Making Thwart Patterns

Wednesday, Sept. 8

The mast thwart is now glued and screwed in permanently, and all the frames are also permanently attached, except the frames adjacent to the two rowing thwarts. Before those frames are attached for good, I need to make the two thwarts they support and the centerboard trunk, which will fit into the two thwarts.

Before I can make the thwarts, I need to get my borrowed thickness planer back from the repair shop and plane the 1 1/2" thwart planks down to their specified 7/8".

 In the meantime I made patterns for the two thwarts. That was a time consuming and exacting job, but I was helped considerably by a timely article in the latest Wooden Boat magazine.

Here's a look at all the frames and the two thwart patterns in place.

I made the centerboard last spring, and also the sides of the centerboard trunk. In order to build the centerboard trunk I need to know how wide the two sides need to be spaced.  To measure that I need to first fiberglass the centerboard and the inside faces of the trunk sides. So I ordered fiberglass cloth.  Actually, that's the wrong word for it, because the fabric I bought is xynole polyester, a more flexible fabric than fiberglas cloth. I received the fabric yesterday, and today I "glassed" the centerboard trunk sides. I would have also covered at least onc side of the centerboard with fabric, but I ran out of epoxy. It's just as well, because shortly after the epoxy on the trunk sides hardened, a strong thunderstorm rolled in. As I write, it's raining and blowing and lighning is cracking all around.  I hope the uncoated undrsides of the trunk sides are not getting too wet but there's nothing I can do about it.

Last week I made a trip to Sarasota to talk with a sailmaker, and am expecting a proposal within the next couple of days. I also have a local metal working shop making a stainless steel strap to clamp the mast in place against the mast thwart.

Before I get much farther along, I'll want to paint the interior while there is still easy access to it. I decided on a paint scheme: The bottom and the lower half of the centerboard will be red antifouling. The topsides will be white. The interior will be a light grey green, with trim painted a darker shade of grey green.

I'm moving into a stage when there are multiple smaller projects going on at once.  Some of them are stand-alones, like making oars and spars, but other projects like the thwarts and centerboard assembly depend on each other. Doing things in the right order, and getting the parts and materials I need bought and delivered at the right time makes for an intersting challenge.

This whole thing is really fun. I look forward to sailing the boat; but I consistently underestimate how long each building step will take me. If I were trying to meet a launch deadline or goal, building her it would not be nearly as enoyable.