Project Information
Between a new job, various programs we run for and projects we do with disadvantaged kids, building my living roof workshop, and replumbing the house, we ended up pretty burned out come late spring.
The county 4H foundation has a big annual fundraiser, we had to go early in the morning to take a bunch of cakes "our" kids had baked, and were scheduled to take a bunch of kids to volunteer with the cleanup, but in between there we took a few hours to go hang out at Santa Rosa's Spring Lake park. Sitting there on the shore, watching various people in boats hanging out on the water, we thought "that looks quite pleasant", and we decided that we needed to dedicate some time to ourselves and build a boat.
So we built a boat. We started on Memorial Day weekend, on the 4th weekend we took it for a test sail. This last weekend we took the boat out for a longer sail on Lake Sonoma, a space shared with powerboats and water skiers, and we're starting to feel a little more comfortable in it. There are a few tweaks we'll be doing, but…
Since this is a woodworking site, let's talk about the woodworking:
First off, this was my first experience using PL Premium as a glue. It's a construction adhesive form factor (ie: caulk tube) polyurethane glue. Very strong, very waterproof, allegedly has some good long lifespan. Horrible to clean off of hands, we've got a lot of squeeze out. We'll have to strategize differently about this next time, either religiously wiping out the squeeze out and hoping the varnish doesn't look too different on those spaces, or using epoxy.
The tapered mast was turned on an ad-hoc router lathe built from a couple of 2×4s. I will definitely be looking for a basic motor and speed controller (maybe something I can just put together out of a stepper motor I've got lying around) to build a better headstock for a more formal router lathe.
Lots of hand tools. The plywood was all cut with a Bakuma 300 Japanese style pull saw, which rocks, and a lot of block plane action. And the block planes (yes, we have two of them!) got a lot of workout, from cleaning up the edges of the plywood to rounding the spars (which were too thin to round with the router lathe).
Redwood: Nice and soft to work with hand tools, a little soft for gunwales.
The experience of working with the curved luan plywood, and the amazing strength that comes from the inner and outer gunwales with spacer blocks, has me thinking about ways to use similar structures in cabinetry and furniture.
I will be continuing to keep notes and observations, including much more on the sailing portions of my experience at my personal web site notes on the Summer Breeze sailboat. If you haven't tried boat building, it's a blast, and if you wanted to do this out of doug fir rather than redwood you could be sailing for probably about two hundred bucks. Plus registration fees: keep your receipts so that when you have to tell the DMV where you got the boat you have the paperwork!
The county 4H foundation has a big annual fundraiser, we had to go early in the morning to take a bunch of cakes "our" kids had baked, and were scheduled to take a bunch of kids to volunteer with the cleanup, but in between there we took a few hours to go hang out at Santa Rosa's Spring Lake park. Sitting there on the shore, watching various people in boats hanging out on the water, we thought "that looks quite pleasant", and we decided that we needed to dedicate some time to ourselves and build a boat.
So we built a boat. We started on Memorial Day weekend, on the 4th weekend we took it for a test sail. This last weekend we took the boat out for a longer sail on Lake Sonoma, a space shared with powerboats and water skiers, and we're starting to feel a little more comfortable in it. There are a few tweaks we'll be doing, but…
Since this is a woodworking site, let's talk about the woodworking:
First off, this was my first experience using PL Premium as a glue. It's a construction adhesive form factor (ie: caulk tube) polyurethane glue. Very strong, very waterproof, allegedly has some good long lifespan. Horrible to clean off of hands, we've got a lot of squeeze out. We'll have to strategize differently about this next time, either religiously wiping out the squeeze out and hoping the varnish doesn't look too different on those spaces, or using epoxy.
The tapered mast was turned on an ad-hoc router lathe built from a couple of 2×4s. I will definitely be looking for a basic motor and speed controller (maybe something I can just put together out of a stepper motor I've got lying around) to build a better headstock for a more formal router lathe.
Lots of hand tools. The plywood was all cut with a Bakuma 300 Japanese style pull saw, which rocks, and a lot of block plane action. And the block planes (yes, we have two of them!) got a lot of workout, from cleaning up the edges of the plywood to rounding the spars (which were too thin to round with the router lathe).
Redwood: Nice and soft to work with hand tools, a little soft for gunwales.
The experience of working with the curved luan plywood, and the amazing strength that comes from the inner and outer gunwales with spacer blocks, has me thinking about ways to use similar structures in cabinetry and furniture.
I will be continuing to keep notes and observations, including much more on the sailing portions of my experience at my personal web site notes on the Summer Breeze sailboat. If you haven't tried boat building, it's a blast, and if you wanted to do this out of doug fir rather than redwood you could be sailing for probably about two hundred bucks. Plus registration fees: keep your receipts so that when you have to tell the DMV where you got the boat you have the paperwork!