After the Great Leap Forward, 2 Steps Back

No pictures today. They'd be ugly.

Sat. Jan. 30: The (bad) plan yesterday was to fit the port side chine in place, then remove the chines, remove the sides from the molds, and to epoxy and rescrew the chines to the sides. The idea was that would give more room to get the epoxy between the chines and sides. Well, Capt. JT and I fit the port side chine on easily and quickly, benefitting from the experience we gained on Thursday installing the starboard chine. But taking the sides off the molds was a fisaco. With the sides and chines now straight, the screw holes didn't line up. I quickly abandoned that task and cleaned the epoxy off the sides and chines before it hardened and ruined all those parts.

Today was rainy, so no work could be done, but I spent the day evaluating what has been done and planning the next steps. The too-wide stem bevel has been worrying me, and I finally concluded that it causes too many problems to accept. It strains the side panels at the chine end of the stem to the breaking point, so it's a point of weakness, and the distortion of the shape at the chine/stem joint looks bad (at least it does if you know to look closely) and might affect sailing performance a little. The side panels are already epoxied to the stem, and detaching them would take dynamite. So I need to- I hate to say it- cut the side panels near the bow, butt new pieces to replace what is cut away, and recut the stem bevel or make a new stem. I think I know the correct bevel to put on the stem, but I'm going to make a sample piece to test that I'm right.

Changing the stem bevel will change the shape of the joints between the chines and stem, so I may also need to cut new chines.

Naturally, I'm reluctant to take a step back and rebuild the bow, but it won't require new materials besides what I already have on hand; just work. I can fix the problem now, but couldn't if the bottom were already on. So that's what I'm going to do.

There-having confessed my sins and resolved to atone for them, I feel better already. Sister Paraclete would grudgingly approve, but she'd probably still hit me with her yard stick.

The Great Leap Forward

Thursday, Jan. 28: Great progress the last two days.

The current phase of the project involves attaching the sides to the stem, which forms a big V, and then bending the sides around the molds and attaching them to the transom. If that sounds like a one-man job, I'm not the one man.

Yesterday I epoxied and screwed the stem to the starboard side panel, and then screwed the port side in place with Mrs. Strongback's help, being careful to align both sides the same way so the stem doesn't twist to one side when the sides are put on the mold. Then I pulled the screws on the port side and put the two side panels inside the house; If I had left them attached to the stem outside overnight I would not have been able to protect them from the weather; don't have a big enough tarp.

Today I had the help of my friend Capt. JT. We epoxied and reattached the port side panel to the stem. Wrapping the sides around the molds went fairly well. We discovered that the stem was cut at a little too wide an angle, so the sides complained at being bent. But the error was just small enough that we could get away without planing off one side of the stem. The hard part, as I expected, was bending the chine to fit inside the side planks and flush against the stem and transom. After a lot of clamping and grunting, we wrestled the starboard chine in place and screwed it to the side. After stepping back and looking at the result, I cringed to see that the transom had shifted before we cut the chine to length, so the chine ended up about 1/2 inch too short at the transom. But all is not lost. The chine does not attach to the transom anyway; the side does. So the gap is not structural. We moved the side/transom joint to the right line, and screwed it in place. I'll fill in the gap between the chine and the transom with a sliver of wood later, and hide the mistake with epoxy. No one will ever know except those with internet access and the perhaps somewhat smaller number who read this.

I am very happy to know that the chines and sides and molds can be made to match up, however much persuasion it takes. I was worried about that. It may turn out to be the hardest part of building the boat.

Tomorrow Capt. JT is coming back and we'll fit the port chine. That should go faster with the experience we gained today. Then we'll take it all apart, apply epoxy to all the joints, and reassemble it.

Thought for the day: Every problem in life can be solved with epoxy.

Monday, Jan. 25: This morning my friend JT and I cut out four longitudinal pieces on his far superior table saw, for the chines and sheer clamps. We ripped them from wide boards of clear fir one inch nominal thickness. Two of them are 1 3/4" on the flat, the other pair 1 3/16". My thought is to use the wider ones for the chine, ifs I am able to bend them to the right shape.

I cut the topside panels to the finished shape, leaving an allowance for bevel and final trim.

After cutting notches in the molds so the chines will lie flat, I clamped in place one of the narrower stringers I cut this morning, just to see how well it will bend. It went easily enough that I decided to use the wider pieces for the chines. They need to bend around the boat's side, and bend edgewise to follow the side profile, and twist as the flare of the sides increases toward the stern. When I clamped on the wider pieces, they seemed to say they were willing to bend which ever one way I wanted, but not two ways, and certainly not three. It is apparent that the chines will need, if not torture, at least stern discipline before this part of the project is done. In any case, I bent the chines approximately to their final position, and will leave them there overnight so they can get used to the idea. The photo shows the chines held in place with all the clamps I own. Somewhere I read that the difference between a professional boatbuilder and an amateur is how many clamps he has. I rank as an amateur in every way, including my clamps.

The next few steps will be to mount the transom in place, attach the stem to the sides with screws and epoxy, bend the sides around the molds, and secure them to the transom.

The topsides are cut out, and a surprise dividend received.

Sunday 1-24: Two days off: one to help a friend put down a new pine kitchen floor, and one because I was feeling good for nothing. Today I rough cut the topside panels. Since they are 14 1/2 feet long and the plywood is 8' long, the first thing was to lay two sheets end to end and tack them in place to a scrap piece underneath. Then I used the pattern I'd made to trace the shape of the starboard topside, turned the pattern over, and traced the port side. Then using a circular saw I rough cut the sides. I marked which side and which end was which, then pulled the tacks and had four half pieces.

There are two ways to join two plywood pieces to make a panel longer than 8'. The two pieces can be scarphed by cutting a 4" taper in each piece and gluing them together. That makes a smooth panel, but the scarph has to be cut and glued just exactly right. Forget it. The other way is to butt the two pieces and join them with a third piece overlapping them both. That's the method I chose. I know from the dory built years ago that a 4 1/2" wide butt strap on 1/4" plywood will allow the side to bend in a fair curve. I took the rough-cut pieces inside the house and laid them flat on the floor. I turned them over so the butt went on the inside (I was so worried I would butt them on the wrong side that I had marked each half piece three different times which side the butt goes on.) I realigned the pieces with their mates, nailed them again to a scrap underneath, and epoxied a butt strap on each side panel. And I did it on the correct side, too. After the epoxy set up, I laid the pattern on the sides to check that after gluing they were still lined up right.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will cut the assembled topside panels to the final shape, plus an allowance for bevels and 1/8" for final trim. I did not cut them to exact shape at the outset oday because of the possibility they might have been misaligned in the gluing-up process. It turned out they were aligned just right, but I was spared that worry. And also tomorrow sI'll rip two 16' fir 1x6 boards into longitudinal pieces for the chine logs and sheer clamps. I'll have to cut out notches in the molds for the chines and fasten them as soon as the topside panels go on. The sheer clamps pieces will go on after the bottom goes on and the boat's shell is pulled off the molds.

A good day. Nice weather, the job didn't fight me, and I didn't ruin any wood. And I even remembered to place the butts so they fall between two molds.

And here's today's special dividend: My neighbor and a friend of his jointly own a 13" DeWalt thickness planer which has been gathering dust unused in a garage. My neighbor offered me the use and posession of it if I had room in my shop, and you can bet I'll make room. He showed up with it this afternoon, and it is now occupying my work bench until I can build a stand with wheels for it. The thickness planer will be very useful: standard 3/4" and 1 1/2" dimensional lumber can't be made to serve for all the parts on the boat. One thing I know I'll need it for is smoothing up the four sides of the mast timber before marking the taper to cut into it.

Finishing the transom

Wednesday, Jan. 20: I cut out the six fashion pieces to fit around the inside of the transom, using hot glue to temorarily fasten and fit them. Then I turned the transom over and screwed through the plywood into the fashion pieces. That gave me a good "dry" fit, After sanding and planing the edges a bit, I took it apart for final assembly: I removed the screws, removed the fashion pieces, cleaned off the hot glue residue, and put it back together with epoxy and screws. Slow work, as always, but I think I got it right. We won't know for sure until the boat goes together.

Bevels Bevels Bevels

Tuesday, Jan. 19: Today I really didn't want to take full advantage of my first chance to do damage to the expensive new wood, so I approached it timidly. What I should have done was butt two plywood panels end to end, and rough cut the topsides: an easy job. But I knew the transom would have to be built and installed before I could attach the topsides, so I started on the transom, which I have mentioned is a devilishly complicated assembly. The side edges of the transom must be beveled so the sides , which taper in toward the stern, fit flat; that's one bevel angle. But the transom itself angles back, which increases that side edge bevel angle (think about it). The top of the transom is beveled in line with the chine, but there are also a narrow deck and a coaming which come together at the transom. The bottom edge of the transom has a 48 degree bevel, a sharper angle than any of my power saws can cut (circular saw, jigsaw, table saw or bandsaw). The bevel on that edge had to be done with a plane. A lot of ways to go wrong, and I really really didn't want to start this part of the project with a ruined piece. So I took all afternoon to cut out the plywood transom panel. I got it done with just one small error which can be filled with epoxy later. Tomorrow I will cut out and attach fashion pieces, strips of wood inside the transom panel to reinforce the plywood and provide something to fasten the sides and other pieces to. Then I'll be ready to set up the transom on the strongback and work on the topside panels. When those are attached to the stem and transom and trimmed up, it will start to look like a boat.

The Right Stuff

Monday, Jan. 18- I had thought I would have to travel across the state to Vero Beach to buy marine plywood, but after scouring the internet one more time- probably the fifth try- I found a source at an independent lumber yard an hour away near the Port of Tampa. They special-ordered what I need, and I picked it up today. 6mm and 12mm Okoume plywood, the best marine plywood made.

Okoume is light, strong, and made of solid layers of some exotic African wood, though of course it's made in China. Now there's a question for you: If the Chinese are able to dominate manufacturing around the world by using stolen technology and slave labor (not too much of an exaggeration), why can't the God-forsaken countries where tropical hardwoods grow do the same thing with the resources they already have, and manufacture high end plywood, for example?

So my enforced layoff, waiting for materials, is at an end. Let's build a boat!

The Holy Grail

Jan. 13 I unfastened the doorskin panel from the molds, laid it flat, and cut out the marked shape of the side plank. This panel becomes a pattern for the side planks. I also cut one of my white oak pieces to the right bevels for the stem, leaving it long on the ends to trim later.

Knowing the right shape for the side planks and the right bevel for the stem is the “Holy Grail” of building the boat to the intended design. If I had known those two things at the outset I could have skipped most of the preparatory mold work I spent the last month on. In just a couple of days I could easily have cut out two side planks, fastened them to the stem, bent the sides around a couple of frames, and attached them to the transom, and been ahead of where I am now. So why did the plans not include the side pattern and the stem bevel? Projecting a three dimensional plank shape onto a flat plane is just about impossible to do graphically, and in any event is only particularly helpful on a flat bottomed boat like this. A computer could do it now, but at the time the design was drawn there were no computers. Moreover, the traditional builders of these little sharpie skiffs didn’t need computers, or plans either, for that matter. They shaped their hulls by experienced eye. That know-how is extinct; so to build a clone, I had to rely on the DNA: the design plan. As for the stem bevel, I think I could have calculated it from the plans if I had ever studied solid geometry; but I didn’t.

To preserve this newfound knowledge, for what earthly purpose I can’t say, I traced the plank pattern onto a long strip of heavy building paper, made a few notes on it about bevel angles, rolled it up and tucked it away. Maybe someday someone can use it. If not, no harm.

A fair hull at last

Saturday, Jan. 9 A cold, rainy day. A good time to go shopping for white oak for the stem, stem liner, and sternpost. What was once a major local lumber yard, in the days before Home Depot, has contracted into a specialty hardwood and custom milling shop. I was the only customer there, and the only one manning the place was an old black gentleman (been there 30 years, he says), with all the time in the world to chat and help me pick out the pieces I need, cut them to the rough sizes needed, plane them down to the right thickness, and square them with a jointer. One piece I needed was to be 4’ long. He cut it out of the middle of a 12’ piece because that was the best part of the board. I asked how much I owed and he looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling for a long while, and said “Well… let’s see. I don’t want to cheat you now. Would $25 be OK? I don’t want to cheat you now”. I think we’re not in Home Depot any more, Toto.

Jan. 10 After trimming the molds to correct for the bottom plank thickness and any other inaccuracy, they are all within 1/16” in all measurements, and aligned right. I have to admit that accomplishing that was harder and took longer than I originally expected, but the important thing is it’s done and done right.

Jan. 11 I tacked a thin panel of doorskin material to the molds, tacked long battens to that panel along the chine and sheer, and marked the outline of the side plank on the doorskin panel. Then I was able to measure the bevel angle which needs to be cut in the stem.

How do I measure thee? Let me count the ways.

Jan 10- Yesterday afternoon I was readjusting the transom mold, which needs to be at the right spot fore and aft, plumb on its centerline, in line with the other molds’ centerlines, and at the right angle of rake. Then it has to sit still while being screwed to the strongback. All assuming it was cut to the right size and shape to begin with, not automatic since the plans do not detail it. Each time I thought I had it right, I cross checked it by measuring how high the chine edge sat and how far it was from the next mold vs how high the plan says it should be. Of course, the cross check never quite checks, and I had to decide what to adjust, shim, fudge, compromise, or ignore.

But wait, there’s more! As I sat in the “moaning chair” planning my next move, I remembered that the plans are drawn to the outside of the planking, but the molds shape the inside of the planking. I knew that, and had allowed for it by taking off 6mm from the mold sides, but I had not done that to the bottom (the top as it sits upside down on the strongback). So all the molds were cut too high by 6mm., and they all would have to be trimmed. Time to quit and pour myself some rum.

Later in the evening, I realized that my problem was actually an opportunity. I can trim the molds with the power plane, and correct for the planking thickness and for any existing inaccuracy at the same time, and get them all to just exactly the height they should be. Why, I should have done the same thing with the sides, cutting them a bit wide and trimming them after the molds were mounted.

I couldn’t do much today because of a misty rain, but I did remeasure all the molds in preparation for trimming them. I’ll do that tomorrow if weather permits- the forecast warns of possible snow, which we haven’t had in 30 years. Where’s Al Gore when you need him?
.

Measure twice, cut once?

Jan. 5-- More like measure ten times, still cut twice.

Surprise: the plan was right after all. The problem mold #6 was mounted too far forward, so of course it didn't fit. I'd looked at it and measured it over and over, and was ready to adjust it "by guess and by God" when I realized what I'd done. Rather than just move it, I checked the dimensions vs. the plan specs just for good measure (get it?) and found that the mold was as much as 1/4" off. The rule of thumb for the hull is a tolerance of 1/8", so I cut a new mold and sure enough, it fits like a glove. My apology to the naval architect for doubting him. I did have to make small adjustments to two other molds to get fair lines for the chine and sheer, probably because they were not cut quite right, but now I can make an accurate pattern for the sides.

Then I can begin building the hull. Everything to this point has been preparatory.

Traditional hull construction of sharpies and flat bottomed skiffs was much simpler. The builder just cut a gentle S shape into a wide plank or two and bent them around one or two frames. With an experienced eye that worked well, but there is no way to follow a design and get the hull shape as intended except by making molds as I am doing.

And her name will be...

Tugga Bugga, a phonetic spelling of Tog go bog e/, Irish for Take it easy. Easy to pronounce and easy to place on the transom, flanking the external rudder and sternpost. And best of all, Mrs. Strongback likes it.

Besides that, the only things accomplished this January 4th, the first day of the new year back at the project, was some fairing of the molds and gluing up panels of thin plywood which will become a pattern for the sides.

Happy New Year! May this year bring happy sailing for Tugga Bugga, and may there be peace, health, and prosperity for all who sail in her. and all those they love.