Boat Plans And Patterns | Old tools but good ones

Boat Plans And Patterns

Tools.

I’m not really a tool freak, not a collector in the sense of lovingly restoring old woodworking hand tools and putting them on display in glass fronted shelving but I do enjoy getting my hands on old tools and bringing them back to life. When I’ve a particular little job that needs a special tool, and I can go to my shelf and pick up a tool that was designed to do that special thing, I get great satisfaction from using it.

So I watch out for the unusual as well as the standard ones that I use every day.

Junkshops, garage sales, on line auctions and occasionally a friends eagle eye all bring in treasures.

My usuals the ones that I’ll buy without thinking are the Record and Stanley number 3 or number 4 planes.  Those are tools that I use every time I go into the boatshed, and now, living on the ship with the boatshed here plus my old shop back in Hamilton still being used, I have built up a double set of tools.

I’ve now 10 of those, the reason being that when working and one wears its sharp edge off or I hit something that puts a nick in the blade, that plane goes in the shelf above and I pick up another that’s sharp and set.

To be sure, when they’re all in need of a sharpen it’s a big job, but on a wet morning when there is no one around its quite a satisfying thing to set up an assembly line with the dry grinder, the wet grinder, the two different grade waterstones and the lap, and run through them all.

I digress.

Just recently my friend Paul Mullins came across a couple of unusual tools when a neighbours shed was being cleaned out.  There was a Stanley number 67 Spokeshave, this one is designed to cut right up against an edge and could be used to tidy up a curved rebate, left or right handed. 

The number 67 spokeshave, note how the handles can be repositioned to allow it to work against a rebate, that can be done either side.  Interesting tool.

The other is a router.  No, not one of those noisy finger biting things a “real” one.  Used to be known as a “Grannys tooth”. Its a Stanley number 71 1/2,  one of a series of different sized routers that Stanley made.

It’s a hand tool, essentially a flat plate with a pair of handles and a cutter that extends below the plate, push it and it cuts away below the surface, the cutter can be set for depth so its able to gradually work away increasing the depth of the cut.

Excellent for relief carvings.

Stanley number 71 1/2 router with 1/2 in and 3/8in cutters.  I do use one of these now and again, have also the very small one which I use when carving tabletops and such.

 Note that these, like almost all Stanley tools found in New Zealand or Australia are English Stanley so there are some differences from those made in the USA.

I was thinking that I should be looking for a brass wire brush to start tidying these two treasures up, they’ve been soaking in Inox for a while now, and are ready or a cleanup before I regrind the cutting edges and flat the backs of the irons, when my very elderly uncle, a joiner by trade, gave me a Stanley number 55 combination moulding plane that he’d had since very early in his career.

Its got all the standard irons, no parts missing, it’s a real treat!

Heres the link to a page of pics.

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=stanley+number+55+combination+plane&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCgQsARqFQoTCOSjz6yy78gCFcxVPgodnjwAQw&biw=1024&bih=776

These planes can be used to make mouldings. Look around your house at picture frames, the surrounds of windows and doors, skirting boards ceiling coves, cupboards and chests and you’ll see a huge variety of different shapes.  This plane can make all of those.  Not in one pass you understand, but by planing away part of the profile then changing the blade and the positioning of it, it then does another part of the shape.

 In its original box, this ones done quite a lot of work but all of the original parts including "the book" are there and in good order. 

 There are a lot of parts to one of these, the handle is out to the left and each of the parts to the right is a separate fence and depth gauge system, some of which have knife holders as well as scribers. 

I should have counted them, there are probably 40 different knives in the set, rounded, radius edge, beading, rebate, oogee, you name it.  Amazing tool.  Yes Ive used one, but its not something that Id use every day. This is a collectors item, will be greased up and stored, but maybe, just maybe, Ill need it to produce a moulding to match something existing someday.

Theyre slow, but if one is matching up a section no longer available off the shelf, or too big for a router bit (the electric finger biting kind not the one above) it’s a practical and useful tool.

That plus it’s a really impressive thing to show off with.

I need more shelves. 

Again.

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Boat Plans Canada | Float Test

Boat Plans Canada

I couldnt take it anymore.  How would my ship, my Goat Island Skiff, my beauty, my instrument of adventure to wonderful and distant and nebulous ends sit on her lines?  Would she list, be bow heavy, stern heavy?  There were some things in the construction of her that didnt match the plans, some bevels, some shapes, some angles, and I was worried that in the water she would sit funny, maybe bow down a bit, instead of the beautiful plumb bow sitting upright!

My pond at my parents-in-law iced out rapidly last week, which motivated me to tape the chines and slap some epoxy on the sides of the hull.  Yesterday, it rained hard.  Today, we woke up at 7, and there was no rain, but wind, and 32*F/O*C.  Snow flurries on the horizon to the west.  My lovely wife ready to rock.  It was time.

Wind was blowing about a Force 5 on the Beaufort scale, around 20kts or so.  With ice-out just a few days ago, the water temperature wasnt much higher than the air temperature.

It was now, or another nail-biting day.  It was time.  A kiss on the breasthook, a quick murmur to her... "Please sit straight on your lines..." and with a heave, and a ho, she was in the water.

Not a maiden voyage, not a christening, nothing but a quick test.  She will get all the formalities and Poseidon will get all his tributes when she is worthy.  Just a float test... but exciting all the same.

...and DAMN if she doesnt look straight!

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Boat Plans Arch Davis | Rudder stock design rudder 2 daggerboard shaping

Boat Plans Arch Davis

WELL

Informative day today as I peddled my rudder stock idea over at Mr. Storers forum.

There was enough persuasion action going to keep me going with the plans in term of a backless rudder stock with a daggerboard rudder.  However, I really want to be able to ditch the tiller and leave the rudder installed on the transom.

I came up with this idea:

In this plan, the rudder stock stays exactly as the plans stipulate, except I add on 15mm at the top.  This provides an area to attach a cleat (blue).  Then theres another below it (blue) and the tiller-- which is two pieced-- cradles the rudder stock.  Bolts run through the cleats into the spacer, and the tiller which slides between the cleats is held in place with a pin.

Storer warns that the torsional forces on the tiller could tear it apart, Im hoping that between the three cleats bolted through the spacer, and a bolt higher up on the tiller (not shown) to keep it together, I should be ok.  Time will tell.  I am almost positive this is the model Im going with, unless I get overwhelming evidence otherwise.

In other news, I finished rough shaping the rudder and daggerboard. 

Nice.

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Boat Plans Australia | Mast in boat re epoxy ing and neat turtles

Boat Plans Australia

So, Ive been pre-occupied recently with other events, namely, my impending return to work after some serious back-rehab (phys. therapists = good), some life events, and so on and so forth.  So, this is good.  Im broke, my back is better (which means I can actually do some work in the hull as opposed to just staring at the bottom of the boat), and springtime is coming.

One harbinger of spring is the emergence of turtles through their long torpor and into the light once again.  Today I ran into this chap, a Blandings Turtle which is actually considered endangered in New Hampshire.  They dont mate until their late teens, and they can live to around 80.  Anyway, I moved this guy for a photo-op only to later find out theyre endangered in NH, so I feel like an ass, but I treated him gently and placed him back right back where I found him.  Actually, this could be a her, I should find out.  Handsome, regardless:

 

I will report this to the Dept. of Fish and Game, they keep track of this stuff.  I also reported a Bobcat that came trundling through my yard two days ago.  That, was neat, but it was too quick and I have no photo.  Sorry.

ON TO THE YACHT!

With the mast all built, I tapered the base per the plans.  If you remember, I made the mast slightly larger than the plans called for, not much, just 1mm here and there, but it affected the fit in the mast partner and step, and those had to be enlarged.  This was not a big deal, its only a little bit and if you may recall, intrepid reader, I made the stock of the partner and step bigger than called for.  So I feel safe doing this.  Here is my great friend Matt, recently returned from Overseas Adventures Extra-Ordinaire doing his duty, and helping me out at the annoying task of rasping the mast partner larger.  Welcome home:

He did a most fantastic job.  Then I ruined it.

After some rasping and Dremel-ing the heck out of the mast step, we got the mast stepped:

I offer you many vantage points.  The overhead is kind of neat.

The mast is currently being fiberglass-taped right now, two tapes at the base, two at the top, and two amidships, one covering the single knot in the lumber.

Also being worked on is the hull.  I sanded the epoxy coating I gave it the other day, and added a third coat.  This was a technique I stumbled upon doing my BHs.  If I sanded and then added a last coat, it came out super smooth.  Im hoping for the same with the hull, especially since the Im trying to get the fiberglass tape down smooth.  After aggressive sanding, Im thinking the extra coat will fill up to the gap.  Here she is, sanded:

So next up, I have to figure out the rudder hardware problem.  This is worthy of another post.  I cannot, for the life of me, get my rudder hardware figured out, and its beginning to piss me off.  By hardware I mean what attaches the rudder stock to the transom.  Some gudgeons are too small, others are too big, Im going nuts.  Also, I have to figure out what to do with my daggerboard trunk.  It needs to be, literally 1mm wider, and I dont know how to do that.  A lot of glue, maybe? when I glue it together?  These are two items that are holding me up.  Also, I have to epxoy coat the inside of the boat, with nice weather finally on its way, there shouldnt be a hold-up.  I really want the hull ready for paint when and if I get some time off from work to come back home.  If Im home for 24 hours, I want to be able to get mucho stuff done.  So that is what Im staging for right now.

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Boat Plans Uk | Epoxy coating the interior and more turtles

Boat Plans Uk

Today I took advantage of some free time and some of the most glorious weather you can imagine in beautiful New England this time of year!

Drum roll please.......

I epoxy coated the interior of my Goat Island Skiff! Yeah!

This is big for two reasons:  One, I wasnt looking forward to it, Two, my back has been in such a state that I havent physically been able to do it.  Being able to reach down in there and coat up the inside was a real good feeling, lemme tell you!  I was stoked.  Again, physical therapy = awesome.

So, coating the interior is much like the exterior.  It came out very neat, too.  I am pleased with the result.  Heres a romantic picture of her in the sunset, just her and me:

 

 She looks good.  So far, Ive done two coats of epoxy.  Im supposed to do three, which I did on the exterior, but I feel like two is good enough especially since its not going to be saturated in water.  Not to mention its going to be covered in two coats of primer and two coats of paint.  I should be ok.  Maybe I will do three layers on the bottom and chinelogs...

That all being said, I want to point out again how she can ride on her side when turning her over:

This is HUGE.  To those who have extensive dinghy experience, you all know exactly what Im talking about:  Turn the boat over, get it on a side, attempt to balance it on the gunwale, fail, catch the boat, wrestle around one of the ends in an attempt to get to the other side, fail, watch boat fall to ground in a random direction, wince at possible damage, etc etc etc.  It sucks.  This baby, she rests on her side.  You can walk away.  Drink a beer.  Pick your nose.  Go on vacation.  She will sit, on her side, patiently.  Awesome.

Finally, I caught a Painted Turtle today.  This is a quite common turtle on the North American continent, and not as big or as long lived as the Blandings Turtle that I found a few days ago.  Whats neat about this one is that Ive been trying to catch one for a year.  Now, that doesnt mean Im out everyday like its my job, but many attempts and sneaky approaches have been tried, to no avail.  Catching this guy, while swimming, is a minor coup for you know who.  Me.  Quite beautiful.  Hissed at me when I picked it out of the water.  I put it back where I found it, and I hope it forgives me.

A little grumpy.  

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Boat Plans African Queen | Rudder design 3 and shaping the mast

Boat Plans African Queen

A little more thought into the rudder today.  Since Mr. Storer is concerned about the tiller splitting from the forces, he would like to see a thru-bolt through the tiller, into the spacer block.  So I thought, how about a removable thru-bolt that could be tightened with a butterfly nut, or something like that?  The adjusted illustration is below:

In other much more exciting news... I started shaping the mast!

This is awesome, because Id love to see my mast.  Hmmm Hmmm mast.  Powerhouse piece of lumber that gets me from A to B for free.

I am building the Hollow Square Mast option, of three that come with the boat (Solid Round, Birdsmouth are the other two).

First off, I must loft the dimensions of the narrow staves onto my lumber.  One piece of lumber has a slight curve in it.  I didnt think too much of it, and sawed 1cm off the edge of the lumber.  Big mistake!  The curve was more than I anticipated, and I didnt think I had the room to actually loft a narrow stave!  I was seriously pissed, pounded my broom on the floor, and let out of primordial yell.  A screwed piece of lumber means 25 bucks in the hole, a trip to the lumberyard, hoping to find a piece long enough, travel up north to the planer, using the planer, then back home.  Its a process!

Mr. Storer has a fabulous option in his plans for curved pieces of lumber however, "The String Down the Middle" method.  So, I marke the middle of each end and attached a string between them, and got this:

As you can probably tell, the string is way near the edge, too close to loft the mast using this as the backbone.  I had to adjust the string to get me the most amount of wood:

Then, I lofted it on, hoping for the best... and it worked!  I was just able to get it on with a little left over.  It made for a strange visual illusion, with straight lines cutting every-so-slightly diagonally across the grain, but it worked well, and for that, I was happy.  As you can see, the top of the mast is very close to the edge:

With the mast material propped up between two table extenders and my clamp table (50lb bag o seed keeps it from moving) I planned the staves down to the lines.

 

I then matched them up and got it as close as possible.  Since were making a box here, its very important to keep things square, equal to each other, and the same size.  This is a precision operation.  Once the staves are glued in their ladder format, the wider boards can be glued right on, and then trimmed, making life a little easier on that front, at least.  Sweet.  Mast.

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Boat Plans Wood | Readership a thank you

Boat Plans Wood

I’ve been running this blog now since January 8^th2011. For a while it was an on and off thing, not regular, or much of a priority, but of late I try to find something of interest about Thursday each week so you’ll all have something to read.

Its worked well, not a lot of “followers” but there are plenty who just come and read now and again, the stats column that we bloggers can access shows where the readers come from and which posts pick up the most page views, and that enables me to see what subject matter is of interest.

A month ago, I was thinking that I might make it to 200,000 page views total by the end of the year, and thinking that was good going, and it is for a lot of bloggers so I was pretty happy with that.  But with a comment or two about the new  “Saturday Night Special”,   “SEI” and “Long Steps” designs there has been a considerable upturn in readership, and we rocketed past the 200 K page views total and are now close to 205 K and booming along ( so to speak).

Its gratifying that there is so much interest, and I thought that I should thank you readers for your interest and your patience when a post is late or missed.

It’s the readership that makes this worthwhile, it makes me feel as though I’ve friends everywhere, thank you, all of you.

An example of a relationship that has grown without having met him, is this photo from Steve Earley who sails his Pathfinder design "Spartina in the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina area, hes a particularly good writer and his stories of cruising in that area are a wonderful tonic when, he being in the northern hemisphere summer I read his tales in the depths of my winter.

Hes done a nice job of Spartina, and here he is out enjoying her.  Nice one, thanks Steve, I do hope well meet up sometime.

Steve Earley photo. Thanks Steve,  now isnt that a great picture!

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Wood Boat Plans And Kits | Shaping the daggerboard rudder design dilemma

Wood Boat Plans And Kits

Today and yesterday I spend predominantly tackling my nemesis, the daggerboard and its subsequent shaping.  For some reason I have held a slight amount of apprehensiveness towards working the rudder and the daggerboard, I dont know why, but I get the sneaky suspicion that they dont like me, and I dont like them, and were going to fight.  Meanwhile, my Goat Island Skiff languishes in the garage waiting for a rudder, waiting for gudgeons, waiting for the rear seat to be glued down, etc etc etc, as I suspiciously eye the squared off blanks that will be my blades.  See the previous post to view the blanks.

A disclaimer:  You will notice SUN in these pics.  The garage doors are OPEN for the first time months!  It hit 50 F. deg. here at the homestead, the first time in months and months.  I worked without a hat or jacket!  It was nice indeed.  

First, using the template included in the plans I kind of traced the shape of the foil onto the blank.  I roughed it, because I would use the template later to match the shape correctly.  Then, the first pass on the plane down the trailing edge side... and away we went.  Remember that the trailing and leading edges are cherry, a hardwood.  I sharpened my planes before this project and also during when I would swap sides.  It made my life much, much easier.

 

As time progressed, I slowly worked inward, taking off the wood and feeling the idea of the shape rather than mechanically proceeding.  Its kind of difficult to explain, but I knew the shape I was going for and went for it, with checks to the rough outline to keep me true.

 

As the planing progress, I would check my jig for appropriate foil shape.  Here, I have achieved the desired shape, OOF!

 

Now, I will be the first to tell you that the entire blade doesnt necessarily have this nice of a fit the entire time.  It is, however, close enough for this amateur! We all build to our own goals.  The foil shape I got is very even, nice, and for all purposes close enough without whacking out a giant mistake and having to start over... something I definitely do not want to do since the cedar in these blanks cost me a pretty penny indeed.

The blades were notched on the trailing edge per the plans.  On retrospect,  I could have probably left them how they were because it just made for a more complicated shaping project.  I wanted to keep the shape of the foil through the transition to the end of the blade, and therefor got this kind of neat compound curve (see below).  It worked, but it almost didnt, and for a few moments I thought I had taken off too much and really screwed myself.  Also, this is a good spot to let the reader know about the trailing edge width.  Its supposed to be squared off, but I didnt know how wide.  A quick journey over to my compatriot in CA gave me the answer.  He had finished his blade to 3/8", mine was 1/4".  Apparently, its supposed to go to about 1-2mm, or a 1/16".  HA HA HA  Sorry, I got mine down to 1/8" and Im very very pleased with that.  Again, I dont want to risk breaking through the back of the board, Im looking for durability, and the alignment of the centerboard trunk with the hull will make more difference than the 1/8" Im off.  Im not saying you cant go to 1/16", I just didnt want to.

The leading edge was next.  I took off a 45 deg. edge first, and then added subsequent degrees from there, until I got a nice rounded leading edge.  It worked out very well, and with a sharp plane, the work was precise and enjoyable.

 

I still have to sand everything down, cut off the top, and get things nice and smooth, but the blank is now shaped and I have a daggerboard worthy of some sort of aero-hydro-dynamic performance.  Its not perfect, but Im happy with it.

 

Next up is the rudder.  This is important because Im waiting on several other issues until I finish the rudder.  First and foremost is answering the question if Im going to go with Storers design on the rudderbox.  I am not a fan of it.  First:  The rudder is never permanently attached to it, it slides up and down the box with no rear, bungee cords hold it in place  I dont like bungee cords, the degrade in UV and salt, and Im not interested in having to replace parts like this.  Second and most importantly, the box and the tiller are permanently attached, which means I cant remove the tiller without removing the rudder and the box from the transom (now I have to put them somewhere-- think sleeping aboard).  I could design some sort of device that folds the tiller up, but then it gets in the way of a theoretical boom tent or something else, or it comes crashing down in the middle of the night on my head.  No thanks.  Give me a tiller that dismounts from the box, so I can throw it on the floor.  Third, with a permanently attached tiller-to-box, I will either have to enlarge the hole in the transom to use the pintles and gudgeons I want to use, or use Storers suggestion which is two gudgeons on top of each other with a pin running between all them.  I have spent more than enough time struggling with rudders and bizarre attachments that I know, in waves, with current, with wind, its going to be a total pain in the ass trying to thread a needle through a million holes (of course the rudder wouldnt be attached which might make it easier).

Anyway, call me a curmudgeon, but Im not a fan of the back-less, bungee cord, permanent tiller design.  I may have to come up with something else.

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