When I get to turning it all over....

On thing that I have realised, is that the second frame, which has a cross piece that goes through the building scaffold is going to make things kind of fun when I get to rolling the boat.

I had initially thought I'd just disconnect the boat from the scaffold before putting on the bottom ply skin, and the weight would keep it in place, then I'd lift it off the scaffold and turn it.

While looking for all the things I'd want to do before putting the bottom on, it dawned on me that the frame that goes through the scaffold, second from the front in the picture opposite, is going to be a problem.

My scaffold is spiked into the ground. So I think that I will have to reach under the boat and cut the scaffold legs, then turn the whole boat scaffold and all and take apart the scaffold after the turn.

I'm glad I am trying to figure this out now, not later.

It still looks the same....

I got a good bit done this weekend.

The fitting at the transom is done.

All the battens are now trimmed to their final length and tapered, the two pairs of battens that continue forward of the front frame are tapered by thickness as well as by width. The other pair required less bending so they are only tapered width ways.

I tapered the thickness of the battens on the surface that will be inside the boat, this leaves the surface that will mate with the plywood skin as a smooth fair surface.

5 of the 6 battens have been re-sanded, as it's easier to do it now than when they are in place. The last one remains to be completed as rain eventually stopped play.

The front frame remains to be fitted.

But to look at the boat, it seems unchanged from before all this work.

Before I glue and screw the battens, I must remove many of the screws that attach the boat to the building frame as these will become unreachable once the battens are in place.

I will also coat all the bottoms of the frames with epoxy as these will be equally impossible to reach after the skin is in place.

The weather cleared up

So I got out for another hour or two and finished off the notched on the other side. The transom notchs on the second side remain to be done, as do notched on the forward frame. They are only cut to half depth, as I need to taper the battens from the second frame forward to help them bend with the hull.

Then I need to sand the battens, dull the corners with a block plane, and screw em and glue em.

I thought it would take a couple of weekends to do all the notches, so I'm pretty pleased with the notch jig.

The Jig Works....

After lots of advice and comments from the forums, I made up this

It rests on the chine and the keelson, so the angle of the notch is correct, even on the forward frames. I have to be careful not to lean on is or it will bend, but in practice that has not been a problem. There was a little tearout, but this is a boat, not an Heirloom Cabinet.

The first side went quite slowly, much of that was due to constantly measuring the notch I had just cut to make sure it fit perfectly. The second side should go more quickly.

The two battens, running fore and aft in the picture, that limit the movement of the router are 2 1/4 inches - the diameter of the router bit apart, this leaves a little wiggle room.

On the first side, I had hand cut the notches for the center batten, so I left the center batten in place to leave me with a shorter gap to bridge with the jig. Less flexing.

You may notice that this Jig is essentially the piece of ply I used to cut the slot for the centerboard as previously seen here

Feckin Notches.....

So, the fabricated batten is done, and planed, and seems to be just fine. Time to start on fitting the battens.

There are 6 battens, and they have to be fitted at 4 frames, and the transom. That's 30 notches.

And the battens all have to be in the same plane. Right, no problem.

I started with by setting a marking gauge to the thickness of a straight beam, plus the batten. Then I placed the beam across the keelson and the chine, and marked the frames with the gauge. So far so good. Then it's a simple matter of running a saw across it a few times, and chipping out the waste with a chisel. Fine, except this is Oak, and Epoxy Soaked Ply, and did I mention there are 30 notches to cut.

I have one batten fitted all the way to the forward frame, at that point I need to taper the thickness so it will bend a little at the bow, but now I am thinking of how to speed up the show a little.

I'm thinking that if I get a Long straight router bit, and make up a guide that won't flex or bend, then if I set the bit depth to the thickness of the guide + my batten, I should be able to cut the notches in a morning. Of course, adding power tools does allow you to mess up faster 8-)

More Long Sticks

As I noted earlier one of my battens was too short and had a knot the size of a plum. With the advent of modern glues, this is only a minor setback.

I spent yesterday evening, cutting out the bad bits and adding an extra piece to scarf up a new longer batten.

Balcotan PU is perfect for scarfing Oak. I have cut and glued a few test pieces, and tested them to destruction, and I laminated up a curved batten which I simply left around the garden. A year or so out in the weather seems to have done it no harm.

My scarfing jig had a minor problem, in that the battens were too thick, and my Circular Saw only cut 90% of the way through. I finished the job by hand and then planed it all smooth.

Once the glue is set, I'll bend it into place with a few clamps and make sure it runs fair.

Beale Park Boat Show 2009

We went to the show, but the weather was unkind. I spent Friday at the show, and Saturday Evening. I met John (see post above) and just missed George D.

I took Sarah out for a sail on Character Boat's Post Boat which ghosted along in the lightest breeze, until the wind just gave up all together and we had to resort to the outboard (is it still an outboard when it's in a motor well ? It's sort of an inboard outboard then)

Some folks from Honor Marine were staying at the same B&B. It would be hard to find more helpful people. Sadly, their boats for the show were not in the water, I would have loved to see them under sail.

If I was not building my own boat at the moment I'd have been working hard to decide which one to bring home 8-)

The folks from Flints Marine Chandlers were there with a stand full of nice toys. I see some damage to my credit card in the near future.

Sunday we went to Lego Land with the little un's. Well worth a visit if you are down near Windsor with Kiddies. And in mediocre weather, the queues for the rides were tiny.