Board pivot.

Taking it a step further today.  Found a chunk of 3/8 bronze rod and cut it to length for the pivot.  Previously, I had marked the inside of the interior trunk side for the pivot point prior to cutting out.  THIS IS IMPORTANT as it helps locate the pivot point indicated on the plans.  This can be done after the fact, but it was very easy to locate this way.

I removed the starboard side of the trunk and then drilled a 3/8 hole through the CB and the side after ensuring that the holes were lined up well.  These will be drilled oversize, filled with epoxy, then redrilled when all is said and done with.  This will provide a more permanent pivot, and one that wont swell up and contract with the variance in humidity.  good practice on any hole through plywood. as it also protects the interior layers from delamination.

Next, the bronze rod was placed to keep the board and side aligned and a hole was drilled upwards to the starboard panel that is temporarily tacked in place (sheet rock screws).

I then tested the board for pivoting, and marked its maximum extension.  Note: I had been wondering if the board went to vertical, and the answer is, "no".  the board is at a small angle to the hull in the full extended position as it is indicated on the plans.  The picture on the plans matches what it looks like in real life.  The top of the board does not protrude past the top of the trunk, and with the cap on, the travel of the board is limited to this angle.

After assembly, I did notice that the very top front corner of the board still needs shaping to the foil, as it is currently a flat non-hydrodynamic shape.  this will easily be rectified with the wood eraser.  

The pin itself will reside in two layers each side o 3/8 ply.  the first layer will have a hole in it to receive the pin, the second layer is the seal.  I plan to bed it in polysulfide sealant.  This sealant is actually removable in case we ever need to take out the board for maintenance.  

finally, a look at my choice for the tip of the blade.  This may be pared down knowing that we have more of an angle than I anticipated.  The trailing edge and leading edge need to be extended a little more.  This would be most problematic when the board is partially raised (normal downwind practice).  Very little protrudes past the bottom in practice, but it is bothering me. 

I got tired of running out to the garage to find the electric/18V drill, and switched over the the bit brace.  I actually can remove the screws, and then torque them just right in less time than running the drill.  Insert photo of me slapping my forhead and saying "Doh!"

3/15/14 -  update

got the sides of the CB trunk glassed today with a layer of 10 oz glass set in epoxy, and cut out the support pieces for the CB pivot (3/8" 4X4 panels, four of them).  Additionally, further shaping of the Centerboard to make the portion where it emerges from the trunk more hydrodynamic.     Photos below.

While I was at it, I cut the slot out from the bottom of the boat.  It was marked prior to removing the mock up from the boat, so it was a simple job with the Japanese backsaw.  10 minutes tops.  

pilot holes drill to help start the saw. 

Pilot holes drilled every foot to help guide the cut.  Really were not necessary.  

Centerboard slot looking forward. 

Centerboard slot from the starboard side.  

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Ive got the deck of the Eastern Arctic Kayak (EAK) set up.  Beam is something like 29 inches at 90 inches from the stern. I figured that the first three feet of the boat werent in the water so I would put the widest part of the boat more or less in the middle of the part that was in the water which worked out to be at about 90 inches from the back.

View from the bow end. Theres a windlass just back of the bow to pinch in the sides. Aside from the coils of rope that hold the ends together, three spreaders fix the shape of the deck.  The middle of the three spreaders fixes the beam.  The other two spreaders widen the deck by some amount fore and abaft the middle spreader.

Heres an oblique view of the deck, this time from the left rear toward the bow.  The bow rises and the stern drops.  The deck turned out pretty symmetrical, something that sometimes takes some struggle to achieve.  But I cut both gunwales from the same piece of lumber that had been laying outside for about a year, giving it time to stabilize from its green state when I bought it, so perhaps I shouldnt be surprised that it turned out.

And I forgot to mention in the previous post on shaping the gunwales that I backed up the Gorilla glue with some stainless steel screws. My experience with Gorilla glue is that it isnt that strong given the kinds of surfaces that I glue together, that is, unless the two surfaces being glued are both smooth and in good contact, you dont get a very good bond.  Hence the screws.  I could have driven some dowels in there too, but screws seemed just a bit faster and I had a box of them and wanted to try and given that the pieces of the gunwales do not need to move relative to each other, rigid joinery is OK

When it comes to something like the gunwales, what matters is the shape and not the details of how the shape is achieved.  I used to think that these things needed to be done in a traditional manner like with doweled scarfs and no glue or screws, but then doweled scarfs were not particularly traditional anyway.  Much of what we think of traditional kayak building technology evolved in post contact times, that is, post contact with European traffic which introduced both new materials and tools.  The only truly traditional part of kayak building is to do the job the best you can with the tools and materials available to you.

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August 21

Took the boat back to Wareham.  It was a glorious day with winds 10-15 kts and crystal clear skies.

We sailed out to the middle of Buzzards Bay and then went back to the sand spit for lunch.

I cant say enough of how well this boat sails and the ease of launch and retrieval.

Lunch on the sand spit.  It doesnt get any better than this.

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Now that the boat is flipped. (at this stage a two man job).  I have put it back in the garage to finish the seating area and put the decks on.  Hopefully, this will be done by the first snows so that the garage can be used for automobiles!  Flipping back to right side up is more difficult than flipping to upside down as there is nothing to grab on to.  Process:
1.  roll cradle out to lawn
2.  place 4 strong saw horses with long planks set up rail to rail to receive the boat.
3.  Lower corner by corner (6") at a time to the ground.
4.  Flip and lower to grass.
5.  gradually raise the boat back up on the saw horses so it sits above the cradle.
6.  Place forms back under the bulkhead area.  These are now carpeted so as not to mar paint.
7.  Roll back to garage.  (note: In my building space it needs to go in stern first. )

Boat has been placed on grass and then will be lifted onto saw horses above the cradle. 

Carpeted bunks receive the boat.

Rolled back to garage,  Note it needs to go in stern first. Oops.

October 18, 2014

Step one was to apply epoxy to all surfaces that will not be seen again once the decks and seats are on.  I used an old jug of System 3 that had been sitting around as I thought it was not too critical as it is just a coating.  Apparently, it was past its prime and took quite a while to set up to the point that I can paint and prime.  Primer is going on tomorrow.  The blades look fantastic with a coat of paint.  Quite proud of them.  

I have purchased some lengths of mahogany to use as the king planks, and deck beam, as well as the center seat.  The center seat will be glued up from smaller pieces.  A trip to Harbor Freight found a nice jig for setting up the dowels to for the joinery.  As it is getting cooler here in the Northeast, this will be done indoors.  

October 21, 2014

Had a few hours to work on the hull today.  Areas that will never be seen again once the deck is on received their first coat of primer.  Laid out and dry fit the deck beam.  This is a bit of a pain in the neck as I found no 5" wide mahogany or fir around in 3/4" dimension, so I went with full 5/4" mahogany.  I dont own a band saw, so had to hand cut the curves.  Tried using the sabre saw, but the blades keep busting.  All has turned out well, as the king plank, supports have now been fit as well.  

Hope to get more primer on the area under the deck beam, then bilge paint.

October 26, 2014
Quality time this week.  Got the rest for the deck framing cut and fit.  Next is to glue it in place and put the final coat of bilge paint on as we get closer to putting a deck and seats in.

October 28, 2014

King Planks and Hatch frame installed.  

Yesterday, I painted the bilge and storage areas with Interlux Bilgecote.  Damned this stuff stinks to high heavens.  the smell was coming through the rafters from the garage and into the main house.  It works well, but is full of VOCs.  House smells better today.  

Worked all morning cutting the hatch frames, shaping the bow king plank, and then screwing and gluing it all together.  Very pleased with the result.  

On to the seating areas.  

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I mentioned a few posts back that I still have Lusitania 13s transom sitting in my shop. Ive kept it around, waiting for it to eventually serve some purpose. (Yes, Id even considered finishing a Squirt eventually... but at this point I dont think that is likely any time soon.) Some things are a no-brainer, and I believe that is the case with the fate of Lusitania 13s transom.

After a relaxing dinner at Cracker Barrel a few nights ago, I stumbled across this neat little table lamp. Its styled to look like an old Johnson outboard motor from the 1950s. Never mind that the prop is on the wrong side. What better piece of furniture to put it on than a nightstand made from Lusitania 13s transom?

Of course, I havent made this nightstand... yet. Thats another project, coming soon... eventually.

Heres a photo of the lamp... along with what I imagine Lusitania 13s transom artwork would look like:

 

By the way, May 22 is National Maritime Day, according to my calendar. Ive got to admit, Id never heard of this before. So anyway... Happy National Maritime Day, everyone!

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See my previous post about the problem of plastic polluting the oceans.
This post here, is a never mind disclaimer to that post.   Stay with me while I try to explain my reasoning.
Sure, plastic is a problem, but then so is everything else.  How about acidification of the oceans?  Seems like when it comes to degradation of the environment we have lots of contenders and the average lay person non-scientist doesnt know what to do because just about everything we do potentially messes up the environment.  I am surprised that nobody is doing rankings of which of the many environmental affronts is the worst.
Actually, it seems that people are using the market to decide.  The invisible hand will tell us which environmental affront is the worst based on which environmental groups video on youtube gets the most clicks, or whose kickstarter anti environmental affront revelation project gets the most donations.
Anyway, barring those kinds of metrics, I am here to tell you to stop worrying about plastic.  Sure, plastic is bad, but plastic is also a handy thing to have. And in spite of all the problems that plastics create when tossed in the ocean,  there are worse threats to the survival of the bio-crust on our planet.
Of late, I am reading that potentially the greatest threat to the bio-crust is anthropogenic heating of our atmosphere. For those of you that havent seen that adjective before, anthropogenic is a non-gender specific replacement for man-made. Once we get the earth hot enough, that increase in temperature will trigger all sorts of other processes that will guarantee that the earth will continue to get warmer without us doing anything further to help with the process.  Its kind of like starting a fire, for a while there you have to mess around with the wood to get it to burn.  You have to stick kindling under the logs and newspapers and stuff like that to get the logs burning, but once you get them going, they will keep burning on their own without any help from us.  Its the same with heating up the planet.  We had to burn lots of carbon to put enough carbon dioxide in the air to heat the earth up to the point where it could keep getting hotter on its own, but now were almost there or maybe were even there.

Permafrost in Siberia is melting and releasing methane into the air.  Methane is also bubbling up off the ocean floor off the coast of Siberia.  Methane is even better than carbon dioxide in keeping the heat in.  Its like going to Home depot and buying six inch thick insulation for the attic instead of just putting in the two inch stuff.  House is gonna be warm now.
Anyway, if this business about runaway heating is true, then we dont really have to worry about plastic in the ocean because getting cooked in our own juices will be way worse than having ocean critters eating little bits of plastic and dying and leaving the oceans fish-less.
Looked at from the human standpoint, not having any fish to eat will be the least of our problems in a massively overheated world.
Not my job here to give advice on how to stop global over heating.  Dmitry Orlov over at the cluborlov website advocates praying for a meteor to hit us and put an end to the oil burning that is generating all the extra carbon dioxide.  I personally advocate just using less of everything, but I see where that will never become popular for people to do on a voluntary basis, so maybe the ability of prayer to enlist the help of a higher power is not a bad way to go.

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I was driving home from work the other afternoon, trying to think of how to start writing this blog. The story makes sense to me, but I wasnt quite sure where to start telling it to you. As my mind wandered, I turned my car westward into the afternoon sun as it shined brightly through a pollen-filled southern sky. Uh-oh... Now I know where to start.

Sneezing. Its a sudden and startling reminder that Im barely two months post-op from having triple bypass surgery. Thankfully, I can at least now withstand a couple of sneezes without screaming in pain. Still, it scares me initially and makes me feel like my upper torso is made of egg shell. It serves as a shaking reminder that my sternum is still a two-part structure, held together by stainless steel wire. What has all this to do with boats, you ask?

As Id mentioned to Gayle Brantuk the day before, Ive been recently reminded that you only live once. Gayle is the daughter of Glen L. Witt, Naval Architect and founder of Glen-L Marine Designs based in California. Glen-L has provided construction plans to do-it-yourself boatbuilders since 1953. Among the 300+ Glen-L designs is one called the "Zip," a 14-foot classically-styled runabout of the 1950s / Dolce Vita aesthetic. Gorgeous boat. Ive wanted one since the first time I saw it. So, a couple of days ago I called Glen-L and ordered the plans, because Im going to build one. Im tired of talking myself out of it. You only live once, right?

Truthfully, this is actually the third set of plans Ive bought from Glen-L. I didnt finish the first boat. Im currently building the second one. More on all that later. I wanted to write this blog, my own little boatbuilding story, in hopes that it might encourage or be of benefit to other boat builders. Other boatbuilding blogs have been of enormous help and encouragement to me.

Hows this for inspiration? Roberta & Rich Hegy in Robertas beautiful Zip "Oliver IV." Sept. 2012

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Yesterday I set up the frame of the EA kayak and gave it a second coat of linseed oil.  With the keelson blocked in and the deck upright, it is easier to see what the boat will look like when finished.  Supposedly, the finished boat will not trim with the waterline parallel to the keelson.  The keelson will in fact sit lower in the front than in back. But we will see. 

Nose forward view accentuates the upsweep of the deck forward of the cockpit.

View from the back shows the downward slope of the deck at the steern.

And one more view from a slightly lower angle.

At this point, I find myself wondering what this boat will turn into and how it will behave.  This is of course one of the compelling things about building a boat of a kind one has never built before.  Invariably, there will be some disappointments and in time, pleasant surprises as well.  Still, if nothing else, the curved lines of a boat are delightful to look at.

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I have been slowly and cautiously fairing the Utility. I still have a long way to go, but I am making progress.

"Fairing," in case you didnt already know, is the process of beveling all of the parts of the sub-structure of the hull (frames, stem, chines, breasthook, transom, etc...), so that the plywood planking, when added, will have properly-angled surfaces to mate to.

For the newbie amateur builder (ie: Me), its probably the most daunting and intimidating step of building a boat. However, its a necessary and extremely important step.

I started by fairing the aft bottom section of the boat. Testing with a couple of plywood pieces shows that Ive got some slight gaps between the outer floor battens and the inner surface of the bottom planking. Im planning to fill these gaps with thickened epoxy when I attach the planking.

Ive done preliminary fairing on the bottom of the chines up to the forward frame.

Over the last several weeks, (since adding the chine strips described in my last post), I have been fairing the forward bottom section. Most of this work has been on the starboard side. Ive been using the Rabl method for fairing this area. The Rabl method was developed by Sam Rabl, and is described in detail on the Glen-L website here: http://boatbuilders.glen-l.com/3820/fairing-by-the-rabl-method-2/

For me it is slow work. Ive been using a couple of sizes of hand planes and a belt sander, and checking progress frequently with straight edges and my plywood test pieces. My recommendation to the new builder beginning the fairing process would be to simply take your time. Proceed slowly, check your work frequently, and expect this stage to take a long time. Its easy to try to hurry the work along, then inadvertently create gaps or gouges that youll have to fix. (Trust me.)

Ive still got a long way to go, but I will share some photos of the progress so far.

Fairing the stem

Fairing work in progress at the stem, chines and forward sheer.

Slowly bringing everything together to a point at the bow.

More fairing work has been done on the starboard sheer than on the port side so far.

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Finally, the time came to start fiberglassing the hull of the Utility. Id ordered some 6oz fiberglass cloth in both 50-inch and 38-inch widths from Jamestown Distributors. After reviewing the book and DVD on How to Fiberglass Boats from Glen-L, (which I consider a must-have resource on the subject), I was ready to begin.

Edges of the hull rounded-over in preparation for fiberglassing.

The first step was to round over the edges of the hull so that the fiberglass cloth will conform fully to the edges. According to the book and DVD, fiberglass cloth cannot conform to a sharp angle. So, rounding the edges allows the fiberglass cloth to remain in contact with the wood on the edges, eliminating air pockets. Air pockets would be potential trouble spots for trapping water, resulting in rot, etc. What I quickly learned in practice is that it does not require much "rounding over" to be effective... at least not with 6oz cloth.

Since the Utilitys transom is only 44 inches wide, I decided to apply the full 3 yards of 50" cloth from the transom to 70% of the hull bottom as one continuous piece. Wetting the fiberglass cloth with epoxy was actually pretty easy, by simply following what Id learned in the Glen-L book and DVD. The only "surprise" was that it took more epoxy to do the job than Id expected. Using the thin foam rollers made the process quite simple.

Fiberglass cloth applied to the transom.

Just as I did when encapsulating the hull, I meticulously squeegied excess epoxy off of the transom. This will mean Ill have to apply more layers of epoxy to completely cover the texture of the fiberglass cloth on the transom. However, it should also result in an attractive finish.

The "rounded-over" edges after applying more epoxy and the fiberglass cloth.

Feathering the edges

After the epoxy had fully cured, the next step was to begin feathering the edges of the fiberglass cloth. This is basically just sanding down the edge so that, when the next section of cloth is added, they will overlap on the "feathered" seam. Then, after sanding the seam once again after the second layer of cloth is applied, the seam will be flush with the rest of the surface.

Here you can see the feathered edge, where the forward edge of the fiberglass cloth has been sanded. This shows in the photo as the lighter band across the bottom of the hull.

A more detailed view of the feathered (sanded) edge at the transition joint on the chine. As you see, the edge of the fiberglass on the hull side has not been sanded yet.

The next step is to round over the sharp edge of the bow, and lightly sand the epoxy surface on the forward bottom. Then Ill be able to fiberglass those areas.

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The end of summer brought with it a devastating personal loss. My boatbuilding work suffered in the aftermath. So did a whole lot of other things. But, as they say, life goes on. Im finally back to working on the boats, so here is a little update:

The Utility
After sanding, filling in holes and low spots, more sanding, more filling, and yet more sanding... the hull was finally ready for encapsulation. Taking advice from more experienced builders, I applied the epoxy (System Three Silvertip) with the special thin foam rollers from Glen-L. This made application much faster and easier than trying to do it with a chip brush. And if youre thinking about using the "regular" paint rollers for this... DONT. I made that mistake. I regretted it. So will you, in all likelihood.

Glen-L Utility hull, encapsulated with 1 layer of System Three Silvertip epoxy.

On the transom, after rolling on the epoxy, I squeegied it meticulously to remove all excess epoxy. This gives the transom a very attractive "stained" look, accenting the grain that I want to show.

I was very happy with how the transom turned out.

The hull is now ready to be fiberglassed.

The ZIP
Yes, I am enjoying building the Utility. I even got to drive one recently, and its a neat little boat. However, I want that Zip in the water. Theres a long, long way to go before that can happen. So, I built frame 5-1/2 over the weekend. I built it out of 4/4 African Mahogany, lapped with 1/4" Douglas Fir gussets and 3/4" Douglas Fir floor member. It is ready to be disassembled and epoxied. Hopefully, I can get that done sometime this week. 

Glen-L Zip frame # 5-1/2

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The photo above illustrates what happens when you build things in the dark and do not follow the instructions to the letter.  This is a 1/4" gap running from the plywood scarf (I did a pretty poor job on the scarf) to the stern.  The pencil line outlines the area that is the dip of 1/4"  it tapers down to normal pretty quickly outside of this area.  This is caused by the combination of the scarf being roughly done, and by the very last 2-3 inches of the stern bottom seam not being completely pulled in.  I think the dip got worse and the sides came in and I really did not see it until all had been wired up and taped and the boat flipped over outside a few weeks ago.  That said, I now need a plan to fix it.  I came up with three ideas.  

1.  ignore it and it will go away.  

2.  foam core and glass over

3.  wood core and glass over (similar to balsa core, but using 1/4" okoume.  

I went with option 3 and things are gradually improving, but it still takes a ton of filler (WEST with microballoons and a little thixotropic powder thrown in.)  

Along the keel area I have laid out a thick paste of microballoon and then cut up squares of Okoume to fill the deepest voids, just going as far as the 1/8" dip.  

another view. 

Since then, I have started to fill with the microballoon paste, and will sand with the long board to get all fair prior to glassing.  I am pretty sure that when all is said and done, no one will know it is there.  Microballoons are a boatbuilders best friend.  

I hope to get a better photo posted next weekend showing how this all blends in nicely.  If it doesnt blend in,  I will make good use of the wood eraser.  

update 6-14-14 (Flag Day)

Much better now.  The stern is starting to get flat, and dip is disappearing.  It takes lots of filler. But, It looks as if the plywood is at the right height, just slightly above the dip and is easy to fair with the long board. 

I will bring the filler out to the edges after hitting it with the long board to find the high and low spots.  

6-19-14

At this point, I am wishing I had applied foam core and shaped it.  This is taking more filler than I imagined it would. 

6-28-14

after a rough sanding with the long board, I went at this again with a thinner coat of filler.  It will take at least one more sanding and filling to get it to its final shape.  It is actually coming out well. 

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