First piece of the backbone made and attached

Sunday, Feb. 28: A beautiful Florida winter day. In the 40's at dawn, but 60 degrees by 10 o'clock, and I spent the afternoon working in a T-shirt for the first time since December.

Today's project was the first "keel" piece, the gripe which extends from the bow to about 9" past the aft end of the centerboard slot. The skeg will overlap it by those 9", and end right at the centerboard slot.

I made the gripe from a 1x6 nominal (really 3/4 x 5 7/16) piece of fir. I tapered it to 4" at the bow end, as the plans specify. Then I rounded off the outside edges with a router. The bottom does not have a whole lot of "rocker", curvature fore and aft, but the gripe starts at the place on the bottom where the curve is greatest. The bottom itself is only 6mm (scant 1/4") thick. So I was concerned how to bend the gripe along the bottom without screws ripping through at the aft end. My solution was to use 2 1/2" deck screws at the aft end, and screwed throuth the gripe, the bottom, and a temporary piece of 2x4 inside. That held the aft end secure. The long screws will be removed after the epoxy cures. I left the forward end of the gripe long, and pulled it down to the bottom with a piece of line lashed to the strongback, which you can just see in the picture. Once I was satisfied with the dry fit, I took the assembly apart, aplied epoxy and replaced the screws and lashings. When I install the keelson inside the boat, I will screw the gripe and keelson together . But for now I wanted the gripe to get a good epoxy bond to the bottom. So I climbed underneath and drove about a dozen small bronze screws up through the bottom into the gripe, to draw it up tight so epoxy started to squeeze out the sides. Wiping off the excess epoxy into a nice fillet completed the job. The only thing remaining will be to trim off the bow overhang.

I don't plan to cut the centerboard slot until the keelson is installed inside. Then I can cut the hole in all the pieces at the same time.

Several forces are trying to distort the hull at this stage. The chines are bent to follow the curve of the bottom, and the bottom itself is bent to its required shape, as is the gripe. Bent pieces like that will eventually get used to their shape, at least somewhat. Meanwhile they try to straighten out. The keelson inside will add to that effect. The net result is the hull is trying to flatten itself out fore and aft, which would pull the sides inward. The sides resist that pull now because of the molds the hull is resting on. But even now I can see the center of the bottom is down a little compared with the sides. When I take the hull off the molds, I will have to put in temporary cross braces to maintain the right hull width until the permanent thwarts, which will hold the sides out, are installed. But the other thing I can do to strengthen the boat fore and aft is to make the bottom of the centerboard trunk follow the design's curve, instead of following the stressed shape of the bottom. And I will also make a pattern for the designed curve for the skeg, for the same reason. Cutting the slot for the centerboard will itself help ease the stress, since that will allow the gripe and keelson to bend more easily.

OK, I realize this is more on the subject than anyone wants to read about, but bear with me: it helps me think through the next steps.

The very next step: the skeg.

Hull shell complete

Friday, Feb. 26: Another chilly morning. What happened to global warming?

I trimmed the bottom panel excess where it overlapped the sides, using a jigsaw, then an electric plane, and then a belt sander. I dinged the sides in just a couple of places with the power tools, but those spots will easily be filled and sanded later.
Finally, I hand sanded to ease the sharp edge at the chine.

So the shell of the hull is complete. Just for fun, I measured the length. I say just for fun, because it is what it is. Anyway, it measures just 1/8” longer than the plan. Plenty close enough.

I also trimmed the centerboard to its final shape and rounded the corners. And I was delighted to finally catch the designer in a mistake. He shows the forward lower corner of the centerboard, by the pivot pin, with a curve of about 2” radius. If I built it that way, when the board is lowered that corner would surely swing forward enough to bind against the front of the centerboard trunk. And it would be the devil’s own job to fix after the boat is built. So I rounded that corner using the pivot pin point as the center of the radius. I still need to taper the edges of the board and cover it with fiberglass. I have not figured out yet what gear, if any, will be required to pull the board back up from a full down position. The plans don’t show anything for that. A rope lanyard would do the trick; the only difficulty might be the rope jamming in the centerboard trunk.

I carefully drew a centerline on the bottom, and marked off where the centerboard slot will be. I also marked the six design cross section stations on the bottom and sides. I will need those reference points when working inside the boat.

Next up: build and install the gripe (plank along the bottom) and skeg. And may lightning strike me if I make any jokes about the word gripe.

Bottom on and centerboard progress

Thursday, Feb. 25: Today was sunny, but windy and cold. No good for cycling, but OK for boatbuilding.

I epoxied the bottom panel in place, and screwed it down permanently. That was the easy part. Then I climbed underneath and cleaned off excess epoxy inside. That was messy and awkward, but also necessary. Sanding off the excess after the boat is turned right side up would be time consuming.

Epoxy makes an extremely strong adhesive, and it fills any gaps between the pieces being glued. The technique is to wet out both surfaces with unthickened epoxy, then coat one surface with a paste made with epoxy and a thickening powder, mixed to about the consistency of peanut butter. The two pieces are screwed or lightly clamped together, and left until the epoxy cures. In cold weather epoxy sets up slowly. That allows me time to get a job done, but it also means that I can not do more than one step a day on an epoxied piece. Other epoxy mixtures can be made for sealing bare wood, filling holes, mounting hardware, and fairing surfaces. Every problem in life can be solved with epoxy. Well, almost every problem.

I also worked on the centerboard today. Using the pattern I made yesterday, I cut out two pieces of 12mm plywood to the shape of the centerboard, epoxied the two pieces together, and left them weighted down for the epoxy to cure.

Tomorrow I plan to trim off the excess of the bottom panel. Then the shell of the hull will be complete. If I put it in the water, it would float, but there is a long way to go before I would call it a boat, or put it in the water.

From this point, the project can take several paths. Before the exterior is done, I need to make and install the outer stem, the sternpost, the skeg, and the “gripe”, a keel plank along the centerline from the bow back to behind the centerboard trunk. And the slot for the centerboard needs to be cut. And the whole exterior needs to be covered with fabric and epoxy. After that I can turn the boat over and work on the inside. I need to review the boat’s plans and work out the best sequence of tasks.

I have sent inquiries to a number of sailmakers, and have already received back a wide range of suggestions and quotes. I won’t make a decision on a sail right away. I will be travelling from late April until July or August. There is no deadline on finishing the boat; Of course I would like to have her as far along as possible before leaving, but I won’t be sailing her by then; that’s for sure.

Starting on the centerboard

I now have the bronze screws needed, but I couldn't epoxy and screw down the bottom panel today because of rain.

Once the bottom is on, the next step will be to cut the slot for the centerboard. I will make the board by laminating two sheets of 12mm plywood. but it will also be fiberglassed, so I don't really know how thick it will be, and how wide the slot in the bottom should be. So I spent the afternoon drawing the centerboard trunk and centerboard full scale, and making a pattern for the centerboard. If weather permits tomorrow, I'll attach the bottom and cut out the centerboard.

Bottom's Up

Monday, February 22: Work was held up by a short trip out of town, but I have made the bottom panel and have it ready to permanently install.

The bottom is just under four feet wide, so one plywood sheet reaches across, but the bottom is 13’ long, so I had planned to make it out of two lengths of plywood. But looking at the plans carefully I realized that the joint between two bottom pieces would be in the middle of the centerboard trunk. It would be hard to fit the centerboard trunk parts around the butt strap on the inside of the bottom, so in the end I decided to make the bottom of three pieces. One eight-footer in the middle and shorter pieces at the bow and the stern.

Last Thursday I cut out the three bottom pieces. Friday morning I laid out the pieces indoors, made 4 ½” butt straps to join the pieces, and glued them up with epoxy. After a couple of hours the epoxy was set up enough that I could clean up what squeezed out the sides, but I left weights on the butt joints while we went away for a three day weekend.

On our return home this afternoon I took the assembled bottom panel outside, put it in place, and secured it with a handful of screws. I have ordered a resupply of screws, and must wait for their delivery before I can epoxy and screw the bottom in place.

Trimming the sides and chines flat

Tuesday, Feb. 16: An easy task today. I trimmed the sides and the chines, which are attached to the sides, down to the designed final line, and flat across. That way the bottom will fit flush on the chines and sides. Then I trimmed off the excess length of the sides at the transom and at the stem. I did most of that with the electric plane, finishing with a hand block plane and finally a belt sander. I took it slowly, with frequent checks of the flatness, and avoided any major mistakes with the electric plane, which are all too easy to make.

My only regret is that my wonderful chine clamp inventions have done their job and will be needed no longer. I'll take off the hinges and save them for another project.

The next step is the bottom panel. It will require butting two lengths of plywood; by now that's no challenge. But I've already used more bronze screws than I expected. I ordered more, but delivery may delay attaching the bottom by a day or two. Meanwhile, I'll lay out the centerboard and rudder, which will each be made of two laminations of 12 mm (just about 1/2") plywood.

Chines glued and screwed

Monday, Feb. 15: I said Saturday I wouldn't declare total victory over the troublesome chines until they were epoxied and screwed in place. Today, with the help of Capt. JT, we got that done. We also glued and screwed the sides to the transom permanently.

I thought I would be at this point two weeks ago, but the important thing is the bow, stern, and sides are properly built and installed. No pictures today. It looks just like it did a couple of days ago, but now it is permanently sealed with epoxy.

Now I can finally move on to the next step: make and install the bottom. Then I'll have at least the shell of the hull done. Many more steps before it can be called a boat.

A Good Day

Saturday, Feb. 15: I enjoyed today more than any other so far in the project. The result was I fit the chines in place, but getting there was the fun part.

The chines (or more properly, the chine logs) form the inside of the corner between the sides and the bottom. They need to fit against the stem and the transom, which angle in both directions. The tricky part is that they must bend both around the boat’s side and also edgewise as the bottom rises near the stern. They must also twist as the boat’s sides do, going from bow to stern. And if that's not enough, the chine logs actually need to be about 2” longer than the space for them along the bottom, because of course the stem and transom angle away from each other. That last feature makes it not only hard to fit them in but also to figure how long to cut them.

Two weeks ago I sweated the chines into place over the course of two days with the help of my friend Capt. JT. But in case you missed or forgot that sad chapter, our effort came to grief because the stem angle was wrong and one of the chines was cut too short. Work since then has been remediation.

Correcting the stem angle moved the chines back a little, but not enough for the short chine to gain its deficiency. I had to use new pieces for the chines this time around.

I started the day by making short pattern pieces for the bow and the stern ends of the chine, so I would know exactly what angles the cut them. I cut the bow ends of both chines to those angles.

Because they bend so many ways at once, I didn’t know if I would be able to fit the chines without help. But I did know there had to be a better way to hold them in place while they were being installed. During one of my middle-of-the-night musings a way to do that occurred to me. Now, I have learned over and over again that great ideas in the middle of the night usually are not worth much in daylight. But my idea was to make clamps to hold the chines in place against the side, and also secure their vertical position. I went to the hardware store for a 2 by 4 and four strap hinges. I sawed the 2x4 in half lengthwise and cut the two lengths into four matching pairs two feet long. I joined each pair at one end with a strap hinge, and cut a notch out of one side of each pair to match the cross section of the chine. Clamps done and ready to use. To use a chine clamp, I hang the hinged pieces over the boat with the notch over the chine on the inside, and clamp the two ends together, pinching against the boat’s side panel. Not only does it hold the chine in place, but also I can fine tune the height by tapping the top or bottom of the chine clamp. My idea works even better than I'd hoped, and I’m so pleased with myself I could spit.

I put the bow ends of the chines up against the stem on each side, and using my chine clamps I gradually worked toward the stern, screwing the chine in place on alternate sides, checking frequently that the bow stayed on center. Compared to a struggling two-man job last time, it was a straightforward process to do it alone, thanks to my magic chine clamps.

As I approached the stern on each side, I let the uncut chines run over the transom, measured how long they needed to be, and cut them by hand to the right angle and length, using the short template piece as a guide. Then I loosened the sides from the transom, dropped the chines into place, reattached the sides to the transom, and finished screwing the chines to the sides;finishing the job just as I ran out of daylight. I won’t claim the fits were perfect, but close to it.

Everything went well today, and I am well pleased to get the chines to a good dry fit. I won’t claim total victory over them until they are epoxied in place.

Bow permanently assembled

Wednesday, Feb. 10: Today was the first day this week I could do any work, and I won't have another until Saturday. Before torturing the chines into place I needed to have the sides firmly epoxied and screwed to the stem, so that was all I did today. It may take until Saturday for the epoxy to cure: 55 degrees max. today.

One followup comment about Howard Chapelle. As respected as he was as a maritime historian, he appears to have deserved less respect personally. Writing in 1936 about Bahama sharpshooters and dinghies, he says, to his disgrace, "The great loss of life that occurs periodically is not due to the poor models of their boats, nor, largely to the weather and water conditions, but to the carlessness and shiftlessness of the negro sailor. The boats are rarely painted, are usually leaky, and invariably have rotten gear; hence they are often in trouble. The Bahama craft were at one time a fine lot, as the early sharpshooters and turtle-schooners still afloat show, but the increasing number of colored builders and sailors has caused the various types to degenerate". You could argue that he was a man of his times and that such garbage was typical, even fashionable, 75 years ago, but I would rather let his words speak for themselves. It seems to me you are responsible for your own character, whenever you live. And if you are writing a history, you need to be aware of the follies of your own times just as much as the follies of the time you are writing about. Or else you deserve what you get. I hope he eventually rethought those words.

Anyway, next step: wrestling with the chines.

Naval Architect Howard I. Chapelle

Super Sunday, February 7. Since there has been no boatbuilding for three days now, two for weather and one for my youngest granddaughter’s first birthday, I’ll give some background about Howard I. Chapelle, my skiff’s designer.

My introduction to Howard Chapelle, came in the form of his wonderful book, The History of American Sailing Ships, a gift from my girlfriend in the 1960s. I read and reread that book until it fell apart, and it started me on a lifelong interest in boat and sailing ship designs, and in Chapelle’s books in particular. I have added eight more of his books over the years including a short one on Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs. And speaking of lifelong interests, I’ve been married to the girlfriend for 45 years.

Chapelle (1901-1975) had an unusual and varied career in maritime businesses. Building on a foundation of practical experience, he eventually became the unquestioned leading American historian writing about maritime history and boat design. Starting as a teenager, he apprenticed as a shipyard worker and designer for several shipbuilders. By the 1930s he had his own boatyard and design business in Cambridge, Md., on the Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore. When that business dried up in the depression, he worked on a New Deal project documenting the vessels in the American merchant marine. During the WWII years he was building ships for the merchant marine. He resumed his design career after the War, but his research background led to a Guggenheim fellowship to study Colonial ship building in England, and he later did work designing workboats for the Canadian and Turkish governments. Throughout, he continued to document the fast-disappearing sailing workboats on the Eastern seaboard, especially on the Chesapeake. He wrote at least a dozen books and monographs about everything from clipper ships to Greenland kayaks.

The 14’ sharpie skiff I’m building was designed by Chapelle in 1949, based on a workboat he measured at Coan, Va. I would guess there have been any number of boats built to the design, but I don't know for sure. It may have been his smallest design, but Chapelle was a strong advocate of simple small boats as the best way for sailors to get on the water.

In 1957 Chapelle was appointed curator of the Transportation division of the Smithsonian Museum of History and Technology, overseeing the huge National Watercraft Collection, and continued there until his retirement in 1971.

I was lucky enough to meet Howard Chapelle and spend some time with him 1971. I stole a morning on a business trip to D.C. to visit the Smithsonian specifically to see the collection of shipbuilders’ half-models which I remembered seeing on a previous visit years before. I even had with me Chapelle’s book-sized catalogue of the collection. But I was disappointed not to find the models on display. An attendant told me the models had been put in storage upstairs to make room for other displays. He seemed surprised anyone would be so interested in the half-models, but he telephoned to see if someone would take me up to the storeroom. The someone was an elderly gentleman who turned out to be Chapelle. He invited me up to his office to wait for his assistant to return from lunch and show me the models. I spent the better part of an hour with him, talking about sailing ships and looking at drawings he was making for what turned out to be his last book, The American Fishing Schooners. He was interested in a large fishing schooner, still working, which I had seen on the north coast of Newfoundland the year before.

Chapelle mentioned that after he finished the book about fishing schooners, he intended to revise his 1936 book Boatbuilding, updating it to include modern materials and methods. He never got to that, and I wish he had; it would have been useful on my current project. At least his comment gives me comfort that traditional materials and methods are secondary to the boat design itself.

Sweet Success

Thursday, Feb. 4: Yesterday and today were both shortened by other
obligaitons, but they were the most satisfying of the whole project so far.

Yesterday the rebuilt side panels went back on the molds and were secured in place. Most of the work time was spent making a brace to hold the stem at the correct 20-degree angle, plumb, aligned with the boat's centerline, and at the right position fore and aft.

Today I finished positioning the stem, and after checking it again and again I pulled the sides together at the bow to see how much modification had to be made to the stem to make it fit so that the sides pull in just enough to keep their curve continuous right to the bow, without straining to lie flat on the stem. It turned out the stem bevel angle was nearly correct at the lower (sheer) end, but the angle at the chine had to be narrowed quite a bit. Yes, that's right: the sides come in at different angles at the top and bottom of the stem, even though the sides are flat and the stem is straight. But after all that worrying and measuring, the electric plane made short work of trimming the excess angle and fitting the stem to the sides.

Once I was satisfied with the fit I put a couple of screws on each side panel, securing it to the stem. Then I checked again that the bow was centered, at the right angle of rake, at the right height, and at the right distance forward. Eureka! Everything checked as closely as could be measured. In the picture on the left you can see the finished bow, as well as the butt joint in the starboard side where it was cut off the first time around. By the way, the butt joints there, and the ones amidships which joined the two original 8' panels, curve just as fairly as if they were one continuous piece of plywood.

Finally today, I slipped the starboard chine stringer into place between the side panel and the molds, and found that with the reconfigured bow, the chine piece which was cut 1/2" short before, is now long enough, and may even fit in just right without further cutting, except for slight re-beveling where it meets the stem at the bow. All in all, a day when everything went right.

I went ahead and put the rest of the screws into the stem, and I would also have liked to glue up the sides to the stem with epoxy today, but I ran out of time.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is windy, with rain late in the day. If I have enough work time, I'll glue up the stem and sides, and see if I can get the chines screwed and glued. Then I can finally start to think about the next steps, trimming the sides and chines so they are flat across and follow fair curves, in preparation for putting on the bottom.

Back to having fun again

Work outside has been limited by rain, but since my last post I have been rebuilding the bow, after seeing that the stem was cut too wide to an unacceptable degree (no pun).

Since I knew I'd have to chop off the sides near the bow, on Sunday I first carefully measured and marked the position of the sides on the molds, to ease the task of returning them to the right place when the repair was done. That was a painstaking and time consuming process, and it was all I got done that day.

I did make a discovery Sunday though which explained why the stem didn't fit originally. When I first set up a guide pattern for the stem, early on, I somehow set it at a rake angle of l6 degrees when it should have been just under 20 degrees. As a result, the sheer end of the stem, which is the lower end since the boat is being built upside down, was unaffected by that mistake; but the upper end of the stem, the chine end, ended up too far forward. As a result, the side panels had to make a sharper bend there to sit alongside the stem. Sure enough, when we had mounted the sides to the stem and bent the assembly around the mold frames, it was the chine end which was strained and distorted. The lower sheer end of the stem was still too wide, but only by a little bit. Evidently, I had measured the stem bevel angle at the sheer end.

Monday I faced up to the inevitable, and cut off the sides alongside the stem with a sawzall, then removed the sides from the molds and made a clean straight cut on each side halfway between mold #1 and where the stem had been. I took the sides inside the house and laid them flat. I rough cut fresh pieces of plywood to replace what had been cut away. The fresh piece for the starboard side was laid under the pattern originally used for the side panels, and the chopped off side panel was laid on top. After the side panel and the pattern were aligned, I traced the missing part onto the fresh piece, and did the same thing for the port side panel.

Today I cut out the replacement bow pieces on the band saw, laid them down with their matching side panels, and made 4 1/2" butt straps and epoxied them over the joints. I secured the pieces together with strapping tape so they wouldn't shift as the epoxy cured.

Also today I salvaged the stem, thus saving a nice piece of white oak. I dug out the bronze screws which had secured the ill-fated side panels before. Since they had been screwed in while the epoxy was still wet, they were impossible to unscrew. I had to chisel the wood away around each one until I could grab the end with vise grip pliers. Even then several of the screws broke off, leaving the tip about 3/4" in. I used the electric plane to clear away the plywood remnants. To avoid hitting embedded screw fragments when I get to cutting down the stem bevel, thereby ruining a plane cutter, I drilled out the screw holes where screws had broken off.

Last time around I secured the sides to the stem and bent the assembly around the molds, following the method recommended in my boatbuilding books, only to discover the stem was wrong. This time, though, I'm going to clamp the sides in place on the molds, brace the stem at the right angle, pull the sides together at the bow, and see how the stem fits, making whatever adjustments and trial fits are needed.

I have learned from this sub-adventure not to epoxy a piece in place until I'm sure it's right, because once two pieces of wood are bonded and the epoxy sets up, even without screws, the bond is stronger than the wood; you can chop the pieces up if you need to, but no force on earth can separate them. That's the good part and the bad part of epoxy.

It remains a mystery how to calculate in advance the angle two sides make at the stem, given the flare of the sides, the rake of the bow, and the angle of the bow at the waterlines. There must be a method, at least for the simple sharpie hull, but I have not found it or figured it out. It's trial and error for me.

I joked a few days ago that the difference between an amateur boatbuilder and a professional is the number of clamps he has. That's funny just because it's obviously not true. But for all my woes, two advantages I do have over a professional are time and accountability. I answer only to myself and I can take however long is needed to do a job to my own satisfaction. That counts for something.