2.27.2007

Bilateral sides.

Thrilling, no.

A sense of accomplishment, hell why not.

If I drank, I'd have a beer right about now.

I managed to get the breakable board (tested twice!) placed and stitched. Although I must say it made some HORRENDOUS noises. I later found that it was just a noisy interface between expensive good plywood and the garbage that I cut the B form out of. Squeaking, creaking, crunching, you name it. Sounded like that last stay you had in the old crappy hotel that was 8 miles outside of town, and the two twentysomethings were having some sort of noise pollution contest to see who could be louder in bed. Lucky for you, the headboard of yours happened to be exactly 4" apart.

While the sides are in place, and everything is stitched roughly in place, theres a bit of a hook near the transom:



This little action gap can cause some handling problems later, so I will be going to the designer about how to remedy it.

Here she is, fully skinned:



And an interesting shot to show you just what okume plywood can do. This required slow bending, but no water, no steam, no heat (in fact it was colder than a well digger's arse when I put them there), no special treatment at all.



And one of the posterior for posterity:



I will be contacting the designer for the next course of action, should be interesting to see what he has to say. What follows is just a little adjusting of the wood, then FIBERGLASSING! Here's hoping the weather is cooperative.

E

2.25.2007

Crack! And other aggravating noises.

You will have to absolve me of any wrongdoing this past week. I felt a tad ill, which progressed to overall feelings of assiness. A diagnosis of pneumonia helped explain, but didn't alleviate. I will dry my own tears...

I made the mistake of working alone, sick, and out of boredom. I had been sitting on my round bits for a week trying to get better, so I popped out to the ol boat shop to see what I could accomplish. Got side #1 placed alonside the boat without mishap, and felt good about myself. Its actually quite impressive how the butt blocks I did (one sided only so I can be lazy about fairing the sides) held. Using the 18oz woven tape, they really are strong as all hell. That is, until, you botch a lamination and leave a big hooey in it. Hooey is a clinical term defining a joint or line which should be straight but somehow contains both sine and cosine waves. I picked up side #2, got it about 75% in the gap I wanted it to sit until I could stitch it when BANG! Massive joint failure, and I think I somewhat understand that nauseating feeling of a hang gliger pilot watching the wing fold up around him as he plummets to earth.

Enter the Wheel Of Swearing!
Take &)*!@ and add &%)( to it, creates a whole new meaning! %&)* added to any noun becomes an action phrase! Like those old Batman shows, only with more COLOR!

Well, the only thing you can do is fix it, so I cleaned the joint out (as the glass was still in tact and looked good), refilled with epoxy, cured, and we were off. So the next day I pick it up, feels nice and solid. I place a sawhorse against the jig to keep the panel from tipping out, two blocks of concrete to hold it in the stern and start moving again. I get it 99% into place when it decided to l e a n out a little from the jig. This was your typical Jerry Bruckheimer countdown to oblivion moment. I couldn't get there fast enough. The cussing was beginning to ooze from me, dribbling out as I felt it in the core of me. BANG! Same joint, same place.



AAAAAHHHHHHHH! As a passerby, this might have seemed an odd time in our neighborhood. Birds scattered. Deer ran in all directions, and as fast as possible. The coyotes, pinned their ears back and huddled under a tree. Neighborhood animals cowered in corners and peed slightly on the nice rug in the house. The words that came out of my shop were foreign, sounding as if a college sports athlete was speaking in tongues, but with Tourettes....

This time (as you can see above) I sanded the glass back off. I started over. I type this with an itchy fibgerglass mottling on my hands. I apologize to my neighbors and those within a 17 mile radius for what was said and any problems I caused with migratory animal patterns.

On a lighter note, I really live having a vacuum on my sander, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I highly reccomend it...



Some nice shots, and ones Im going to post over at the bateau forum for opinion from the designer. Here are the bottom panels hard-stitched together to see how well they will take the curves:



Very pleased with the results, I decided to cut all the stitches out! As Jacques would reccomend, final fit-up should be done with loose stitches all around and slowly brought to closure in a fair and smooth fashion.

Here's one from the back, showing the looseitude of the boat, waiting for side #2 to go on:



From the front, bad lighting:



And another, with better composition by the photographer (flash was on):



Its progressing, but its snowing heavily in the hills, so I will be skiing this week a bit. Hope to hang the other side by thurs night, and will hit up another post then.

Hopefully, without a BANG!

E

2.10.2007

Interesting observation

Over the past few (cold as hell) weeks, a few readers have let me know that I don't have photos of my other big project. This, coupled with being gone the past 8 days on a little warm-weather interlude in Acapulco, made it necessary to keep you, the fine reader, entertained with further photographic evidence of boat loveliness (boat porn).

On a side note, I have been read 3 Augusten Burroughs books in the past week, be forewarned of any ramblings, stream of consciousness randomness, and odd analogies to come. I was inspired...

The last big project was a 17' Thames Rowing Skiff designed by the cats over at Selway-Fisher in the UK. Paul was easy to work with and helped me decide on the best boat for a double sculling setup. SWMBO has had a lifelong passion for rowing that never materialized until we took a rowing class here in Spokane.

I won't bore you with too much information, but here is the short list:
4mm okume ply hull
Solid honduran mahogany gunnels (found 20' lengths locally!)
Phillipine mahogany sliding seat assemblies
Purpleheart wineglass transom (SWMBO-mandated feature) and footstretcher sides
Teak footstretchers
Outriggers were a collaborative design with a local aluminum shop here in town

To the photos!

Dockside with the tug. Scumline was an algae bloom that day, and the lilly pads are going to be "medicated" this summer:



A nice inboard shot:



In action (photo credit: Chris Gielow independent genius and nice fellah with a touch of paranoia, mixed with a hint of OCD). That suit your needs Chris?:



This is what its all about:



If there are any questions about this boat, or you want to see more photos, I have MANY, including an extensive build set.

Temps are due to be in the 40s all this week, so expect some progress on the NINA build!

E