagerie:



Though strange looking and a half-assed job of hanging everything, it was relatively effective. Relative in that your humble narrator is an idiot and managed to leave both lights on at 250 watts. Eh, yeah, im retarded. There are times that my boatbuilding is more like a college basketball game. Whoever makes fewer mistakes wins, and Im on the losing team.

This is the stringer assembly per plans, and finally in the flesh:



Seeing that after all this time makes me tingly in ways boatbuilding shouldn't. Don't tell my wife. Oh wait, she reads this too. And her brother. Ah well.

The ladder framed strongback is nice and square, moved to the most advantageous place on the relatively small floorspace I have. Then we mix in those bulkheads I cut EEONS ago to start the building jig. I only had time to notch and put up the C frame as well as the E frame which will be the bookends of the main passenger compartment. Add a liberal dose of stringers and we have the makings of a 3 dimensional structure!






Cmon, get excited! I know I am!

For our next installment, I will try to get the frames up and leveled in, make several mistakes, cost myself some money, screw up at least one cut, throw a tool or two, some strange concoctions of nouns and sware words, and out will pop a completed jig!

Stay tuned. Same boat time, same boat channel.

E

THE PLYWOOD IS IN!!!!

BWAALWOAOABBULUAELA!!!!

Its in!

Okay... can you smell the enthusiasm? I haven't even left to pick the wood up yet. I just couldn't stand myself so I had to post.

More in a bit...

And the wheels begin to turn; slowly.

Well I have gotten fed up with waiting. 2 parts today to the post. Firstly, I decided since I hauled out the tug that I needed a little rowboat to go fish in. On top of that, the neighbors laugh their asses off when they see my wife and I out sailing in the WACKY LASSIE (umbrella and paddle), so Im doing something about it. Secondly I commenced to some big boat work. ENJOY!

I was inspired by the flatiron skiffs because of their sensibilities and elegant look. Being that I am 1) cheap, 2) lazy, 3) short attention spanned, I found a set of free plans on a very easy and quick to build boat, Dave Beede's SUMMERBREEZE ( http://www.simplicityboats.com/summerbreeze.html). Should be a blast. I had some extra ply laying around from a little offhanded workboat plan that I never had time to do due to the NINA project, so I stole that and went to work. Here's a shot of the sides going together:




PL premium, exterior grade 1/4" plywood. Shooting for a whopping $100 or less investment. Your right, that photo is fairly uninteresting. Sad.

Meanwhile, on NINA:

Per plans the D form and if you so choose the B form are both scrap forms for the initial layup of the hull, so off I went. Bought some garbage ply for $16 and some of that extra I had around from the work skiff mission to get moving again. We now have all frames built, and as soon as my ply shows up I will have the stringers built and glued ASAP. Sick of waiting, ready to start laying up some hull panels and trying to figure out how to warm them up enough to get the epoxy to set.

An interesting aside, cutting the B form, I used a circular saw with a thin kerf blade set right at the thickness of the wood to cut fair curves. You really must try it, as it makes the curve very linear and fair, with little extra fiddling to make it clean. It was an interesting combination of carpentry and woodburning! Please note the mui excellente saw:



B form, decent ply, note the curve cut with the circular saw:




The monster throwaway D form:




BTW, thats the bow of my Thames Rowing Skiff, in for a little repair and a refit on the footstretchers. Yes, the scarf joints suck (first try ever!), but that breasthook is GORGEOUS!

Maybe your not-entirely-humble writer should clean his camera lens?

Comments welcome!

E

Slow progress

Today, my friendly reader(s) , I accomplished very little. Rough double at work means I got home later, didnt have ambition, and was just generally tired and hungry. Sob story...

I have discovered a minor measuring error in the stringer upright. Should be an easy fix and back underway when the two new sheets of ply arrive to start the jig. I did however get some stuff around the house realigned, and clamped up the true (motor supporting) transom:




At least something got done..........

Tomorrow, a row with my bride, mountain bike with some friends, and back to work for a shift sunday. I will have 3 days next week with which to build, and am in hopes of having the jig somewhere near built by next friday.

More when it happens!

E

Reparations, Disintegration, Redemption!

Alright, the world is restored to its normal splendor. Windsor made good on the price difference in the wood (a free sheet of 10mm ply is a nice fix), and on top of that a friend bought the remnant 6mm sheets that had been cut (thanks Chris). So then, back to our story...

I was able to use the cut pieces as templates to cut the correct ply. Thus saving HOURS of laying lines again and having to re-establish the right layout. Pretty handy. So for the first two sheets, I decided to recut the stringers and the C frame. Stringers went great. Now about that C frame.

I cut it, measure twice, etc etc, like a good little woodworker. I stand back. I grab my camera to bestow the newest progress to the blog readers. I notice an "error". I had done the following math, and you will see the problem:

1050 x 2 = 2010 Hm, no.

1050 + 1050 = 2010 Hm, still no.

&*%# ))@#*%& ))()^$#@!@%#^. And the camera case goes flying....

I discover that 2100 is a better answer to the above. Anyone still trying to figure out the title of the blog "A complete idiot....". And thus I prove the axiom measure 4 times, cut once idiot.

I would swear, but this is a "family" show, and its tougher literarlily (is that a word? Google it) to come up with adequately descriptive ways to express anger.

Well, as it turns out, I can fit the transom template inside the disproportionate C form, so thus the redemption begins. As I feel a bit better the next day, I get the remaining stringer pieces cut, a new C frame, and both transoms. Excellent! I feel so good about myself I throw together a strongback with kiln-dried Doug Fir 2x6's. Nice and square, but a little curve in one board that lifts the corner. Looks like I will be taking my measurements from the concrete floor instead of the strongback boards.

To the photos!

The second C frame:




The stringer/motorwell sides (jacques Im gonna talk to you about this measurement):




Der strongback:



An idea I have since Im using a metal tape to measure my form locations. I marked my origin dead-square on both sides with a T square and a scrap piece of teak. I then cut a notch on the OUTSIDE of the line (away from the center) so that the tongue of the tape measure has a place to park and makes the measurements uniform. Please hold your applause until the curtain.

Good idea or bad? YOU BE THE JUDGE!




On our next episode, gluing up the stringers! And possibly, setting the forms!

Dont hesitate to post comments!

E

And the issues begin...

So I go to pick up the second round of ply from my local supplier Windsor Plywood, and discover that the 9mm ply I was supposed to recieve turned out to be 6mm. As such, I didnt realize that until I had 2 stations and 2 transoms cut. All of the work accomplished up to now may be for naught. I am getting ahold of the designer on the builder's forum ( http://www.bateau.com ) to see if I can utilize any of the pieces cut. Beauty eh?

Not a huge concern, but just a big hassle. They are cutting me a deal on 2 more sheets of ply to replace the 2 screwed up ones, but whatcha gonna do. At least the guy was willing to work for me. Its a constant struggle with a little of this and a little of that, but the boat always seems to come together.

On the flipside, I am stoked to be seeing some sawdust on the floor, as any self-respecting boat type should be (unless you bought your boat with termites).

To make myself feel better, lets have a look at my first ever project (thus the not-so-fair sides) the Glen-L Tubby Tug. Good plans, easy to build, made tons of errors, and it still floats/cruises around/fishes with the big boats. Im driving, and a friend with his kid helped launch. I hadn't added trim yet as this was the shakedown run and was put back on the hard for a couple weeks following.



And one of the fleet getting used by the neighbor kids out behind our house. Tug with trim added, one WACKY LASSIE in blue ( http://www.alaska.net/~fritzf/Boats/Wacky_Lassie/Wacky_Lassie.htm ) and one CHEAP CANOE in green ( http://www.bateau.com )



Ahh, happier days.

E

In the beginning...

How very thrilling, my own blog. Just another space for a blithering idiot to post pointless information for those who are entirely too enthused with other's lives instead of their own. Ah well, at least I have a purpose for this (somewhat). Bear with me in the beginning, I will be learning the ropes of this blogosphere as best I can.

I have started building a boat designed by Jacques Mertens-Goossens down in Florida by the moniker NINA. It is a 22 foot lobster / picnic boat in the style of a handful of different boats. Those that are familiar with W.M. and John Atkin will see a tremendous resemblance to NINIGRET, which is why I decided to build it.

Mindless banter aside, here is the info:

A link to the boat designers page:
http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=LB22

Gorgeous boat eh?

So after ordering a lovely $450 of marine ply, off we go!

Today included putting down lines on the ply for the internal frames and cutting a few out. I have just a few main frames and one stringer cut (except the small plans error that was found earlier by another builder, thats tomorrow's project). As this boat is a stitch and glue design, it will be built on a very basic strongback using the frames as a mold. Ingenious little bit of design that both JMG and Sam Devlin use.

Laying lines:




Using a batten hung around nails makes the nice fair curves of the deck camber:



Frames A, E, F, and both transoms:




As far as I got, as well as a glimpse of the shop (garage where my truck used to be so happy, dry, not icy, stayed clean, and loved me more than it does now):




My mission is to keep this as up to date as possible, be mildly informative, mildly entertaining, and a good resource for those building Jacques' designs. Please don't hesitate to post any questions (if theres a way to get ahold of me, I have to look on this thing) or request different images if there is something you want to see.