1-3-12.

Working on a place for the kingplank.  As mentioned earlier, there's nothing in the plans for this, so we are modifying and doing our own thing.  We had to cut out the top of the spine piece here to make room for the board to sit down under the deck.  

We'll have more precision cutting to do once the kingplank is taking shape - right now it's still just an unshaped board.  You can also see the gunnels at the bow - I think we're going to round them off to make a curve there.  

Daddy is good at cutting pretty shapes out of the curly maple (this wood is extremely hard - it tends to bend the saw blade and it takes forever to sand!).  Here he is cutting out the newly designed seat supports.  The first design we nice, but we didn't have a way to really attach them well to the centerboard case, so he went back with practicality in mind and I think came out with something that looks even nicer.  The redesigned shape is below: 

Planing the gunnels - the old fashioned way!  Daddy planed the port side and I did the starboard side.  It took some getting used to handling the planer and getting the blade at the right depth, but once I figured it out it went fairly smoothly and the gunnel turned out mostly even along the whole width.  We planed the undersides to have a nice angle from the gunnel to the side of the boat.   

There is lots of cleaning up involved - all kinds of wood chips, sawdust, wood scraps, etc...

Yes this is clearly a narrow inner gunnel.  

We will have to shave the side of the boat to match the gunnel and the side might look a little funny with a dip there, but hopefully it won't be too obvious when everything is all flush.  

We have been working on the mast step along with the kingplank.  Above is my dad's idea for the kingplank where it holds the mast.  Instead of just having a hole in the board where the mast fits through, meaning you have to pick the mast all the way up and slide it through that hole when you are going sailing, he thought of putting a block of wood that would pivot away from the mast, allowing you to put the very bottom of the mast into the mast step at an angle, walk the mast up into the kingplank, and then secure it with the swiveling block.  This is ingenious for me because, while relatively strong, I still have trouble lifting a kind of heavy 12' tall mast in the wind up several feet to get it into a small hole.

Cutting out the hole in the mast step for the bottom of the mast.  We made the mast step out of layers of curly maple and plywood, screwing one block onto the one below it until we reached the height (flush with the top edge of the spine in the bottom of the boat).  Then we drilled out the hole through the top two blocks (one at a time so the wood wouldn't get wedged in the hole saw).  We also put a drain hole into the second block.  It is just a little rectangular hole that connects to the big hole so that water will run out instead of puddling in the mast step.  Now we just have to take the pieces apart again and add epoxy to glue them back together.  We'll also fiberglass the bottom of the hole to strengthen it where the mast will be sitting.

Today I spent the afternoon cutting out and sanding spacer blocks of maple for the gunnels.  The plans have two options for the outside edges of the boat - you can make a little decking that covers the inner gunnel and runs along the sides up to the foredeck, or you can leave the inner gunnels exposed with spacers between the side of the boat and the gunnel.  I like the look this gives - it reminds me of a Voyageur's canoe.   Plus we decided it would be way easier to construct than decking.  And so far it is really simple.  All of the spacers are based off of where the oarlocks will go - 10 inches back from the rowing seat (the oarlocks will be attached to the maple spacers).  We originally tried to do some complicated math (addition mostly) to space them evenly from there, but realized it was going to look funny with the frames not being centered and such.  Instead we just figured out where the oarlock pieces would go then worked out evenly by eyeball from there, making short pieces to go on either side of each frame - so that all the spacers will look to be the same length.  I cut them all out and then sanded them on the belt sander so that each one fits in its specific spot along the sides, then labeled all of them so they don't get all mixed up before we're ready to glue them in.

You can also see two transom reinforcements - the maple board along the top of the transom and the little plywood square under the tiller hole (reinforcement where the rudder is attached).  Daddy's also been doing a lot of sanding inside the hull and he cut out the hole for the drain plug in the bottom of the transom today, also.  We've also dry fitted the gunnels and seat supports and pre-drilled them ready to epoxy on when the weather warms back up.

12-19.

No pictures yet, but this weekend we worked on the mast step, the king plank, and various other little parts and pieces.  The mast step will be a block made of pieces of maple, the king plank is a nice oak board from Seattle.  I'm learning family history as we go along - I had no idea my dad had worked at a furniture "oakery" in Seattle - that's where some of the random boards are from that have been in storage in the garage since before I was born!  There's no mention of the king plank on the plans, so we're just figuring it out step by step.  Had to cut down the spine piece to fit the board in, and we'll have to cut a notch out of frame 1 for it to rest in.  Also have to figure out how to get it to line up with the mast step so the mast doesn't come up at some crooked angle!  And we cut out quarter knees to go in the back corners of the boat for strength.

Today Daddy worked on a few more things while I played disc golf.  Glued the gunnels together (the boards we had were too short, so we  scarfed them to make long boards.  He also cut out some nice little supports for the edges of the centerboard cap/seat where the seat overhangs the centerboard case and cut out a couple test blocks to fit in between the sides and the inside gunnels (still not sure what these are actually called).

Sail has been ordered - egyptian cotton! - sounds exotic.  While the Blue Tang and my dad's Drascombe have dark red (tanbark) sails, I'm not a big fan of those, so we went with a white/off-white color.

12-11.

Today we worked on seat supports, inner railings (not actually sure what these are called), seats, and transom reinforcement.  

When we made the frames, the designs called for notches in frame 1 where the inner railings (I"m making this name up - I'll figure out what they're called later) are inserted.  These inner railings are kind of like a gunnel that run along the top of the side for a little side deck to be attached to.  There are notches in the top of each frame for the wood to sit in, but on frame 1, the wood won't fit because the notches were designed at 90 degree angles, without taking into account that the wood fitting in would be coming in at an angle, following the curve of the boat.  

So we had to cut out the notches at an angle with the Japanese handsaw (until we realized there are nails in the frame that messed up the saw blade) and hacksaw and chisel out the openings to fit that inner railing at the right angle.  The gaps left will be filled with epoxy.  Just one more little thing overlooked in the plans that would have been helpful and made the boat building less sloppy if it had been addressed initially.  

We also had a few screws poking out into the boat that I ground down so that when someone reaches a hand way back into the seat compartment they aren't rudely grabbed and mauled by a sharp point.

And we made the seats.  We decided to save some money here because we are commissioning a mast from a local carpenter.  The mast is going to be amazing and hollow and expensive - more on this later.  So we went with cardboard and duct tape for the seats, which is also easier to work with than wood and epoxy.  They fit nicely.  Slap a little epoxy on for strength, and we're good to go (only rated to 150 lbs, sorry guys).

Just kidding - the cardboard cutouts are just to get an idea to trace onto plywood when we're ready to construct the seats.

In the picture above, you can also notice a change we made from the plans.  The plans call for a deck going across the whole boat between frames 2 and 3 (where the seats begin up front to where the centerboard case ends (the curly maple seat in the middle)).  We decided we wanted more leg room and less seat/decking covering everything up, and we wanted more access to the centerboard case, AND the supports for the seat on the centerboard case are too low - not flush with the frames or seat supports on the sides.  This we thought might have been our mistake, but with checking and rechecking measurements many, many times, it appears that we followed the plans and that this is another (bank) error, (not in your favor, do not collect $100.)  


Anyways, since we decided to leave that space open for foot room, we cut off the tops of frame 3 so that we wouldn't have shin hitters in the middle of the cockpit.  Instead we now just have toe stubbers!  But we have to deal with those because they are structurally supporting the boat and are indispensable.

A curlicue of curly maple :)

We debated between cypress and maple for a reinforcement for the top of the transom.  Decided on curly maple, to keep continuity with the rudder, tiller, and rowing seat/centerboard cap.  Found a beautifully grained piece and traced the top curve of the transom onto it, cut that out, and used the bridge from the cut out to trace a matching bottom curve.  We will also match the curves of the transom doublers to the ends of this maple.  This piece will be varnished to show off the wood.

12-5.

This feels like real progress!!  Last weekend we finally flipped the boat over.  Daddy prepared by unscrewing all of the legs from the strongback (ladder on the floor), then we laid out burlap and boat cushions to protect the hull, and brought over one more strong body to lift the boat.  Carried it outside and turned it over.  It was a lot lighter than we were expecting, which is good.  

We unscrewed the legs from the frames, and got it looking almost like a real boat.

She is very wide - my dad calls her a tub.  We'll see what it feels like in the water.  Here you can really see what the insides look like now with the frames that we started construction with, to the seat supports and stringers running the length of the boat, the centerboard case, and the side, chine, and bottom panels.

There is much sanding in our future - this area between frames one and two is open, so all the messy epoxy has to be cleaned up and looking nice and smooth before we paint.  The mast will come down to the mast step towards the front of this area.  In front of frame one (the big piece with a hole in it) will be a compartment with an access port, and a deck over the top.

Once we were finished admiring, we carried the boat back into the carport and rested it back on the strongback, padded with burlap bags.

The bow seems really tall - I think it should have a figurehead.

We cut off the remaining piece of plywood sticking out of the bow and cut down the side panels flush with the top of the frames.
An exciting weekend!

End of November/Beginning of December

Still working on finishing up the rudder, rudder stock, and tiller.  Adding coats of epoxy, sanding, adding more epoxy, fiberglassing, etc. 

Messed up on the rudder stock here while trying to save fiberglass - good thing we caught it before we glued it down - I traced the rudder stock, then for some reason had to re-trace, leaving a sharpie mark down the middle.  That would've looked great!  We just traced it out on a clean piece, and have avoided any more rogue sharpie marks.  

We've contacted a sail maker and a local carpenter for the mast.  Updates to come.  In the meantime, while you're waiting for the next big post, coming soon with major updates(!), here is a cute picture of Shadowfax cozy under her giraffe blankie.  She turned a year old around Thanksgiving.

11-21 (more lead!) and 11-23.

Melted lead from Jim Wells Tires (the things they use to align car wheels).  We just guessed on how much we needed for the hole we had cut out in the bottom of the rudder.  (Oh yeah, this is another thing that was omitted in the plans - an uphaul rudder will just float up in the water without weight in it, so we had to make a hole and add lead to the bottom on the rudder, like we did in the centerboard).

If you can't tell, I really enjoy melting lead.  

And a video: we poured the lead into a piece of scrap wood, with the same size hole as in the rudder.  We  were trying to avoid any burning of the rudder, because as you can see after the lead is poured in there is lots of smoking, which is wood burning.

The next day (lead was cool), Daddy popped it out of the scrap and into the rudder - and it fit well.  There was a little bit of space, so we filled it with liquid epoxy mixed with red cedar dust.  

Tonight (23rd), Daddy painted the tiller and rudder stock with epoxy - for these pretty woods we are using a special hardener that stays especially clear to show off the wood!  He also went ahead and fiberglassed the rudder.  That will be cleaned up once it's all dry, and they'll all get more coats of epoxy.

11-20.

Sanded the top of the rudder down to make final adjustments for it to fit nicely into the rudder stock. 

More sanding on the rudder and stock.  Tapered the leading and trailing edges of the rudder (first with planer, then belt sander, last by hand).  Used general guidelines from the Blue Tang since there was no mention of doing this in the Truant plans.

 Glued the rudder stock together.  Used a few screws to hold it in place along with plenty of clamps.

The set of red cedar and curly maple pieces - tiller, stock, and rudder.  Before epoxy.