The Rest of April

Many small steps have been taken since the lead was poured into the centerboard. Here's a run-down of some of what's been happening in the spare moments we have to work on the boat:

-Sanded and added coats of epoxy to frames, centerboard, and centerboard case.

-Attached hardwood logs to centerboard case. We used black walnut for this; unfortunately it will be hidden within the case. The logs are what make space for the centerboard inside the case.

-Drilled hole for the pivot bolt in the centerboard and case. Filled the hole with epoxy, then redrilled through the epoxy for the bolt. Also drilled a hole in the neck of the centerboard for the rope that will raise/lower the centerboard.

-Designed and cut out a cap for the centerboard case. The Welsford design calls for a cap that is recessed inside the case, but we wanted to have a seat available for rowing, so we are making a cap above the case that will become wider at the aft end to function as a seat. Making this out of curly maple, local wood from Germfask, MI (where I lived when I worked at Seney NWR). The curly maple has a really cool grain pattern - come play cribbage with me, or come see the boat seat when we've sanded and varnished it and you'll understand why it's called curly maple.

-Fiberglassed the leading edge and bottom of the centerboard and the fore walnut log, where the centerboard will touch when it is down.

-Attached more doublers, legs, seat supports, etc to various frames and the transom. Forgot to cut out a couple notches before we glued on the transom doubler and had to go back and chisel out the notches, but it turned out ok.

Now we're just about ready to put together the whole centerboard and case. Once that is done, progress will speed ahead and I do think the boat will start to take a true shape. Pictures to come...

Video footage 4-5.

4-5.

The centerboard is ready for lead. Hole cut out, nails in place to help hold the lead in, and plywood tacked on the back to keep the lead in the hole and not on the floor.

The engineering supply store didn't have the lead ingots, so we acquired a heavy bucket of junk from the local tire store (free, no gold needed to trade) - fittings that are attached to your car wheels to align them properly, and happen to be made out of lead (some of them).

We had to sort through the bucket and rip off steel pieces to just have lead in our paint pot. We measured out about 10 lbs of lead and then started melting it.

Turned out that some of it must not have been lead because it didn't all melt at the same temperature. So we picked out the stray solid pieces before starting to pour.

Poured the molten lead carefully into the centerboard. It was awesome! It was bubbling and splattering like Yellowstone mudpots. It was actually a little bit too hot - past molten - since it was boiling and the wood underneath started to smoke and burn a little. But nothing actually caught fire.

It cooled really fast and we took off the plywood under-board - which was what was smoking so much. This was a stinky operation even with the gas masks on. But it was the coolest thing we've done yet, and maybe will be the coolest thing of the whole process.

Now the centerboard feels really heavy, although it's only added 10 lbs, but it's all concentrated in one area at the bottom.

4-4.

After a hiatus for Daddy to go on a sailing trip, we're back to work. Today we worked on the centerboard, centerboard case, and spine. We finished sanding the leading and trailing edges of the centerboard, making a wide rounded curve on the leading edge and a sharper tapered shape on the trailing edge. Then we cut a hole and a couple groves in the "nose" - where a rope will come through to raise and lower the centerboard. We also cut a square out of the bottom of the centerboard, which will be filled with molten lead! The Pb is available tomorrow at an engineering equipment supply store and comes in 5 lb ingots. I wonder how many Pb ingots equal an Au ingot. Not that we have any gold bars laying around to trade with.



Next we worked on the spine. We mixed up some liquid epoxy and some glue and attached the seat supports and bottom rails (20x20mm lumber) onto the centerboard case, attached the king plank (I think it's called that) across the top of the spine where the fore deck will be, the bottom cleat that the bottom plywood plank will attach to, and the three doublers onto the bow of the boat. Now the bow is very thick, so it will be shaved down to a nice taper that will cut through the water and will look like a normal boat.
All of the 20x20 pieces were attached with screws, which were countersunk and subsequently covered over with epoxy - so there's no unscrewing anything! The doublers we attached with nails.



A note - I cut through a nail today with the jigsaw - that was fun. I wondered why the saw was putting up so much resistance, and when putrid smoke started streaming up from the wood I knew something was wrong. I had already made it halfway through the nail, so coming from the other direction I plowed through and the nail was no match for the saw any longer. Although I think we need a new blade now...