Boat Plans Wooden | Saturday Night Special

Boat Plans Wooden

Saturday Night Special build

There are several builders of this design aiming at next years Texs 200,  we’re hoping for a fleet of them, some to be available as fundraiser charters  to raise money for cancer research.

To recap the project, the build projects and the sponsorship to help build them is being managed by Jackie Monies ,  and we’re hoping for half a dozen to front up on day one of the Texas 200 next year.

Phil McCowin decided that this sounded like fun, and is busy building one with which to participate, I’m pleased to say that I’ll be his crew.  I’m very much looking forward to this event.

Phil has his SNS all planked up, she’s looking lean and slippery.  Do bear in mind that the design is intended to be a very quick build so the build standard is not fancy, just basic carpentry rather than a lesson in “how to build a heritage standard boat”.  To give you an idea of how the build goes I asked Phil how long it took to plank her, and he tells me that it took about 6 1/2 hours, thats the chine panels and topsides, essentially from a basic frame to "a boat". One day with coffee and lunch breaks.

She has just the simplest structure and basic interior which means shes light, quick and easy to build, and may well be the most bang you’ll get for the buck.

She’ll be fast, capable of planing on most points of sail, has a lot of bouyancy built in and in the strong quartering tailwinds that characterise the T200 course at that time of year should be a fun ride.

Here are some of Phils  pics from the Saturday Night Special Facebook page,  you can see more over there.  Thanks Phil.

 Plans are available from www.duckworksmagazine.com  

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Boat Plans And Kits | Progress! Yeah! Wet on wet stem quick dry fit!

Boat Plans And Kits

I was home for a few days, and I buckled down and got right to it.

Day one:

First I enlarged the holes in BH2 and 3. I want more room to store my gear: oars, extra spar, etc. etc. I was able to do this neatly and cleanly with my scrolling blade that I discovered in my blade set! Yo dummy! Im much happier now with the results.

Second: I wet-on-wetted the un-wetted sides of the BHs with epoxy to encapsulate the wood. Three layers, which got it quite thick I may add. Maybe a little too thick. I used squeegees and and a brush and the roller a la Storer. I must say I wasnt impressed with the roller method, I feel like I could get a smoother surface without it-- the roller left funny little bumps. I think the thickness is just sloppiness on my part and maybe too much epoxy. Needless to say, everything will be sanded down for paint/varnish whatever I decide. Id love to do some brightwork, but I dont know if I want to do the work. I see lots of sanding in my future with the splotchy epoxy job.

That being said, epoxy got everywhere, and it was a big mess, including the undersides of my BHs, despite carefully applying tape everywhere to hold the mess. I used painting masking tape, packaging tape that would have hung lower than the BH would have prevented epoxy from curling underneath and dripping onto the BH backsides that were already done.

Day two:

Then I cut the notches for the chinelogs into the BHs. This was more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I used my nifty Japanese pull saw, and it was awesome. I paid very close attention to bevels and carefully marked the boundaries of the notches. A few mistakes were made, but nothing that cant be saved or filled with epoxy. Taking my time instead of rushing this part was worth its while.



Afterwards I FINALLY CONQUERED THE DREADED STEM! (second try)

I unfortunately did not photo-document this. This is how I did the stem:

1. Cut out a rectangular blank of the stem from my stock.

2. Draw the stem out on the blank-- triangle on top, the front edge and then on the backside, the back edges graduating from 36mm at top to 22mm at the bottom.

3. Plane down the starboard and port sides from 36mm at the top to 22mm at the bottom. At this point, looking at it either from the stern or bow, I have a trapezoid that is wider at top than at the bottom. Still rectangular.

4. Now, all that is left is to remove the material from the backside to the bow point. Using the backside 36mm-22mm edge, I planed down the material to the front pointed bow. I left the bow a little wider than a knife edge, about the width of the sharpie pen mark. Its a little tricky to get the second side because there is now no longer a flat surface to work.

5. Patience.





THEN THEN THEN

I kind-of dry fitted the hull together!!! (I was impatient, I had to see the boat for morale)

I screwed on the stem to the bow pieces, with screws through ply backing as described in the Storer plans. This is hazardous, because once the screw gets into the backing it spins around like the devil and Id have to push frantically for bite into the side of the boat or else the screw and backing ply goes zooming off the bow and then Id slam the drillbit into the side of the boat leaving a good dent. A good method is to push the screw through the backing first so a little pokes out that it can be stuck into the side by hand to hold it in position. Watch your fingertips!

So the stem went in and then I spent a while screwing around with BHs and and the transom and placing them more or less where they were supposed to go. I took some tie-down straps and cinched the stern together to get a visual idea of what the boat was looking like.



It looks like a Goat Island Skiff! Amateur Style! But a GIS, nonetheless, the curvy midsection and straight knife-like bow are telling.



HOLY SHA-MOLEY!!!

I attempted to screw in BH1 but it was about as difficult as pulling my own wisdom teeth. Sagely, I walked away when one side of BH1 ripped away from the screws holding it into the port side.

In the following picture you can see the gap between the chinelogs and BH2. Imagine BH1, which is just as bad if not worse. Its going to be a true WRASTLING nightmare to get that together, I think. Im going to re-measure my BHs, make sure they are the right size, and do some brainstorming. BH3 looks gappy, but its not bad, a little squeezing and it fits right in.



Some things I noticed: The chine logs butted up against each other in the bow next to the stem. A little bit of chisel work took care of that, giving them more room.

Also, my stem needs to be cleaned up a bit, especially the bottom portion. Maybe this will aid in screwing in BH1. As I said, I was impatient to actually see something, and Im glad I did this today.

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Plywood Boat Plans Australia | I make my first bevel

Plywood Boat Plans Australia

I had to bevel the seat cleat on the transom for the rear seat. This is a harrowing proposition for me because, a: I do not know how to bevel things, and b: I do not want to screw this up too much because then nothing will fit. Fortunately, I had the mind to ask over at the Storer woodworking forum first, and basically, I take my hand plane to it and plane away. So thats what I did, and I successfully beveled my seat cleat the 4mm. PHEW! Not so bad! Of course, I say that now. Time to start learning how to keep my plane blade sharp. Heres a pic, but the cleat is not oriented in the correct position, worry not GIS fans!



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Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum | Specificity ahead

Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum

Time for a little cleaning up. I took care of a lot of little items that needed doing.

I went back to the kick-ass guys at Maine Coast Lumber and got hooked up with some more cedar, primarily for the chine logs, so I can just keep moving on assembly. I also picked up extra cedar just in case. This hopefully is my last cedar purchase, the stuff is getting pricey. I also picked up a good piece of cedar for the STEM. I bought many feet so I can have many attempts, this I feel, is going to suck.

I also bought:

pumps for the epoxy, dammit, I forgot with my initial order.

inspection ports for the bulkheads.

the sail, holy cow, I just had to press the buy button and be done with it.

Next up:

finish the top frame on the transom, which is out of Douglas Fir, which meant that I had the wood for it all along in the form of that long fir plank. Then, when the pumps come in I can glue and epoxy this piece all up.

frame the remaining bulkheads

glue together el bottom and el side-os. This will mean chine longs. I found a 17 foot long piece of cedar, but it was a weird dimension that was going to have to be ripped several times to make it the appropriate size. I have decided to scarf two 9 foot sections together. This will keep one side more uniform (less ripping) and it will teach me a new valuable skill. The scarf joint as spied by gimpslayer3000, but with cedar. This is going to be interesting, because it needs to come out tip-top. Sacramento GIS has built a scarfing jig, which is a fascinating idea, but Im really not interested in that, but it would probably be the best bet for the cleanest scarf. Im wondering about how precise I can get on my own...

and then at some point... the dreaded STEM.

Thats it for now, on the road again. Waiting patiently.

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Boat Designs And Plans | Oar Prototype 1

Boat Designs And Plans

I lost power and internet for a bit during the big blow the other day, and never posted pictures of the oar. The following day I decided to shape the oar up. Using my plane, block plane, random obit sander, chisel, and wishing that I had a spokeshave, I went to work. In about three hours I got the below product. As you may notice, there is a kink where the blade meets the loom. Also, I screwed up the shaping a bit.



I mean, for a first oar done in three hours, not bad.

The blade is kinked to the loom most likely because each measurement station was taken off the edge of the board as opposed to off a theoretically straight line connecting the two ends. So if there was any deviation in the way the board has been originally cut (most likely) then the oar would reflect that in waviness-- and thats what happened. My next oar measurements will be based off a straight line down the board.

Second, I started shaping the oar without squaring it first. This would have been an easy endeavor, however I was excited to get started and planed the thing into an oval. If I had made sure all 4 sides were square, it would have been a circle.

The grip is also oval, I think it might be rough on the hands. I should not have cut it out in the blanks, and shaped it at a block, that way I could have made it a circle with a 1 1/4" diameter as opposed to the 1" it is now (a little small for me).

In the end, an easy plan, a nice looking oar, its light, and with the pine was easy to shape.

Prototype #2 is in the works. This too, will probably be a scrapper because I already cut out the grip and then realized the advantages of cutting it out when the blank was glued up.

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Boat Plans Bolger | Small progress daggerboard gunwales mast step partner

Boat Plans Bolger

Ok!

I continue to slowly progress on the boat. I am really stymied by the fact that its been all of 0 deg. F (-18 C) here at the house for quite a bit now. The garage has been holding temperature at just under freezing. Im not interested in doing major epoxy sealing work in these condititions because: a) its cold, b) the epoxy thickens and is difficult to spread.

However, I can do small spot gluing jobs. For instance, I installed the mast step and partner yesterday:



My Step was placed in first (obviously) as a whole piece, as in the 6mm ply backing was already glued in position. The fit was relatively tight, but not perfect because my BHs are not exactly perfectly parallel along the bottom. Im talking a few mms here, but still. Anyway, when you drop something into a tight spot to be glued, pay attention as to how youre going to place it in and glue those places accordingly. To clarify: Dont put the glue on the location that is going to get scraped by the incoming piece, put it where it will be squeezed in so the glue remains.

The partner went in nice and simple, except I dropped it on my heater fan. My partner deviates from the plans as in it is two pieces, with the bottom piece extending underneath the seat cleat on BH2. This is for stability issues, I could twist the top of the BH with my hand. This partner makes it very burly.

Notice my heater and my brick compression system. Its a $12 heater I bought at Lowes. With a plastic sheet, temps went up quick.

Next up I screwed the gunwales into place. I didnt want to necessarily do it, but its almost essential.

The next picture illustrates a non-screwed gunwale. Basically, the flare from the sides of the boat in the stern and amidships is translated to the gunwale to the bow, where there is minimal flare, the sides are relatively straight. Only muscling the gunwale with my hands could I make contact. Not conducive to gluing, as you can imagine.

Storer (el designero) promised that screwing the gunwale would pull it in. I had doubts and didnt want to deal with it, but I tried. Working from the stern forward, I placed one screw in the stern, two amidships, and two right in the bow area where the twist was most apparent. I used the 1 1/4 screws with the ply pads from the bottom screwing event.

SOB, it worked:


Nice and tight, all pulled together. This makes me happy. All ready for gluing. Screws were hidden underneath the areas where I am going to place my inwale spacers. Speaking of spacers, all of them are cut, and I have marked where I will be adding them. I started at the seam between the two pieces of ply for the sides, one will join them at the top, then one will be place next to each BH sidearm, with BH3 sidearms getting two small ones on either side due to the fact that it does not meet the side near the top. Re-enforcements, if you will. I need 52 spacers for this scheme.

Next up, I glued my daggerboard together.


I precoated the sides to be glued, then made a thin epoxy mix with the filler, not too much since the wood had been run through the joiner. The typical GIS clamp scheme as seen below:

And were off to the races! Looking good. Looking good.

She arrives, one step at a time boys, one step at a time.

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | Progress on SEI and a really good evening out

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

Ive been working away in the shop, fitting the seat tops and filleting them, turning the offcuts into doublers under the edges and sanding out the odd dribbles of epoxy,  read on.

Blog 4 September

Its getting close,  today I fitted the forward seat top.   Tis is in two pieces joined down the middle and glued in to form  to form not only the seat but the top of the forward bouyancy tank, as well as bracing the mast box.

 Filleting, the white stuff is a low density filler from Epiglass with a little cotton mill fibre ( glue mix) mixed in, thats for strength. The brown is Microballoons but underneath that is a smaller fillet of straight glue applied about 6 hours before.  

So that’s done, yesterday I fitted the doublers under the edges of the center thwart and the after seat ( which should be referred to as “Stern sheets” but I’m not that “correct” in my terminology).  These doublers make a big difference to the feel of the boat, stiffening the overhanging edges of the seats considerably as well as giving them a much more “solid” appearance.

These adoublers re made from the scrap left over from cutting the big parts, there wont be much more than kindling left when I’m done with this project,  successively smaller parts get cut as the project goes on,  so the scraps get smaller each time around.

Stern sheets, the doublers sitting on the seat  above where they will be fitted underneath the overhanging plywood seat edge.

Center thwart.  This is a great way to use the offcuts from the planking, makes a much nicer job of the edges of the seat. Next job to do is to glue them in, then round them off.

Forward seat tops to come next.

So tomorrow its at them with the angle grinder and sander to finish off the endges, round them over and fair them.  Then some filleting, more sanding,  and then its time for paint.

I must say that the Fein Multimaster is an amazing tool for sanding fillets, the point of that triangular sanding head with 60 grit paper on it does a very good job, effortlessly and quickly.  I love this tool and would almost own it just for that.

Paint, the outside looks good,  two coats of primer, and two coats of  satin finish paint looks good, so tomorrow I’ll be splitting the white between two containers and pouring a little of the dark green into one to get the pale green for the interior and then start swinging that paintbrush again.

Tonight, my friend and next door neighbour Emily Scott sings.  She has won a scholarship to the UCLA School of Music where she will study in the Masters classical voice program,  this is seriously top level stuff!  I’ve been to a couple of performances and she’s got me converted to Opera.

Tonights performance is a fundraiser, she’s got to get enough money together to live in Los Angeles for two years to take up her scholarship, and I’m going along.

We’ve had shared dinners, helped each other out some, and enjoyed each others company.  I’ll miss her, all the very best Emily.

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news/news-2014/2014/07/scholarship-helps-talented-singer-find-her-voice.html

Here’s her facebook page, well worth a look.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675895038&fref=ts

Time I got myself tidy, don’t need the black suit and tie but epoxy and paint covered overalls wont quite cut it.

( I went, full house, I listened, I enjoyed the concert immensely)

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Yacht Boat Plans | Gluing down the bottom

Yacht Boat Plans

After gluing together the hull, I came to several decisions, one of them being that gluing is a pain in the ass.

Yesterday I glued down the bottom, and yes, gluing is still a pain in the ass. So much so, that I swore off building another glue-only boat next time, that Ill take fasteners thank you very much, this sucks!

This morning, when I peeked into the garage at my nemesis glue-job-boat, my heart softened a bit, and I feel a little better. But I came close-- In my mind I saw a big bonfire at one point.

Yesterday I smoothed out the seam between the two bottom pieces, scoured the chinelogs and BHs with a rasp to provide a rough gluing surface, planed the transom flat, and screwed the bottom down in place. This took a while, and I was so concerned getting it on straight that it went on straight, but offset by about 2mm or so. I realized this after I screwed it on. This is not a big problem, theres supposed to be a gap of 90mm between the buttstraps for the daggerboard trunk, and I left 95mm for just this scenario. Storer recommends placing the bottom on with the centerline marks on the inside, to line up with the centerline marks on the BHs. A good idea, but then I would lose out on the markings up top that showed where the edges of the boat were (bottom is overcut by 2omm) and they provided a good guide as to screw placement. A better idea would be to have a centerline on both sides. Needless to say, lots of crawling under the boat and back, and shifting the ply ever so slightly.

Screws were placed every 300mm (lines from lofting) and along the BHs (3 for 1+2, 5 for 3, 4, transom). This was insufficient as you shall see later on.


After the bottom was screwed on I made special note of where I had some larger than normal gaps between the bottom and the sides. In these areas I would apply extra glue. Everything appeared tight and for the most part, everything fit together really well. I was impressed.

Next up, I unscrewed the bow of the boat, lifting it with 2x4s. After pre-coating the chinelogs and bottom with unmixed epoxy (more crawling around under the boat), I applied what I thought was copious amounts of glue, using the ziploc-bag method which I still dont like, but it seemed to make the most amount of sense. Mixing the glue with the silica is still a bear, I still dont know how to judge how much silica to add so I eyeball it until I get the appropriate consistency. This takes time. Then, the application. 3 pumps of resin with 1.5 pumps of hardener covered approximately- maybe- 4 feet. Hardly anything. This was going to take a lot of glue.

I moved down the line, sending the 2x4s down to the stern and gluing and screwing in their wake.

(notice me mixing always mixing more mixing in background with knee pads that didnt come off between 10am and 11pm)

I think I made 3 moves aft, covering large sections at a time. The port bow had a little bit of a gap between the bottom and the side, and needed even more glue. This was going to take a lot of glue, as I mentioned before. This is when I started getting frustrated. When I put too much glue during the BH construction phase, it poured out all over the place and was a giant mess. Now, I was putting large amounts of glue onto the chinelogs and when the bottom came down, nothing. No excess squeezage, nothing. Let me just say this: Gluing the bottom takes a lot more glue than you think it will.

About halfway down, I realized I forgot to line the sides with packing tape to ease clean-up. SOB. So I had glue dripping down around the bow, which means Ill be sanding forever. Out came the packaging tape around the aft sections and the transom. By this time my wonderful wife took pity on me and she applied the glue while I mixed it. This doubled the speed of the operation, since mixing takes a long time-- at 3 pumps of resin per bag, there was a lot of mixing to do. She has a knack for how much glue to apply and when we screwed down her end, a perfect amount squeezed out. Damn.

With all the screws down (she held up the stern bottom and gently lowered it as I screwed it down moving aft), we inspected for a gaps. There were a couple small ones along the chine, and a few gaps that needed more screwed to hold the ply down. I would recommend a screw every 200mm at least, as opposed to every 300mm.

Then we flipped her over:






Hot damn, I have a completed hull (above pics are after the "clean-up" (used loosely)).

Clean-up was a super pain in the ass, by this time a lot of my squeegees were gluey and tacky and my rags were used up and I was running out of mixing cups and no matter how many new gloves I put on, I was sticking to everything. Some glue was firming up nice, which meant a struggle to clean it up as is smeared everywhere. Be ready to spend some serious time bent inside the boat cleaning it up. My glue station aftermath:

This took me a few hours of prep, followed by about 7 hours of gluing/cleaning up. Solo, it was slow going, no doubt.

The bottom is still not done, I have to trim the excess off, which will be another pain because its covered in rock-hard epoxy, but as far as Im concerned, the big jobs in this are completed. From now on things can be accomplished in short spurts as opposed to 12hr marathon sessions. Thank goodness. Im tired.

Did I mention this takes a lot more glue than you may think?

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