2-28. Days 3 or 4 or 5

This weekend I worked on the boat on my own for the first time. Nothing that can't be erased, of course! The next step is making the arms to glue onto the frames that we have already cut out. We considered using cardboard to make models, but Brian gave us a big roll of paper to make drawings on, which we will then trace onto the plywood to be cut out. After establishing the water line and center line again (this time on a sheet of paper - two sheets thick for reasons evident later), I lined up the corresponding frame and traced the outline of the frame. Then it was time to draw the arms with measurements from the design.
It is imperative to check every, every measurement made. I slipped up here and didn't check every measurement before I had finished drawing both right and left arms. You can see the arm above is much taller and leaves the seat top at a different angle than the arm below.
So the eraser got a little smaller, et voila... arms that match, whew. That would've been a lopsided boat.

The last step was to punch little holes through the paper with a thumb tack. I tried using an awl, but the point was big and I was afraid of really puncturing the plywood below (on which one frame and the transom are drawn). The tack worked well. A hole was punched at each measurement point I made to draw the arms, as well as at intersections of frame edges and water line, center line and water line, etc. This creates points on the lower sheet of paper which we'll use for...well I'm not quite sure what yet. My dad has this figured out and I'm just following directions. I'll explain when I understand, which will most likely be when I see it in use.

PS-The weather in February/March is really nice in Tallahassee. Much nicer than in Bemidji. It's really nice working in an open garage with a cool breeze threatening to blow the designs off the table. Can't wait for mosquito season.

2-21. Day 2

It's fun using creative household tools. Today we used two mixing bowls from the kitchen to make circle cutouts and doubler shapes. Then the real fun began - cutting! Scary at first, once a few cuts are made it becomes more natural, and following a line on the inside, outside, or right down the middle isn't so bad. Making a circle can be tough, though. Used a jig saw for cutting out frames 2,3,4. Shadow inspected the frames for quality control.

2-20. Day 1

The humble beginnings of a boat - some wood, a builder, and his apprentice-builder.



Boat designs scoured over, letters and emails to foreign lands overlooked, ignored, or answered, finally decided on the Truant - a John Welsford (New Zealand) design.
Various tools and supplies accumulated in previous weeks. Okume plywood delivered Friday. Construction began today!



Following the building guide instructions, we started drawing. We drew out frames 1,2,3,4 and the transom. Looking at the designs with all the arrows and lines and numbers and sailing terms was mind-boggling to me at first. Fortunately, once the lines started taking shape on the plywood and I figured out the arrow and number system of measurements, the process became much less formidable - actually fairly simple, and I started to see the boat and how it will fit together (this had been an explained, yet mysterious concept to me).
There was one glitch encountered: Mr. Welsford knew what he was doing when he built the boat and drew up the plans, and he doesn't convey all the little details that would be useful in the building process to the novice builder. While trying to make the seat top curve for the frames, the master seat top curve plan succeeded in baffling us. How could the grid continue out for 800 mm when the frame ended at 610 mm? It turned out that we are good at fudging (well, we'll see when the boat floats or not) and our seat top curves look symmetrical and to-scale. Although Mr. Welsford doesn't elaborate on his designs and the reasons for doing certain things, it's nothing a little ingenuity can't figure out. When we had finished drawing the four frames and were drawing the transom curve, it hit me. The grid went past the frame boundaries as a guideline for the curve - which means to use that guideline, we would've needed to shift our drawing over on the plywood to make room for the entire curve, past the edges of the frame. (Granted we didn't go back and try this, but in theory I think it is what Mr. Welsford expected.)



Thank goodness for the metric system! There will be, and already has been, uncountable frustration and anger, stress and tears abated due to this incredible measuring system. While shopping for lumber is a bit unusual - trying to compare millimeter sized wood with our inch sized wood, which is actually not the size it claims to be - in the end the struggle at the lumber yard is well worth the brain effort saved in doing tedious fraction math during construction.