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#1 ·
The Smaug Blog: Wood Boatbuilding 101, A Trip to the Sawmill

To those of you who have requested more photos and explanations of my boatbuilding days, thank you for sending me into my stacks of old photos and allowing me the enjoyment of remembering a youth spent doing what I loved and creating just really cool stuff. My days building wooden boats, from age 22 to 55, are all magical memories to me from the aromatic smell of yellow cedar coming out of the planer to the amazing geometrical shapes of bent frames to the sheer mass of some of the timbers we shaped with chainsaws, adzes, planes and chisels. (I may enjoy this reminiscence more than you, the reader.)

To start the show I will go through some of the photos of "Smaug" the 34' Pinky Ketch I built in 1978 in my shop in Coal Harbour B.C.. I say 1978 because she was laid out and the hull built that year. She was completed on the owners' timetable
over the next couple of years.

The first requirement is of course to gather together the required materials. This required a trip to the sawmill in Telegraph Cove. The mill is no longer there but in 1978 it was in full operation and was located a very short distance from a dry sorting yard where I was able to pick out a couple of good looking yellow cedar logs and have them floated over to the mill. Then one fine sunny morning I went to the mill and stood beside the sawyer and watched as each slab was taken off. Depending on the quality, I would choose the size for the next cut and the sawyer would run the piece. If the log was clear where we were cutting, I would ask for 1 3/4" for planking and beam stock. If it had a few knots we would cut thicker stock for timbers and so on. This place smelled like heaven but was noisy as hell. Here are the earliest photos of what would become "Smaug"

One log section is in the headrig as another awaits it's turn.

Wood Brick Brickwork Building Beam


This piece would have been clear enough to render planking.

Wood Water Road surface Asphalt Floor


This is about 1/2 of what I got from two logs. The larger timbers were for a troller that a local fisherman wanted me to build. He backed out and I still have one of the 10Ă—10s.

Sky Wood Building Lumber Hardwood


I'll try to get back to this tomorrow and go through the backbone timbers and framing.

Feedback is encouraged. Criticism is always welcome also, I'm new to blogging.

Can anyone suggest what tags to put on this?... Thanks.

'Till next time

Paul
 

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#163 ·
The Catboats: Framed Plywood Construction, Finished Photos and Sailing.

Well, the construction part of this blog is over such as it was, so it's time for a few shots of the finished boats. Again the differences will be evident between the economical build and the "luxury suite".

This is the only interior shot I have of Catspaw after all the time I owned her. She's every bit as comfortable and useful as Sylvester, but nowhere near as pretty. The interior layout of these boats is almost exactly the same as "Friendship" http://lumberjocks.com/projects/37786 , the exception being that although two feet shorter, the catboats are much bigger inside.
Property Shorts Window Comfort T-shirt


These are some interior photos of Sylvester. Notable details are the mahogany and yellow cedar louvered doors, book shelves, wood burning stove and heavy bronze portlights. The Brynzeel plywood cabin sides were more than eight feet long so they too had to be scarfed. You can just see the scarf behind the port above the seat in the last photo. These had to be done on the table saw with a rather large jig to make a stepped scarf that would show as little as possible and as a thin line both inside and out. The scarf was of course arranged to land on the porthole area.
Motor vehicle Vehicle Wood Vehicle door Automotive exterior


Vehicle Motor vehicle Wood Classic Automotive lighting


Wood Tree Vehicle Leisure Hardwood


Wood Motor vehicle Hardwood Classic Chair


This is an old black and white of Catspaw when she was sailing in Hardy Bay, Port Hardy B.C. With her very shallow draft forward you could actually pull her up on the beach and step off on dry land. The ship's dog is my best friend of the day "Freda".
Water Boat Plant Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Watercourse


Sailing shots of Sylvester, Catspaw and the somewhat rare photo these days of two catboats sailing together.
Water Boat Watercraft Mast Vehicle


Water Sky Boat Watercraft Sailing


Water Boat Watercraft Mast Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies


And last but not least the boat builder's favorite photo of a custom build: From the stern leaving the yard to start her new life.
Tire Vehicle Car Wheel Plant


That's it for this one folks. If you're still interested I could do a couple of cold molded "Cape Scott 36's" That I built in the 80's and I still have one secret group of boats to post one day…. Several of you have probably actually been on a boat that I built.

Just a tease, I'll get around to them.

Comments, questions critiques are always welcome.

Bye for now

Paul
 

Attachments

#164 ·
The Catboats: Framed Plywood Construction, Finished Photos and Sailing.

Well, the construction part of this blog is over such as it was, so it's time for a few shots of the finished boats. Again the differences will be evident between the economical build and the "luxury suite".

This is the only interior shot I have of Catspaw after all the time I owned her. She's every bit as comfortable and useful as Sylvester, but nowhere near as pretty. The interior layout of these boats is almost exactly the same as "Friendship" http://lumberjocks.com/projects/37786 , the exception being that although two feet shorter, the catboats are much bigger inside.
Property Shorts Window Comfort T-shirt


These are some interior photos of Sylvester. Notable details are the mahogany and yellow cedar louvered doors, book shelves, wood burning stove and heavy bronze portlights. The Brynzeel plywood cabin sides were more than eight feet long so they too had to be scarfed. You can just see the scarf behind the port above the seat in the last photo. These had to be done on the table saw with a rather large jig to make a stepped scarf that would show as little as possible and as a thin line both inside and out. The scarf was of course arranged to land on the porthole area.
Motor vehicle Vehicle Wood Vehicle door Automotive exterior


Vehicle Motor vehicle Wood Classic Automotive lighting


Wood Tree Vehicle Leisure Hardwood


Wood Motor vehicle Hardwood Classic Chair


This is an old black and white of Catspaw when she was sailing in Hardy Bay, Port Hardy B.C. With her very shallow draft forward you could actually pull her up on the beach and step off on dry land. The ship's dog is my best friend of the day "Freda".
Water Boat Plant Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Watercourse


Sailing shots of Sylvester, Catspaw and the somewhat rare photo these days of two catboats sailing together.
Water Boat Watercraft Mast Vehicle


Water Sky Boat Watercraft Sailing


Water Boat Watercraft Mast Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies


And last but not least the boat builder's favorite photo of a custom build: From the stern leaving the yard to start her new life.
Tire Vehicle Car Wheel Plant


That's it for this one folks. If you're still interested I could do a couple of cold molded "Cape Scott 36's" That I built in the 80's and I still have one secret group of boats to post one day…. Several of you have probably actually been on a boat that I built.

Just a tease, I'll get around to them.

Comments, questions critiques are always welcome.

Bye for now

Paul
well done paul

i worked the boats
for 10 years in ft. lauderdale
mostly stinkpots
as sailors prefer to do the work themselves

did help lot's of friends though
on sailers

brings lot's of memories

thanks
 

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#175 ·
Two Cape Scott 36's: Cold Molded Construction

This is the third in a series of blogs on the different types of wooden boat construction I've done. The first two covered traditional carvel planking and framed plywood construction. This one will concentrate on a method called "cold molding". Cold molding refers to the fashioning of a hull form by gluing up layers of thin planking in different orientations much like a sheet of plywood is made, but in this case it takes the shape of a boat.

There are several methods by which a cold molded hull can be built. There can be several very thin layers or fewer thicker ones. There can be opposing diagonals over a form of temporary molds, bulkheads and permanent battens, or the hull can be laid up over a solid re-usable mold and removed as a shell, or it can be built with an initial layer of strip planking covered over with two or more thin diagonal layers. There are also combinations and modifications to all of the above. The important thing is that they are all glued up monocoque hulls that exhibit very high strength to weight ratios.

Olfara and Stevador (see my projects) were built with three layers (1/4") of diagonal planking over temporary molds, bulkheads and permanent battens. Olfara's planking is all Honduras Mahogany while Stevador has two layers of Sitka Spruce (to reduce weight and give a light color to the interior) and one Mahogany on the outside for durability.

The first photo shows the oak plywood bulkheads and behind them, the temporary molds, ready to be assembled on the strongback timbers that will form the rigid foundation required to keep everything in line. The Oak plywood has had two coats of epoxy sealer to protect the thin surface veneer during construction.

Wood Gas Facade Art Space


Here the bulkheads and molds are being set up on the strongback timbers, trued up to be plumb, level and square. As you can see these hulls will be built upside down. The messy looking pile over by the wall is 6000 lbs of lead sheathings stripped from old electrical cable. I'll never use cable sheathings again. We'll come to that later.
Wood Gas Machine Engineering Composite material


Now the stern timber is being laminated up out of sixteen layers of 1/4" H. Mahogany. This was done in stages and required MANY more clamps than you see here. We often took most of the clamps off after several hours, when the epoxy was almost fully cured but left enough to avoid stressing the joint until full cure was obtained. The heavy blocking is just a form and was removed as soon as the stern timber was cured up.

Wood Naval architecture Space Engineering Metal


The stem was a much easier lamination and was made up of 3/4" layers. Again there were many more clamps than seen here. I think this picture is actually a dry fitting.

Wood Tints and shades Automotive wheel system Composite material Metal


Here the permanent battens are being fitted (Yellow Cedar) and the stem is being faired and shaped to match their changing angles. The bulkheads have been notched to accept the battens and the battens will be glued into them, making them rigid structural members. The temporary molds are smaller and the battens rest on top of them.

Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Composite material Gas Automotive exterior


This is basically the same thing as the last photo but at the stern. It was a truly challenging stern to build. The rough shaping you see here was done with a power plane. Once all the battens are in place the final fairing is done with a disc sander.

Wood Naval architecture Composite material Plywood Hardwood


Final shot for today. This one belongs somewhere between the last few but shows the whole boat. The backbone (stem, keelson and stern timber) is in place but not yet faired in to accept the skin, the sheer clamps have been added and the battens are being installed.

Boat Naval architecture Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Vehicle


Next time , Planking cold molding style.

Thanks for dropping by. hope you're having fun. I still am.

Comments, questions and critiques are always welcome.

Thanks again.

Paul
 

Attachments

#176 ·
Two Cape Scott 36's: Cold Molded Construction

This is the third in a series of blogs on the different types of wooden boat construction I've done. The first two covered traditional carvel planking and framed plywood construction. This one will concentrate on a method called "cold molding". Cold molding refers to the fashioning of a hull form by gluing up layers of thin planking in different orientations much like a sheet of plywood is made, but in this case it takes the shape of a boat.

There are several methods by which a cold molded hull can be built. There can be several very thin layers or fewer thicker ones. There can be opposing diagonals over a form of temporary molds, bulkheads and permanent battens, or the hull can be laid up over a solid re-usable mold and removed as a shell, or it can be built with an initial layer of strip planking covered over with two or more thin diagonal layers. There are also combinations and modifications to all of the above. The important thing is that they are all glued up monocoque hulls that exhibit very high strength to weight ratios.

Olfara and Stevador (see my projects) were built with three layers (1/4") of diagonal planking over temporary molds, bulkheads and permanent battens. Olfara's planking is all Honduras Mahogany while Stevador has two layers of Sitka Spruce (to reduce weight and give a light color to the interior) and one Mahogany on the outside for durability.

The first photo shows the oak plywood bulkheads and behind them, the temporary molds, ready to be assembled on the strongback timbers that will form the rigid foundation required to keep everything in line. The Oak plywood has had two coats of epoxy sealer to protect the thin surface veneer during construction.

Wood Gas Facade Art Space


Here the bulkheads and molds are being set up on the strongback timbers, trued up to be plumb, level and square. As you can see these hulls will be built upside down. The messy looking pile over by the wall is 6000 lbs of lead sheathings stripped from old electrical cable. I'll never use cable sheathings again. We'll come to that later.
Wood Gas Machine Engineering Composite material


Now the stern timber is being laminated up out of sixteen layers of 1/4" H. Mahogany. This was done in stages and required MANY more clamps than you see here. We often took most of the clamps off after several hours, when the epoxy was almost fully cured but left enough to avoid stressing the joint until full cure was obtained. The heavy blocking is just a form and was removed as soon as the stern timber was cured up.

Wood Naval architecture Space Engineering Metal


The stem was a much easier lamination and was made up of 3/4" layers. Again there were many more clamps than seen here. I think this picture is actually a dry fitting.

Wood Tints and shades Automotive wheel system Composite material Metal


Here the permanent battens are being fitted (Yellow Cedar) and the stem is being faired and shaped to match their changing angles. The bulkheads have been notched to accept the battens and the battens will be glued into them, making them rigid structural members. The temporary molds are smaller and the battens rest on top of them.

Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Composite material Gas Automotive exterior


This is basically the same thing as the last photo but at the stern. It was a truly challenging stern to build. The rough shaping you see here was done with a power plane. Once all the battens are in place the final fairing is done with a disc sander.

Wood Naval architecture Composite material Plywood Hardwood


Final shot for today. This one belongs somewhere between the last few but shows the whole boat. The backbone (stem, keelson and stern timber) is in place but not yet faired in to accept the skin, the sheer clamps have been added and the battens are being installed.

Boat Naval architecture Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Vehicle


Next time , Planking cold molding style.

Thanks for dropping by. hope you're having fun. I still am.

Comments, questions and critiques are always welcome.

Thanks again.

Paul
That is exceptionally cool.
 

Attachments

#183 ·
Cold Molded Planking

I have to apologize for my lack of a lot of photos of this stage. I guess it just seemed to boring to take a lot of photos at the time. Anyway there are enough to give you the general idea.

The first layer in this style of cold molding is applied on a diagonal as shown below. The exact angle is found by making several trial bends in different parts of the hull. The one that allows the easiest bends in the greatest number of places is the one to choose, if that makes any sense. This layer is epoxy glued to the stringers and bulkhead edges but care is taken not to glue the edges of adjoining planks together. This is because at only 1/4" thickness they will bend slightly differently and will not align exactly with each other. If this hull looks different to you,that's because it is. This is Stevador, with it's higher sides aft. I didn't have any early photos of planking Olfara.

Building Wood Naval architecture Composite material Beam


This is actually the third layer but for a moment, think of it as the second. The second layer is epoxied to the first and edge glued to it's neighbors and as the layers are drawn together with sheet metal screws, any high and low plank edges in the first layer are brought into line. As the planks are snugged up together, excess glue fills the joints between the planks in the first layer and everything levels out nicely. The sheet metal screws are removed and re-used and as you can see in this photo the holes left behind are filled in the third layer. In the first and second layers this is not necessary as glue will be forced into them when the next layer is squeezed down on top of them. The piece nearest us in the photo is being temporarily held in place by loosely fitting cleats so that it's far edge can be scribed to perfectly match the plank behind it, already glued down. That scribe line will be cut on the band saw and will then fit snugly against the previous plank. The other side will remain straight and the next piece will be fitted to it and so on down the hull.

Automotive tire Tire Wood Tread Wood stain


This picture was probably taken at the same time as the last one but from further back. It shows a good view of the hull with two layers finished and the third started. These are the easy parts. It gets a little trickier around that stern.

Wood Gas Composite material Shade Building


The view from the bow after planking is complete. The stem and keel areas have been planed down ready to accept further laminations to finish off the shape.

Window Wood Tints and shades Fixture Composite material


This is the same thing except from the stern. Here the centerline has not yet been planed off. In the stern where the shape is extreme, the difference in planking is the amount that gets trimmed off from the scribing. Some of these pieces will be quite wide in the middle and quite narrow on the ends. They may also need to be narrower pieces to start with than in the forward and central areas.

!
Wood Sculpture Art Composite material Automotive tire


I'm going to toss in a few photos here from planking my own boat "Friendship" http://lumberjocks.com/projects/37786 just to show another method of cold molding. This one is my own modification of the "strip plank " method where a layer of thicker strips is first laid up over temporary molds and is then covered by thinner diagonals. My modification was to shape my planks in the first layer more like carvel planks instead of using many many, more narrower strips as is usual in this method. I used a bead and cove edge to keep them aligned and escape the very labor intensive edge fastening used in strip planking.

Wood Automotive design Flooring Engineering Naval architecture


Here she is with the first longitudinal layer complete.

Naval architecture Boat Wood Vehicle Flooring


The first layer here was 5/16" followed by two opposing diagonal layers of 1/8" each. Now that's a tough stern to plank! It doesn't look too tough here but think about the first layer.

Wood Natural material Flooring Automotive exterior Metal


This method produces a hull that is completely clean on the inside and can be sanded smooth. This is really a good thing on a small boat like Friendship. The battens would have robbed her of a lot of very precious space.

Boat Wood Naval architecture Window Hardwood


There, I'm sure we've all had enough for tonight. Next time we'll roll them over and pour some lead keels.

Thanks for dropping in.

Comments and questions welcome.

Paul
 

Attachments

#184 ·
Cold Molded Planking

I have to apologize for my lack of a lot of photos of this stage. I guess it just seemed to boring to take a lot of photos at the time. Anyway there are enough to give you the general idea.

The first layer in this style of cold molding is applied on a diagonal as shown below. The exact angle is found by making several trial bends in different parts of the hull. The one that allows the easiest bends in the greatest number of places is the one to choose, if that makes any sense. This layer is epoxy glued to the stringers and bulkhead edges but care is taken not to glue the edges of adjoining planks together. This is because at only 1/4" thickness they will bend slightly differently and will not align exactly with each other. If this hull looks different to you,that's because it is. This is Stevador, with it's higher sides aft. I didn't have any early photos of planking Olfara.

Building Wood Naval architecture Composite material Beam


This is actually the third layer but for a moment, think of it as the second. The second layer is epoxied to the first and edge glued to it's neighbors and as the layers are drawn together with sheet metal screws, any high and low plank edges in the first layer are brought into line. As the planks are snugged up together, excess glue fills the joints between the planks in the first layer and everything levels out nicely. The sheet metal screws are removed and re-used and as you can see in this photo the holes left behind are filled in the third layer. In the first and second layers this is not necessary as glue will be forced into them when the next layer is squeezed down on top of them. The piece nearest us in the photo is being temporarily held in place by loosely fitting cleats so that it's far edge can be scribed to perfectly match the plank behind it, already glued down. That scribe line will be cut on the band saw and will then fit snugly against the previous plank. The other side will remain straight and the next piece will be fitted to it and so on down the hull.

Automotive tire Tire Wood Tread Wood stain


This picture was probably taken at the same time as the last one but from further back. It shows a good view of the hull with two layers finished and the third started. These are the easy parts. It gets a little trickier around that stern.

Wood Gas Composite material Shade Building


The view from the bow after planking is complete. The stem and keel areas have been planed down ready to accept further laminations to finish off the shape.

Window Wood Tints and shades Fixture Composite material


This is the same thing except from the stern. Here the centerline has not yet been planed off. In the stern where the shape is extreme, the difference in planking is the amount that gets trimmed off from the scribing. Some of these pieces will be quite wide in the middle and quite narrow on the ends. They may also need to be narrower pieces to start with than in the forward and central areas.

!
Wood Sculpture Art Composite material Automotive tire


I'm going to toss in a few photos here from planking my own boat "Friendship" http://lumberjocks.com/projects/37786 just to show another method of cold molding. This one is my own modification of the "strip plank " method where a layer of thicker strips is first laid up over temporary molds and is then covered by thinner diagonals. My modification was to shape my planks in the first layer more like carvel planks instead of using many many, more narrower strips as is usual in this method. I used a bead and cove edge to keep them aligned and escape the very labor intensive edge fastening used in strip planking.

Wood Automotive design Flooring Engineering Naval architecture


Here she is with the first longitudinal layer complete.

Naval architecture Boat Wood Vehicle Flooring


The first layer here was 5/16" followed by two opposing diagonal layers of 1/8" each. Now that's a tough stern to plank! It doesn't look too tough here but think about the first layer.

Wood Natural material Flooring Automotive exterior Metal


This method produces a hull that is completely clean on the inside and can be sanded smooth. This is really a good thing on a small boat like Friendship. The battens would have robbed her of a lot of very precious space.

Boat Wood Naval architecture Window Hardwood


There, I'm sure we've all had enough for tonight. Next time we'll roll them over and pour some lead keels.

Thanks for dropping in.

Comments and questions welcome.

Paul
A picture is worth 1000 words!

Very interesting. I've never seen a boat being built from scratch. Much like a fiddle I'm sure?
 

Attachments

#198 ·
Rolling Hulls Over and Pouring Lead Keels

Once the hull is planked, it is skinned with 6 oz. fiberglass cloth set in epoxy and faired using several tinted coats of a high build epoxy primer and quite a lot of sandpaper. The last coat is grey and only sanded enough to knock off the dust nibs.

Here the skin is on but the spray-on fairing primer has not yet been applied. The white patches are epoxy filler applied between the wood and the 'glass with a batten screed to fill the more pronounced low spots.

Tent Wood Tarpaulin Shade Triangle


In this photo the last primer is on and we're ready to roll her over. The rolling jigs are in place, bolted through the keelson and the sheer strakes in places that won't show later.

Wood Shade Tints and shades Motor vehicle Automotive exterior


The first job is to lift on one side until the hull rests on the first flat side of the rolling jig. This is a fairly tense time as there a lot of balls in the air so to speak. Stops to check balance and move shim blocking are frequent.

Wheel Tire Vehicle Wood Motor vehicle


Once the hull rests on the first flat, the forklift moves to the other side and lowers it down onto the second flat. Then the scary part is over and it's just a matter of tipping her upright. This photo shows her about half way down to the second flat , an interesting view and the first time we get to see the inside from any distance.

Boat Naval architecture Wood Vehicle Composite material


Once upright, she's set up in a temporary cradle to await the keel.

Wood Vehicle Naval architecture Composite material Boat


Olfara had a foil shaped keel so a plug of the same shape (but 1/8" per foot larger to account for shrinkage) was built first according to offsets provided by the designer. This is a plug of the lead only. The area above the diagonal surface will be filled by the wooden part of the keel. As you can see the lead is concentrated in the forward part of this keel.
Wood Rectangle Composite material Tints and shades Stairs


Next a strongly reinforced plywood box is built . The plug is placed in it and concrete is poured around the plug which is then removed leaving a mold space for the lead. We placed 3/4" copper pipes in the mold, wired in place exactly where the keel bolts would go. This is way easier than trying to drill two feet of lead with extreme accuracy.

Wood Gas Composite material Metal Road surface


In the last segment I mentioned that we'd get to the issue of the lead cable sheathings later. Well this is later. Apparently these cables were wrapped up in lead and lubricated / protected / insulated / whatever with oily PCB kind of nasty stuff. That's what that smoke I'm standing in is made of. I'm skimming the floating slag off the top of the molten lead here. The melting pot is an old hydraulic oil tank salvaged from a commercial fish boat reno welded to a 1/2" steel plate and surrounded by fire bricks for insulation. There is a valve on the front at the bottom and heat is supplied by two tiger torches running on propane.

Wood Metalworking Gas Cooking Blue-collar worker


This is a great photo, to me anyway. It shows pure liquid lead flowing freely into the mold. This is really a fun moment (PCB's aside). If you add the lead at the correct rate, pour at the correct rate and have the right amount of heat you can, and we did, pour 6000 pounds of lead in a single uninterrupted stream

Automotive tire Ash Asphalt Wood Gas


Here's the new keel being lifted out of the mold. No release problems with lead as it shrinks when it cools. Bloody considerate of it don't you think?

.
Wheel Tire Automotive tire Motor vehicle Wood


Enough for now. I'm being called away.

Comments and questions welcome.

Later

Paul
 

Attachments

#199 ·
Rolling Hulls Over and Pouring Lead Keels

Once the hull is planked, it is skinned with 6 oz. fiberglass cloth set in epoxy and faired using several tinted coats of a high build epoxy primer and quite a lot of sandpaper. The last coat is grey and only sanded enough to knock off the dust nibs.

Here the skin is on but the spray-on fairing primer has not yet been applied. The white patches are epoxy filler applied between the wood and the 'glass with a batten screed to fill the more pronounced low spots.

Tent Wood Tarpaulin Shade Triangle


In this photo the last primer is on and we're ready to roll her over. The rolling jigs are in place, bolted through the keelson and the sheer strakes in places that won't show later.

Wood Shade Tints and shades Motor vehicle Automotive exterior


The first job is to lift on one side until the hull rests on the first flat side of the rolling jig. This is a fairly tense time as there a lot of balls in the air so to speak. Stops to check balance and move shim blocking are frequent.

Wheel Tire Vehicle Wood Motor vehicle


Once the hull rests on the first flat, the forklift moves to the other side and lowers it down onto the second flat. Then the scary part is over and it's just a matter of tipping her upright. This photo shows her about half way down to the second flat , an interesting view and the first time we get to see the inside from any distance.

Boat Naval architecture Wood Vehicle Composite material


Once upright, she's set up in a temporary cradle to await the keel.

Wood Vehicle Naval architecture Composite material Boat


Olfara had a foil shaped keel so a plug of the same shape (but 1/8" per foot larger to account for shrinkage) was built first according to offsets provided by the designer. This is a plug of the lead only. The area above the diagonal surface will be filled by the wooden part of the keel. As you can see the lead is concentrated in the forward part of this keel.
Wood Rectangle Composite material Tints and shades Stairs


Next a strongly reinforced plywood box is built . The plug is placed in it and concrete is poured around the plug which is then removed leaving a mold space for the lead. We placed 3/4" copper pipes in the mold, wired in place exactly where the keel bolts would go. This is way easier than trying to drill two feet of lead with extreme accuracy.

Wood Gas Composite material Metal Road surface


In the last segment I mentioned that we'd get to the issue of the lead cable sheathings later. Well this is later. Apparently these cables were wrapped up in lead and lubricated / protected / insulated / whatever with oily PCB kind of nasty stuff. That's what that smoke I'm standing in is made of. I'm skimming the floating slag off the top of the molten lead here. The melting pot is an old hydraulic oil tank salvaged from a commercial fish boat reno welded to a 1/2" steel plate and surrounded by fire bricks for insulation. There is a valve on the front at the bottom and heat is supplied by two tiger torches running on propane.

Wood Metalworking Gas Cooking Blue-collar worker


This is a great photo, to me anyway. It shows pure liquid lead flowing freely into the mold. This is really a fun moment (PCB's aside). If you add the lead at the correct rate, pour at the correct rate and have the right amount of heat you can, and we did, pour 6000 pounds of lead in a single uninterrupted stream

Automotive tire Ash Asphalt Wood Gas


Here's the new keel being lifted out of the mold. No release problems with lead as it shrinks when it cools. Bloody considerate of it don't you think?

.
Wheel Tire Automotive tire Motor vehicle Wood


Enough for now. I'm being called away.

Comments and questions welcome.

Later

Paul
I see there are more aspects to boat building than I had assumed! This would be out my league.

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL
 

Attachments

#209 ·
Boring Bars and Custom Castings

One of the interesting tools that find a regular use in building boats is the boring bar. After the hull is finished and the time comes to install the engine and associated equipment one of the first jobs is to install the stern tube, the passage through which the shaft will penetrate the hull. It must be perfectly aligned with the output shaft of the engine but often must be drilled at an oblique angle to the skin of the hull. This challenge is overcome with a boring bar. It is simply a piece of bar of sufficient diameter to maintain stiffness over the required length but still be narrow enough to be significantly smaller than the required hole. A hole is drilled transversely through the bar near it's center and an adjustable fly cutter is installed and locked in place by a grub screw. One end is then turned down to fit in a drill chuck.

The boring bar being used here is 1" dia. stainless steel about eight feet long. After hacking a rough hole big enough to pass the bar through, bearings are set up inside and out as close to the eventual shaft line as the rough hole will allow. A few passes with the fly cutter will allow the bearings to be moved closer and soon they can be set up exactly on the shaft line with a string stretched from the center of the engine output to the center of the propeller position. These bearings are usually just holes in blocks of wood but they serve just fine.
Once the bearings are in final position inside and out the bar is re-inserted and the cutter is advanced slowly in fine cuts until the desired diameter is reached. The photo below shows the the bar and the inside bearing position in Olfara. You can even see the string that was used to set up the bearings.

Wood Grille Stairs Composite material Gas


This is the outside position. It's a very simple setup but would be difficult to do any other way.

Wood Bumper Gas Tints and shades Automotive exterior


Once the hole is cut the shaft tube(stern tube) is glued in place with epoxy and the shaft and it's water sealing gland are fitted. In this case the tube was ABS pipe and had no bearing in it. The outer bearing was in a cast bronze strut and the inner bearing was on the bronze casting you can see here.
Wood Beam Facade Symmetry Tints and shades


Another way this can be done is with a bronze tube with the stern bearing installed in it's outer end and the gland mounted directly on the inner end. This photo is of the inside shaft tube in Friendship.

Wood Floor Gas Engineering Flooring


When building custom yachts , you can't always find all the hardware you'd like to use. I used to make patterns and send them to a foundry in Vancouver and get castings done in aluminium bronze. This is a toe rail chock that I designed for Olfara. It's advantages are that it is closed so that your line won't slip out of it if you're rafted next to a higher vessel or dock, but the hole is big enough to pass your hand through with a line. Sailors will understand the advantage. There are mortises in the ends to accept the toe rail tenon ends and fit the toe rail flush and fair.

Wood Composite material Beam Roof Hardwood


This one is a double headstay + anchor roller casting for Olfara. Two headstays can be an advantage at sea, particularly for running with twin headsails, but even just for redundancy.

Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Composite material Wing Recreation


This one is a backstay tensioning lever. For the non-sailors an over center type tightener sort of like the chain tighteners truckers use except for sailing. I managed to get my company name on this one.
Tool Wood Ratchet Wrench Hand tool


The last one I have a photo of is this custom stanchion base for the lifelines , again on Olfara. It's not easy to find something off the shelf that fits the angles and style of a custom boat and if you make do with the store bought parts and make adjustments to account for them it always shows.
Wood Automotive tire Automotive design Automotive exterior Rim


I guess that's it for tonight. Next time I'll show some finished shots and the few sailimg photos I have of these boats.

Thanks for following and keep the questions coming. I'm happy to answer them.

Paul
 

Attachments

#210 ·
Boring Bars and Custom Castings

One of the interesting tools that find a regular use in building boats is the boring bar. After the hull is finished and the time comes to install the engine and associated equipment one of the first jobs is to install the stern tube, the passage through which the shaft will penetrate the hull. It must be perfectly aligned with the output shaft of the engine but often must be drilled at an oblique angle to the skin of the hull. This challenge is overcome with a boring bar. It is simply a piece of bar of sufficient diameter to maintain stiffness over the required length but still be narrow enough to be significantly smaller than the required hole. A hole is drilled transversely through the bar near it's center and an adjustable fly cutter is installed and locked in place by a grub screw. One end is then turned down to fit in a drill chuck.

The boring bar being used here is 1" dia. stainless steel about eight feet long. After hacking a rough hole big enough to pass the bar through, bearings are set up inside and out as close to the eventual shaft line as the rough hole will allow. A few passes with the fly cutter will allow the bearings to be moved closer and soon they can be set up exactly on the shaft line with a string stretched from the center of the engine output to the center of the propeller position. These bearings are usually just holes in blocks of wood but they serve just fine.
Once the bearings are in final position inside and out the bar is re-inserted and the cutter is advanced slowly in fine cuts until the desired diameter is reached. The photo below shows the the bar and the inside bearing position in Olfara. You can even see the string that was used to set up the bearings.

Wood Grille Stairs Composite material Gas


This is the outside position. It's a very simple setup but would be difficult to do any other way.

Wood Bumper Gas Tints and shades Automotive exterior


Once the hole is cut the shaft tube(stern tube) is glued in place with epoxy and the shaft and it's water sealing gland are fitted. In this case the tube was ABS pipe and had no bearing in it. The outer bearing was in a cast bronze strut and the inner bearing was on the bronze casting you can see here.
Wood Beam Facade Symmetry Tints and shades


Another way this can be done is with a bronze tube with the stern bearing installed in it's outer end and the gland mounted directly on the inner end. This photo is of the inside shaft tube in Friendship.

Wood Floor Gas Engineering Flooring


When building custom yachts , you can't always find all the hardware you'd like to use. I used to make patterns and send them to a foundry in Vancouver and get castings done in aluminium bronze. This is a toe rail chock that I designed for Olfara. It's advantages are that it is closed so that your line won't slip out of it if you're rafted next to a higher vessel or dock, but the hole is big enough to pass your hand through with a line. Sailors will understand the advantage. There are mortises in the ends to accept the toe rail tenon ends and fit the toe rail flush and fair.

Wood Composite material Beam Roof Hardwood


This one is a double headstay + anchor roller casting for Olfara. Two headstays can be an advantage at sea, particularly for running with twin headsails, but even just for redundancy.

Wood Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Composite material Wing Recreation


This one is a backstay tensioning lever. For the non-sailors an over center type tightener sort of like the chain tighteners truckers use except for sailing. I managed to get my company name on this one.
Tool Wood Ratchet Wrench Hand tool


The last one I have a photo of is this custom stanchion base for the lifelines , again on Olfara. It's not easy to find something off the shelf that fits the angles and style of a custom boat and if you make do with the store bought parts and make adjustments to account for them it always shows.
Wood Automotive tire Automotive design Automotive exterior Rim


I guess that's it for tonight. Next time I'll show some finished shots and the few sailimg photos I have of these boats.

Thanks for following and keep the questions coming. I'm happy to answer them.

Paul
Very interesting details. Thanks for sharing, now for the sailing photos.
 

Attachments

#216 ·
Keel Bolts

To answer some of the questions asked about the keel bolts after my last entry, here are some photos from Friendship that show the process a little better.

This is the lead keel for Friendship (900lbs) freshly poured and cooled. you can see the copper pipes, 1/2" in this case, sticking out. You can also see the effect of the molten lead on the pieces of plywood that were used to keep the pipes in position.
Road surface Wood Composite material Gas Flooring


This is the lead with the concrete mold broken off of it.
Wood Gas Composite material Flooring Metal


In this photo the lead has been laid on it's side and the wood keel has been clamped on and drilled through the pipes. Then it was bolted together and righted. Then, with the two bolted firmly together, the wood keel was planed and sanded to perfectly match the lead.
Wood Composite material Flooring Automotive exterior Tints and shades


The next step is to fix the wood keel to the hull permanently and drill through keelson using the holes in the wood keel as a guide. Now you have holes on the inside of the boat very close to their planned positions and the necessary strengthening pieces can be installed directly onto them.
Wood Automotive design Gas Flooring Metal


Prior to mounting the boat onto the lead keel, the keel is counterbored to recess the nuts on the bottom ends of the bronze keel bolts. Even on this small keel you can see how little room there is for error in placing these holes.

Wood Gas Road surface Automotive tire Composite material


Now a thick layer of epoxy is troweled onto the top of the keel….

Tire Wheel Vehicle Motor vehicle Automotive tire


and the boat is lowered into position. One person on the inside of the boat drops the bolts in, the bottom nuts are installed and then the top ones are tightened.
Boat Wheel Naval architecture Vehicle Watercraft


The excess epoxy is cleaned up and it's time to relax.

Boat Wheel Vehicle Tire Naval architecture


Sorry I wasn't clear the first time. This should clear up the foggy spots.

Thanks for the questions. They definitely make for a better experience for everyone.

Paul
 

Attachments

#217 ·
Keel Bolts

To answer some of the questions asked about the keel bolts after my last entry, here are some photos from Friendship that show the process a little better.

This is the lead keel for Friendship (900lbs) freshly poured and cooled. you can see the copper pipes, 1/2" in this case, sticking out. You can also see the effect of the molten lead on the pieces of plywood that were used to keep the pipes in position.
Road surface Wood Composite material Gas Flooring


This is the lead with the concrete mold broken off of it.
Wood Gas Composite material Flooring Metal


In this photo the lead has been laid on it's side and the wood keel has been clamped on and drilled through the pipes. Then it was bolted together and righted. Then, with the two bolted firmly together, the wood keel was planed and sanded to perfectly match the lead.
Wood Composite material Flooring Automotive exterior Tints and shades


The next step is to fix the wood keel to the hull permanently and drill through keelson using the holes in the wood keel as a guide. Now you have holes on the inside of the boat very close to their planned positions and the necessary strengthening pieces can be installed directly onto them.
Wood Automotive design Gas Flooring Metal


Prior to mounting the boat onto the lead keel, the keel is counterbored to recess the nuts on the bottom ends of the bronze keel bolts. Even on this small keel you can see how little room there is for error in placing these holes.

Wood Gas Road surface Automotive tire Composite material


Now a thick layer of epoxy is troweled onto the top of the keel….

Tire Wheel Vehicle Motor vehicle Automotive tire


and the boat is lowered into position. One person on the inside of the boat drops the bolts in, the bottom nuts are installed and then the top ones are tightened.
Boat Wheel Naval architecture Vehicle Watercraft


The excess epoxy is cleaned up and it's time to relax.

Boat Wheel Vehicle Tire Naval architecture


Sorry I wasn't clear the first time. This should clear up the foggy spots.

Thanks for the questions. They definitely make for a better experience for everyone.

Paul
That's impressive. I'm surprised you don't have a series on the Discovery channel or History channel about boat building…
 

Attachments

#222 ·
Finished, Launched and Sailing

Time to wind up the Cold Molded Construction edition of this little trip through my old shipyard, my old photos and my old memories. The following are about all the finished shots I have of these boats. Apparently I was more interested in the building than the product. ... Interesting.

On with the show. The first one is of the cockpit of Olfara. It's all teak and was all made up in the shop, even the wheel. The little bronze plate on the steering pedestal was my builder's plaque.

Water Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Vehicle


Midships looking aft, starboard side, Olfara. (Strangely I have no inside photos of Stevador) Nav station on the left, galley on the right and the aft stateroom door right center. The interior is oak and teak.

Wood Art Motor vehicle Stairs Plant


Looking forward from the galley toward the starboard side. Notice the chainplate doublers on the cabinside. This allowed very close sheeting of the genoa.
Kitchen sink Cabinetry Sink Tap Plumbing fixture


Forward port side looking aft. The engine was amidships in the box under the table. That left a huge space in the stern under the cockpit for storage.

Mode of transport Interior design Wood Motor vehicle Room


From the bottom of the companionway looking forward. This one shows the teak and white epoxy sole, galley cabinetry, overhead hatch and the serious roof camber.

Cabinetry Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood


This is what "custom building" means. If the customer wants a bath tub on his sailboat, he gets one. This one is made of plywood, epoxy, 'glass cloth and linear polyurethane paint. It was quite large too. We called it the sail locker. It's under a forward berth.

Brown Wood Interior design Floor Bathroom sink


Olfara gets launched. Notice the fin keel with skeg hung rudder. The owners always got to ride the boats into the water.

Boat Window Naval architecture Watercraft Vehicle


Stevador gets launched. She had the longer keel with the rudder on the aft end. That's the owner in the blue shirt. The other in the red is J.P., one of my crew.

Water Boat Sky Watercraft Vehicle


I have no good shots inside Stevador but you can imagine the great aft cabin inside this stern. We set her up so that almost all sail could be handled from a hatch in the wheelhouse roof. One point of interest in this photo is that you can see the chock castings from Olfara's toerails (see last entry) doing double duty here as fairleads for jib sheets leading from tracks on the afterdeck up to the control station on the house top. Sorry about all the terms but the sailors will understand.

Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Window Sky


Here we have the trial run for the innovative control position. We were a bit concerned that it wouldn't work as well as we hoped but it was for nothing. It worked very well indeed. In the last photo you could see the chocks / fairleads. In this one you can see how they worked. J. P. is sheeting the genoa here with a big self tailing winch in easy reach of the hatch position.

Boat Sky Plant community Water Naval architecture


I only got one chance to photograph Olfara sailing and it was snowing! You may also notice there was no wind…. Oh Well.
Water Boat Sky Watercraft Sailing


My shipyard was in Coal Harbour on the north end of Vancouver Island and our outlet to the Pacific was on the west coast. That made the maiden voyage for my boats (the ones that weren't trailered anyway) a trip around the notorious Cape Scott, the northern tip of the island. We called this model the "Cape Scott 36"and this is a photo I took from a friend's Cessna of Stevador on her way around. It was a good shakedown. It got quite a bit rougher down there than it looks in this photo.

Water Watercraft Liquid Vehicle Fluid


Well, that's a wrap on this one.

Thanks for enduring my reminiscences and posting your kind words. I've enjoyed doing the blogs and hope that you've enjoyed reading them. There's one more style I haven't touched on yet and I may do one on it if there's enough interest. It's stitch and glue plywood construction and I've built a total of sixteen small ferries in the style for three different companies, one of them my own. In fact I'd bet that more than a few lumberjocks have actually ridden on one of them.

Questions, comments and whatever … always welcome.

Paul
 

Attachments

#223 ·
Finished, Launched and Sailing

Time to wind up the Cold Molded Construction edition of this little trip through my old shipyard, my old photos and my old memories. The following are about all the finished shots I have of these boats. Apparently I was more interested in the building than the product. ... Interesting.

On with the show. The first one is of the cockpit of Olfara. It's all teak and was all made up in the shop, even the wheel. The little bronze plate on the steering pedestal was my builder's plaque.

Water Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Vehicle


Midships looking aft, starboard side, Olfara. (Strangely I have no inside photos of Stevador) Nav station on the left, galley on the right and the aft stateroom door right center. The interior is oak and teak.

Wood Art Motor vehicle Stairs Plant


Looking forward from the galley toward the starboard side. Notice the chainplate doublers on the cabinside. This allowed very close sheeting of the genoa.
Kitchen sink Cabinetry Sink Tap Plumbing fixture


Forward port side looking aft. The engine was amidships in the box under the table. That left a huge space in the stern under the cockpit for storage.

Mode of transport Interior design Wood Motor vehicle Room


From the bottom of the companionway looking forward. This one shows the teak and white epoxy sole, galley cabinetry, overhead hatch and the serious roof camber.

Cabinetry Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood


This is what "custom building" means. If the customer wants a bath tub on his sailboat, he gets one. This one is made of plywood, epoxy, 'glass cloth and linear polyurethane paint. It was quite large too. We called it the sail locker. It's under a forward berth.

Brown Wood Interior design Floor Bathroom sink


Olfara gets launched. Notice the fin keel with skeg hung rudder. The owners always got to ride the boats into the water.

Boat Window Naval architecture Watercraft Vehicle


Stevador gets launched. She had the longer keel with the rudder on the aft end. That's the owner in the blue shirt. The other in the red is J.P., one of my crew.

Water Boat Sky Watercraft Vehicle


I have no good shots inside Stevador but you can imagine the great aft cabin inside this stern. We set her up so that almost all sail could be handled from a hatch in the wheelhouse roof. One point of interest in this photo is that you can see the chock castings from Olfara's toerails (see last entry) doing double duty here as fairleads for jib sheets leading from tracks on the afterdeck up to the control station on the house top. Sorry about all the terms but the sailors will understand.

Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Window Sky


Here we have the trial run for the innovative control position. We were a bit concerned that it wouldn't work as well as we hoped but it was for nothing. It worked very well indeed. In the last photo you could see the chocks / fairleads. In this one you can see how they worked. J. P. is sheeting the genoa here with a big self tailing winch in easy reach of the hatch position.

Boat Sky Plant community Water Naval architecture


I only got one chance to photograph Olfara sailing and it was snowing! You may also notice there was no wind…. Oh Well.
Water Boat Sky Watercraft Sailing


My shipyard was in Coal Harbour on the north end of Vancouver Island and our outlet to the Pacific was on the west coast. That made the maiden voyage for my boats (the ones that weren't trailered anyway) a trip around the notorious Cape Scott, the northern tip of the island. We called this model the "Cape Scott 36"and this is a photo I took from a friend's Cessna of Stevador on her way around. It was a good shakedown. It got quite a bit rougher down there than it looks in this photo.

Water Watercraft Liquid Vehicle Fluid


Well, that's a wrap on this one.

Thanks for enduring my reminiscences and posting your kind words. I've enjoyed doing the blogs and hope that you've enjoyed reading them. There's one more style I haven't touched on yet and I may do one on it if there's enough interest. It's stitch and glue plywood construction and I've built a total of sixteen small ferries in the style for three different companies, one of them my own. In fact I'd bet that more than a few lumberjocks have actually ridden on one of them.

Questions, comments and whatever … always welcome.

Paul
Yes, I'd love to see your stitch and glue boats too. The interiors of your boats are beautiful.
 

Attachments

#236 ·
Something Really Cool Just Happened to Me on LJ's

This morning when I checked the "pulse" section here on LJ's, I had a very cool surprise waiting for me. The current owner of one of my featured constructions here, "Olfara" is a new LJ and stumbled upon my blog while cruising the site last night. She's about twenty five years old now (the boat) and has a new paint job and a new name "Terrapin" but the photo he posted leaves little doubt. It's post #24 in this project post:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/44378

What a wonderful feeling to find that she's still sailing and bringing pleasure and adventure to another owner and his family.
 
#249 · (Edited)
The Harbour Ferries: Stitch and Glue Construction.

This is the fourth
and last blog on the different styles of construction that I have used in wooden boat building. Preceding blogs have covered Carvel Plank construction, Framed Plywood construction, and Cold Molded Construction. This one will cover what has become known as "Stitch and Glue" style. It is generally associated with but not exclusive to use with plywood.

I wasn't as into photographing the progress then as I am now, in fact if I hadn't decided to build two boats in the winter of 1994, in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games coming to Victoria that summer, I would not have hired help that year and likely wouldn't have any photos at all. Many of the photos will feature Jim Kennedy who helped me that winter building Harbour Six and Harbour Seven.

I also apologize for not having photos of a few key components (like the stitching) but I will try to explain well enough to give you a clear picture of how it's done.

There are several ways to approach stitch and glue but most start with the various components of the hull being cut from patterns either supplied by the designer or created from a full size lofting from the plans. These components are then assembled by stitching the adjoining edges together whereupon the hull takes on three dimensions as the curved edges are brought together.

These boats are a little large for that so I built a jig from the lines plan and took the patterns from the jig. We'll get to all that soon enough but for now let's start at the beginning. The first order of business in building a twenty foot boat in this style is to acquire twenty four foot plywood.

I always scarf my plywood with an 8:1 scarf and cold cure epoxy. There is no need to back this joint with anything because it is as strong as the rest of the plywood. The first thing you need to do is set up a scarfing station that will support a stack of plywood and has at one end a solid, flat wood surface. Then you stack as many sheets as you will be scarfing in a staggered pile with the offset equal to 8x the plywood thickness. In our case with 3/8" plywood the offsets are 3". The sheets can be tacked together with a pin tacker staying away from areas that will be planed off.

Wood Flooring Floor Table Hardwood


Next is simply to plane off a flat surface in a plane from the lower edge of the bottom piece to a line 3" back from the upper edge of the top piece. Keeping the glue lines in the plywood straight will ensure an even cut and when you are finished you will have 3" scarfs with knife edges. As we were scarfing three pieces to get 24' some of the pieces were flipped end for end and done again to give scarfs on both ends of the center pieces. By the way, that's a Skil 100 power plane, the best power plane ever made IMHO. I guess you could use a hand plane if you were a purist, but it takes about ten minutes with the 100.

Table Wood Wheel Workbench Desk


Once the contact faces are cut the pieces are set up on your custom designed 4' by 32' scarfing bench and glued up. In this shot Jim is spreading epoxy on both sides of a joint. Under the joint is a strip of polyethylene which conveniently does not stick to epoxy (or vice versa).

Wood Flooring Tradesman Gas Hardwood


Once the glue is spread, one sheet is flipped over and the scarfs are aligned. A couple of tacks away from the joint will assure that nothing moves. Then more poly is placed over the joint followed by a strip of 1/4" plywood 3" wide exactly over the scarf. In this photo Jim is pressing down with the air stapler until he sees glue squeezed out of the joint (under the poly) before firing a pattern of staples to clamp the joint. When both scarfs are stapled up the next set of three sheets is laid up in the same manner on top of the first one. This is repeated until all the pieces are done. When the glue sets up the plywood strips are pried off and if you're living right, most of the staples come with them.

Wood Floor Flooring Window Rolling


This shop was 40' x 60' and was built on our property specifically to build and do annual maintenance on these boats, so the scarfing bench was a high priority.The last photo shows the shop set up I used for scarfing. The plywood rack was at one end of the bench (see first photo) so pieces could easily be pulled out by one person and there were two 4' infrared heaters located 8' apart that could be lowered right down to a couple of feet above the scarfs to cure them overnight. (note the snow outside).
Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Field house


That's it for tonight, next time I'll cover the jig, patterns and hull assembly.

Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am.

Comments, critiques and especially questions are encouraged.

Paul
 

Attachments

#250 ·
The Harbour Ferries: Stitch and Glue Construction.

This is the fourth and last blog on the different styles of construction that I have used in wooden boat building. Preceding blogs have covered Carvel Plank construction, Framed Plywood construction, and Cold Molded Construction. This one will cover what has become known as "Stitch and Glue" style. It is generally associated with but not exclusive to use with plywood.

I wasn't as into photographing the progress then as I am now, in fact if I hadn't decided to build two boats in the winter of 1994, in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games coming to Victoria that summer, I would not have hired help that year and likely wouldn't have any photos at all. Many of the photos will feature Jim Kennedy who helped me that winter building Harbour Six and Harbour Seven.

I also apologize for not having photos of a few key components (like the stitching) but I will try to explain well enough to give you a clear picture of how it's done.

There are several ways to approach stitch and glue but most start with the various components of the hull being cut from patterns either supplied by the designer or created from a full size lofting from the plans. These components are then assembled by stitching the adjoining edges together whereupon the hull takes on three dimensions as the curved edges are brought together.

These boats are a little large for that so I built a jig from the plans and took the patterns from the jig. We'll get to all that soon enough but for now let's start at the beginning. The first order of business in building a twenty foot boat in this style is to acquire twenty four foot plywood.

I always scarf my plywood with an 8:1 scarf and cold cure epoxy. There is no need to back this joint with anything because it is as strong as the rest of the plywood. The first thing you need to do is set up a scarfing station that will support a stack of plywood and has at one end a solid, flat wood surface. Then you stack as many sheets as you will be scarfing in a staggered pile with the offset equal to 8x the plywood thickness. In our case with 3/8" plywood the offsets are 3". The sheets can be tacked together with a pin tacker staying away from areas that will be planed off.

Wood Flooring Floor Table Hardwood


Next is simply to plane off a flat surface in a plane from the lower edge of the bottom piece to a line 3" back from the upper edge of the top piece. Keeping the glue lines in the plywood straight will ensure an even cut and when you are finished you will have 3" scarfs with knife edges. As we were scarfing three pieces to get 24' some of the pieces were flipped end for end and done again to give scarfs on both ends of the center pieces. By the way, that's a Skil 100 power plane, the best power plane ever made IMHO. I guess you could use a hand plane if you were a purist, but it takes about ten minutes with the 100.

Table Wood Wheel Workbench Desk


Once the contact faces are cut the pieces are set up on your custom designed 4' by 32' scarfing bench and glued up. In this shot Jim is spreading epoxy on both sides of a joint. Under the joint is a strip of polyethylene which conveniently does not stick to epoxy (or vice versa).

Wood Flooring Tradesman Gas Hardwood


Once the glue is spread, one sheet is flipped over and the scarfs are aligned. A couple of tacks away from the joint will assure that nothing moves. Then more poly is placed over the joint followed by a strip of 1/4" plywood 3" wide exactly over the scarf. In this photo Jim is pressing down with the air stapler until he sees glue squeezed out of the joint (under the poly) before firing a pattern of staples to clamp the joint. When both scarfs are stapled up the next set of three sheets is laid up in the same manner on top of the first one. This is repeated until all the pieces are done. When the glue sets up the plywood strips are pried off and if you're living right, most of the staples come with them.

Wood Floor Flooring Window Rolling


This shop was 40' x 60' and was built on our property specifically to build and do annual maintenance on these boats, so the scarfing bench was a high priority.The last photo shows the shop set up I used for scarfing. The plywood rack was at one end of the bench (see first photo) so pieces could easily be pulled out by one person and there were two 4' infrared heaters located 8' apart that could be lowered right down to a couple of feet above the scarfs to cure them overnight. (note the snow outside).
Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Field house


That's it for tonight, next time I'll cover the jig, patterns and hull assembly.

Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am.

Comments, critiques and especially questions are encouraged.

Paul
NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo….........say it aint sooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! The last blog??? Just had to say that…lol…now I can go back and read…

KEEP EM Comming buddy!!!!!!
 

Attachments

#266 ·
The Jig, Patterns, and Hull Glue Up

As these boats are a little larger than the usual stitch and glue hull and because some of the bends are difficult, I chose to make a female jig in which to assemble the hulls.

This photo was taken when the jig was first built at my old yard in Coal Harbour B.C. It was disassembled and reassembled many times after that. The supports are the opposite of construction frames that you would build a hull outside of , taken from the boat's lofting. Against the wall in the background you can see some long sheets of scarfed plywood and the pattern for 1/2 of the bottom leaning against them. (if your eyes are good)

Wood House Hardwood Tree Flooring


In the next photo you can see the jig in the background. It's over ten years old now and has had ten boats built in it. In the foreground one of the sides is being laid out with the side pattern. Both sides will come out of a single 4' x 24' sheet.

Wood Floor Composite material Flooring Gas


Here the two pieces of the bottom have been forced into place and clamped to the jig. The bend in the bow is extreme, although it may not appear so, and the pieces have been kerfed to facilitate the bend. To answer the question I know will be asked, no, the strength is not compromised appreciably because the kerfs will be filled with epoxy and the hull configuration there is very strong because of the angles and the glass chines.
What doesn't show here is the pieces of tie wire used to pull the pieces tightly together along their length before application of the epoxy fillet. These are the "stitches" in the stitch and glue.

Wood Floor Triangle Flooring Road surface


Now the bottom is in place and has been glassed together by first applying a smooth fillet of thickened epoxy followed, while the fillet is still wet, by a layer of 24 oz. triaxial fiberglass cloth and more epoxy. Doing it this way uses less epoxy and saves a lot of sanding of the fillets. The bow area has had the kerfs filled and the sides of the jig have been set up in anticipation of fitting the side panels.
On the right, you can see the two side pieces are being 'glassed prior to assembly. It's just easier that way.

A note about triaxial cloth.
This is a fiberglass material that consists of a layer of parallel strands of glass equal to 1/2 the thickness (12 oz), overlaid with two layers of parallel fibers laid at opposing 45 degree angles to the first layer. The layers are then sewn together.This material has a huge advantage over standard woven cloth or roving where the strands are at 90 degrees to each other because if you cut it into strips (we used 4" to 6" wide) across the heavy strands, the strip will when laid on a joint have all of it's fibers crossing the joint. If you lay standard cloth or roving along a joint it will have 1/2 of it's fibers running parallel to the joint and adding no strength. You can cut standard roving diagonally but it will become completely unstable and will likely fall apart.
Suffice to say that three layers of 18 oz. roving with half of it's strands serving no purpose will give you 27 0z. of glass crossing the joint. The joint, because of the woven nature of the roving and the number of layers, will be 1/2" thick or better. That's a lot of very expensive epoxy. A joint made with 24oz. triaxial cloth will have 24oz of glass crossing the joint and will be about 1/8" thick. It will be just as strong, way cheaper and more resiliant than the roving joint. Sorry to go on about that but it is a very important point.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Lumber


The next one shows the sides cut out and scarfed for the joint to the round stern piece. They are quite narrow at the bow because there is a third piece that facilitates the steep bend as the bottom transitions to the stem.
Furniture Table Wood Rectangle Flooring


The last one for this segment is a shot of the way the sides are attached to the bottom. After being placed into the jig, coaxed into their curvature and clamped into position, the adjacent edges are again stitched with tie wire through small drilled holes every foot or so as required to make a nice fair chine line. It's worth saying here that the fits don't have to be good. As long as you get a nice fair curve the odd 1/4" gap means exactly nothing. We used to call them "drywall boats" because close was good enough. I mean it, really. If you spend a lot of time making the joints fit perfectly the only thing you will accomplish is to take more time.
Once the joints are wired A fillet of thickened epoxy is applied as before and the triaxial cloth is laid on the fillet and more epoxy is massaged into it with a bondo spreader. That's actually me this time. I guess Jim got hold of the camera.
Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Hardwood


I've had enough for now and I'm sure you have too so we'll call it a day and next time we'll finish up the hull with that round stern and roll it over.

Thanks for watching.
Comments critiques and questions…. all good.

Paul
 

Attachments

#267 ·
The Jig, Patterns, and Hull Glue Up

As these boats are a little larger than the usual stitch and glue hull and because some of the bends are difficult, I chose to make a female jig in which to assemble the hulls.

This photo was taken when the jig was first built at my old yard in Coal Harbour B.C. It was disassembled and reassembled many times after that. The supports are the opposite of construction frames that you would build a hull outside of , taken from the boat's lofting. Against the wall in the background you can see some long sheets of scarfed plywood and the pattern for 1/2 of the bottom leaning against them. (if your eyes are good)

Wood House Hardwood Tree Flooring


In the next photo you can see the jig in the background. It's over ten years old now and has had ten boats built in it. In the foreground one of the sides is being laid out with the side pattern. Both sides will come out of a single 4' x 24' sheet.

Wood Floor Composite material Flooring Gas


Here the two pieces of the bottom have been forced into place and clamped to the jig. The bend in the bow is extreme, although it may not appear so, and the pieces have been kerfed to facilitate the bend. To answer the question I know will be asked, no, the strength is not compromised appreciably because the kerfs will be filled with epoxy and the hull configuration there is very strong because of the angles and the glass chines.
What doesn't show here is the pieces of tie wire used to pull the pieces tightly together along their length before application of the epoxy fillet. These are the "stitches" in the stitch and glue.

Wood Floor Triangle Flooring Road surface


Now the bottom is in place and has been glassed together by first applying a smooth fillet of thickened epoxy followed, while the fillet is still wet, by a layer of 24 oz. triaxial fiberglass cloth and more epoxy. Doing it this way uses less epoxy and saves a lot of sanding of the fillets. The bow area has had the kerfs filled and the sides of the jig have been set up in anticipation of fitting the side panels.
On the right, you can see the two side pieces are being 'glassed prior to assembly. It's just easier that way.

A note about triaxial cloth.
This is a fiberglass material that consists of a layer of parallel strands of glass equal to 1/2 the thickness (12 oz), overlaid with two layers of parallel fibers laid at opposing 45 degree angles to the first layer. The layers are then sewn together.This material has a huge advantage over standard woven cloth or roving where the strands are at 90 degrees to each other because if you cut it into strips (we used 4" to 6" wide) across the heavy strands, the strip will when laid on a joint have all of it's fibers crossing the joint. If you lay standard cloth or roving along a joint it will have 1/2 of it's fibers running parallel to the joint and adding no strength. You can cut standard roving diagonally but it will become completely unstable and will likely fall apart.
Suffice to say that three layers of 18 oz. roving with half of it's strands serving no purpose will give you 27 0z. of glass crossing the joint. The joint, because of the woven nature of the roving and the number of layers, will be 1/2" thick or better. That's a lot of very expensive epoxy. A joint made with 24oz. triaxial cloth will have 24oz of glass crossing the joint and will be about 1/8" thick. It will be just as strong, way cheaper and more resiliant than the roving joint. Sorry to go on about that but it is a very important point.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Lumber


The next one shows the sides cut out and scarfed for the joint to the round stern piece. They are quite narrow at the bow because there is a third piece that facilitates the steep bend as the bottom transitions to the stem.
Furniture Table Wood Rectangle Flooring


The last one for this segment is a shot of the way the sides are attached to the bottom. After being placed into the jig, coaxed into their curvature and clamped into position, the adjacent edges are again stitched with tie wire through small drilled holes every foot or so as required to make a nice fair chine line. It's worth saying here that the fits don't have to be good. As long as you get a nice fair curve the odd 1/4" gap means exactly nothing. We used to call them "drywall boats" because close was good enough. I mean it, really. If you spend a lot of time making the joints fit perfectly the only thing you will accomplish is to take more time.
Once the joints are wired A fillet of thickened epoxy is applied as before and the triaxial cloth is laid on the fillet and more epoxy is massaged into it with a bondo spreader. That's actually me this time. I guess Jim got hold of the camera.
Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Hardwood


I've had enough for now and I'm sure you have too so we'll call it a day and next time we'll finish up the hull with that round stern and roll it over.

Thanks for watching.
Comments critiques and questions…. all good.

Paul
Amazing.
Did you use Okoume ply or some other special marine type ply. It seems that you must have.

And how the heck did you come up with the original pattern? It is like a dress maker who just wraps and pins fabric around a make believe form? Using kraft paper or such?

Steve
 

Attachments

#278 ·
Closing Up the Hull

Time for the trickiest part of this round stern hull, fitting the stern panel.

Here we have carefully clamped the stern piece exactly in place and Jim is scribing the line where it meets the bottom. Note that this piece, in order to let it bend, is scarfed side to side rather than end to end. The 'glassing of the outside of this piece is also facilitating the rather extreme bend. This is Harbour Six. You can see the bow of Harbour Seven in the background.

Wood Flooring Tradesman Floor Wall


Now he is scribing the exact position of the side panel's scarf, which was planed before assembly, on the outside of the stern panel. As this is the last piece and has to be scarfed at both ends, both the location and the angle of these scarfs are critical.

Tradesman Blue Wood Floor Flooring


In the last photo, just forward of the vertical jig member you can actually see one of the elusive "stitches" of tie wire. I didn't think I had any photos that showed one. Here's a closer look.

Sleeve Wood Flooring Electric blue Pattern


Now the bottom line has been cut off and the scarf is carefully cut at the same 8:1 ratio as the side panel. When re-installed it will be clamped by sandwiching the scarf between two 3" strips of 3/4" plywood (protected from the glue by strips of poly) and then squeezed by running a pattern of screws through the whole works. Sorry, no picture.

Wood Window Carpenter Flooring Floor


Once the shell of the hull is complete, it is rolled over to have the bottom 'glassed and the keel fitted before progressing with the interior. The wire ties are heated with a torch and pulled out, the joints are sanded to smooth rounded lines and any cracks or remaining gaps are filled with thickened epoxy. Then a skin of 6 oz. 'glass cloth is applied with epoxy. All work was supervised by a trained professional shop dog. Her name was Katie and she was "the best dog".

This point is usually about one week into the build process. The hull is always the fastest part of any boat construction.

Wood Naval architecture Composite material Hardwood Tableware


This photo actually belongs before the last one but I wanted to show the inverted hull first for better context. Here I am using a boring bar to cut the preliminary shaft hole through the hull before gluing and bolting the keel on. The stub of deadwood is attached temporarily and will be removed to 'glass the bottom, which is already done in the previous photo.

Wood Floor Flooring Carpenter Tradesman


Here's a close up of the business end of the boring bar. This one is just a 1/2" bar with a small fly cutter welded on the side and a 1/2" drill bit welded on the end. I'm just making a hole big enough to pass the bigger one will be used after the keel is on to bore out the shaft hole to final dimension and alignment.
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Wood stain


That's it for this segment. Next time will pretty much get us to the end of my available photos so yes, this will come to an end.

Thanks for looking in

Questions, comments and critiques are always welcome.

Paul
 

Attachments

#279 ·
Closing Up the Hull

Time for the trickiest part of this round stern hull, fitting the stern panel.

Here we have carefully clamped the stern piece exactly in place and Jim is scribing the line where it meets the bottom. Note that this piece, in order to let it bend, is scarfed side to side rather than end to end. The 'glassing of the outside of this piece is also facilitating the rather extreme bend. This is Harbour Six. You can see the bow of Harbour Seven in the background.

Wood Flooring Tradesman Floor Wall


Now he is scribing the exact position of the side panel's scarf, which was planed before assembly, on the outside of the stern panel. As this is the last piece and has to be scarfed at both ends, both the location and the angle of these scarfs are critical.

Tradesman Blue Wood Floor Flooring


In the last photo, just forward of the vertical jig member you can actually see one of the elusive "stitches" of tie wire. I didn't think I had any photos that showed one. Here's a closer look.

Sleeve Wood Flooring Electric blue Pattern


Now the bottom line has been cut off and the scarf is carefully cut at the same 8:1 ratio as the side panel. When re-installed it will be clamped by sandwiching the scarf between two 3" strips of 3/4" plywood (protected from the glue by strips of poly) and then squeezed by running a pattern of screws through the whole works. Sorry, no picture.

Wood Window Carpenter Flooring Floor


Once the shell of the hull is complete, it is rolled over to have the bottom 'glassed and the keel fitted before progressing with the interior. The wire ties are heated with a torch and pulled out, the joints are sanded to smooth rounded lines and any cracks or remaining gaps are filled with thickened epoxy. Then a skin of 6 oz. 'glass cloth is applied with epoxy. All work was supervised by a trained professional shop dog. Her name was Katie and she was "the best dog".

This point is usually about one week into the build process. The hull is always the fastest part of any boat construction.

Wood Naval architecture Composite material Hardwood Tableware


This photo actually belongs before the last one but I wanted to show the inverted hull first for better context. Here I am using a boring bar to cut the preliminary shaft hole through the hull before gluing and bolting the keel on. The stub of deadwood is attached temporarily and will be removed to 'glass the bottom, which is already done in the previous photo.

Wood Floor Flooring Carpenter Tradesman


Here's a close up of the business end of the boring bar. This one is just a 1/2" bar with a small fly cutter welded on the side and a 1/2" drill bit welded on the end. I'm just making a hole big enough to pass the bigger one will be used after the keel is on to bore out the shaft hole to final dimension and alignment.
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Wood stain


That's it for this segment. Next time will pretty much get us to the end of my available photos so yes, this will come to an end.

Thanks for looking in

Questions, comments and critiques are always welcome.

Paul
Interesting work that is.
 

Attachments

#288 ·
Finishing The Build

I'm afraid that the photos are a little scarce from here on but I'll do what I can with what there are.

This photo shows the keel halves ready for gluing. Making the 3" thick keel out of two pieces makes it much easier to fit it to the hull as the joint line to the hull on each half can be cut on the appropriate angle(s) on the bandsaw. When assembled the two will make a vee that fits the hull perfectly. You will also notice that the pieces are cut off in line with where the shaft line will be. This allows us to cut a 45 degree angle on each of the four pieces that surround the shaft. When assembled we will have a diamond shaped hole on the approximate line of the shaft.

Wood Automotive tire Floor Road surface Font


Here the halves are glued up. The forward end will be made up wilh smaller fitted blocks to fair into the hull. The stack of sticks on the left that look a little like pool cues are the cabin side / window posts. They are scarfed to be teak above the seat backs where they are seen and fir below the seat backs where they are hidden. Gotta watch those pennies.
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Wood stain


The next two photos show the setup for final boring the hole for the shaft tube. This is done by first running a string from a spot exactly where the center of the engine coupling will be to the center of the diamond shaped hole in the back end of the keel. Second, a bearing block is set up on the keelson (inside keel) with a 1" hole in it for the boring bar. It is set up so that the string is centered in the hole and the hole lines up with the angle of the shaft. Then a second bearing piece (plywood this time) is set up just outside of the back of the keel, also lined up with the string.

Wood Gas Tool Electrical wiring Engineering


When the boring bar is inserted into both bearings it may or may not be centered in the rough hole but successive cuts with it's fly cutter will expand the hole to the size of the shaft tube while correcting any misalignment in the smaller rough hole. Once bored the hole is cleared of any chips and the shaft tube is epoxied in. The shaft then slides into the tube and will align perfectly with the engine coupling.

Wood Rectangle Material property Plank Wood stain


Here the cabin sole and the seat shelves are in place. You can see the cut out for the engine box and the engine beds installed. The sole has been 'glassed and the facing on the seat shelf is glued in on the near end. The pieces for the far end facing are there ready to be installed. The seat shelves are solidly glued to the hull and perform a major stiffening function at an area where the hull takes lots of abuse. They also serve to keep the life jackets, stored under the seats, up off the floor which is washed daily.

Wood Window Naval architecture Wood stain Composite material


We've jumped ahead a bit here. The decks, cabin sides and posts are in. Probably the most difficult thing in building these boats and getting them to look right is the alignment of these posts. They have to look right, that is converging from bottom to top and each post has to be parallel with it's opposite number on the other side and in the other end.They all have to be right from every angle as you walk around the boat. It can be a frustrating task because every time you make a little adjustment to make it look better in one place, it affects three or four other views. Together with the cabin sides they have to form a sort of flattened, elongated section of a cone.
Jeans Wood Table Hardwood Flooring


The window tops / roof aprons are installed and the seat bases can be seen mounted on the seat shelf and secured to the posts. If you have good eyes you'll notice those half teak - half fir posts. Most of the joints from here on are unframed and held only by fillets of thickened epoxy. For example the cabin sides that you see here are filleted to the deck inside and out but there are no fastenings. They are epoxied to the posts and fastened with a few staples.
Wood Hardwood Composite material Plywood Gas


The last construction photo I have shows the roof being held to shape with a camber pattern and clamped to the apron piece. The only fastening that will be used to hold them together will be a fillet of epoxy inside and out. Both parts are 1/4" plywood. The camber pattern will stay there until the wheelhouse windows and top roof are in place. At that point the camber will be locked in and the area of the lower roof, inside the wheelhouse windows can be cut away. We painted the roofs before putting them up but left the area for the fillets unpainted.
Wood Shade Floor Hardwood Beam


Here are a few finished photos the will help you understand some of the last bit.

Wood Architecture Shade Hardwood House


Wood Wood stain Hardwood Varnish Flooring


Water Boat Watercraft Wood Outdoor furniture


That's it for Stitch and Glue construction, and my shipyard memories. I hope that you have enjoyed these blogs as much as I have.

I have spent many years "happily messing about with boats" and wouldn't consider any of it to have been "work". I have enjoyed immensely sharing some of my good old days with those of you who have been interested in following my meanderings and I have been humbled and flattered by your interest and your kind comments.

Thanks for dropping in. ... Really

Paul
 

Attachments

#289 ·
Finishing The Build

I'm afraid that the photos are a little scarce from here on but I'll do what I can with what there are.

This photo shows the keel halves ready for gluing. Making the 3" thick keel out of two pieces makes it much easier to fit it to the hull as the joint line to the hull on each half can be cut on the appropriate angle(s) on the bandsaw. When assembled the two will make a vee that fits the hull perfectly. You will also notice that the pieces are cut off in line with where the shaft line will be. This allows us to cut a 45 degree angle on each of the four pieces that surround the shaft. When assembled we will have a diamond shaped hole on the approximate line of the shaft.

Wood Automotive tire Floor Road surface Font


Here the halves are glued up. The forward end will be made up wilh smaller fitted blocks to fair into the hull. The stack of sticks on the left that look a little like pool cues are the cabin side / window posts. They are scarfed to be teak above the seat backs where they are seen and fir below the seat backs where they are hidden. Gotta watch those pennies.
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Wood stain


The next two photos show the setup for final boring the hole for the shaft tube. This is done by first running a string from a spot exactly where the center of the engine coupling will be to the center of the diamond shaped hole in the back end of the keel. Second, a bearing block is set up on the keelson (inside keel) with a 1" hole in it for the boring bar. It is set up so that the string is centered in the hole and the hole lines up with the angle of the shaft. Then a second bearing piece (plywood this time) is set up just outside of the back of the keel, also lined up with the string.

Wood Gas Tool Electrical wiring Engineering


When the boring bar is inserted into both bearings it may or may not be centered in the rough hole but successive cuts with it's fly cutter will expand the hole to the size of the shaft tube while correcting any misalignment in the smaller rough hole. Once bored the hole is cleared of any chips and the shaft tube is epoxied in. The shaft then slides into the tube and will align perfectly with the engine coupling.

Wood Rectangle Material property Plank Wood stain


Here the cabin sole and the seat shelves are in place. You can see the cut out for the engine box and the engine beds installed. The sole has been 'glassed and the facing on the seat shelf is glued in on the near end. The pieces for the far end facing are there ready to be installed. The seat shelves are solidly glued to the hull and perform a major stiffening function at an area where the hull takes lots of abuse. They also serve to keep the life jackets, stored under the seats, up off the floor which is washed daily.

Wood Window Naval architecture Wood stain Composite material


We've jumped ahead a bit here. The decks, cabin sides and posts are in. Probably the most difficult thing in building these boats and getting them to look right is the alignment of these posts. They have to look right, that is converging from bottom to top and each post has to be parallel with it's opposite number on the other side and in the other end.They all have to be right from every angle as you walk around the boat. It can be a frustrating task because every time you make a little adjustment to make it look better in one place, it affects three or four other views. Together with the cabin sides they have to form a sort of flattened, elongated section of a cone.
Jeans Wood Table Hardwood Flooring


The window tops / roof aprons are installed and the seat bases can be seen mounted on the seat shelf and secured to the posts. If you have good eyes you'll notice those half teak - half fir posts. Most of the joints from here on are unframed and held only by fillets of thickened epoxy. For example the cabin sides that you see here are filleted to the deck inside and out but there are no fastenings. They are epoxied to the posts and fastened with a few staples.
Wood Hardwood Composite material Plywood Gas


The last construction photo I have shows the roof being held to shape with a camber pattern and clamped to the apron piece. The only fastening that will be used to hold them together will be a fillet of epoxy inside and out. Both parts are 1/4" plywood. The camber pattern will stay there until the wheelhouse windows and top roof are in place. At that point the camber will be locked in and the area of the lower roof, inside the wheelhouse windows can be cut away. We painted the roofs before putting them up but left the area for the fillets unpainted.
Wood Shade Floor Hardwood Beam


Here are a few finished photos the will help you understand some of the last bit.

Wood Architecture Shade Hardwood House


Wood Wood stain Hardwood Varnish Flooring


Water Boat Watercraft Wood Outdoor furniture


That's it for Stitch and Glue construction, and my shipyard memories. I hope that you have enjoyed these blogs as much as I have.

I have spent many years "happily messing about with boats" and wouldn't consider any of it to have been "work". I have enjoyed immensely sharing some of my good old days with those of you who have been interested in following my meanderings and I have been humbled and flattered by your interest and your kind comments.

Thanks for dropping in. ... Really

Paul
I've got to drop a huge thanks for posting these shipyard memories. Even though I don't exactly have an affinity for large bodies of water, I found these entries more than interesting and they make me feel like getting up and build a boat right away.
 

Attachments

#306 ·
Some Old Tools of the Trade - Bevels

I was doing a shop cleanup today and ran into some old friends that I thought some of you might like to meet. These are shop made tools that I used when I was building wooden boats and date back to the early seventies when I was working at North Arm Boat Works and Sather Boat Works, both on the North arm of the Fraser river in New Westminster, B.C.

First a nod to the man who started me off on my life as a shipwright and introduced me to these tools. His name was Frank Honour and he owned North Arm Boat Works. Although he never finished high school he was one of the most intelligent men I have ever met or will ever meet. I wanted to learn and he needed help. The combination put me into an intensive training that the apprenticeship program could not touch. He taught me as much as I could learn as fast as I could learn it. Frank died many years ago but I will never forget him and will always give him most of the credit for my woodworking abilities, such as they are.

Now for the bevels. I know that most people would call them bevel gauges but around the yards where I started out they were simply "bevels" so that's what I'll be calling them. I have one of the commercially available sliding models with the wing nut but I've never been able to find a use for it that one of these didn't do better, hence it has seen little use and certainly doesn't have the patina that these do. "Patina" here means a combination of linseed oil, cuprinol, sweat, oxidation and years.

The first two are what were known as the big bevel and the little bevel. Everyone had their own and you never used anyone else's hand tools. These were accurate but quickly made and plain to a fault. I guess I'd describe them as "friction bevels" because they were made to flip open with a rap on a solid surface but were stiff enough to stay where they were set long enough to transfer the bevel to a timber, board, pattern or saw setup. They could be used with one hand while the other one was occupied. The big one would be used, for example, for measuring and marking the compound angle to be cut on the end of a deck beam. or other large-ish timber.

Wood Triangle Hardwood Wood stain Plank


The small one, along with the last one in this blog lived in my pockets every day. The only other things that I always had on me were my tape measure on my belt, a pencil behind my ear, and a bunch of 1 1/2" nails in my back pocket. This little guy would be in my shirt pocket and the other one in my other (left) back pocket. It was used in much the same way as the big one but was used far more often because it was always right there and it was so versatile. I can't begin to list the places where this little tool was used and in most of them nothing else would work as well if at all. A fine old friend indeed. It's made with a hacksaw blade and a piece of scrap bending oak.

Wood Natural material Feather Hardwood Fashion accessory


While I've seen lots of bevels like those above in other yards and in others' hands, Frank is the only one that I ever saw with one of these. It's a special purpose planking bevel and he had me make mine soon after he started to teach me to plank. Again it can be used one handed and it is made to be used left handed because of its specific and only job. When a plank is being made for a carvel style hull, the angle between the edge of the adjacent, already fastened plank and the ribs to which it will be fastened must be measured every foot or so as it is a changing bevel and must be reproduced on the new plank in order to fit properly.

This little bevel is marked off in degrees (0 to 15) both "under" and "standing" so that when it is set on the edge of the fastened plank and rotated with the fingers against the rib it reads off the number of degrees above or below 90 and that number can be written on the pattern or spiling stick or whatever you are marking on with the other hand. That's why it reads properly only when used with the left hand.

Wood Tints and shades Artifact Circle Plywood


Roman numerals are easier to etch into copper with an awl than our usual numbers. (Arabic?) It is fastened at the pivot point by a copper nail and a rove, riveted over. If it gets too loose a couple of light taps with a ball peen hammer will tighten it right back up.

Wood Fashion accessory Metal Auto part Circle


Looks like my table saw fence is pretty square.

Wood Finger Wood stain Hardwood Plywood


That's it, just a little nostalgia for me and perhaps a look into something different for you.
This was fun, maybe I'll post a few more when they turn up.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
 

Attachments

#307 ·
Some Old Tools of the Trade - Bevels

I was doing a shop cleanup today and ran into some old friends that I thought some of you might like to meet. These are shop made tools that I used when I was building wooden boats and date back to the early seventies when I was working at North Arm Boat Works and Sather Boat Works, both on the North arm of the Fraser river in New Westminster, B.C.

First a nod to the man who started me off on my life as a shipwright and introduced me to these tools. His name was Frank Honour and he owned North Arm Boat Works. Although he never finished high school he was one of the most intelligent men I have ever met or will ever meet. I wanted to learn and he needed help. The combination put me into an intensive training that the apprenticeship program could not touch. He taught me as much as I could learn as fast as I could learn it. Frank died many years ago but I will never forget him and will always give him most of the credit for my woodworking abilities, such as they are.

Now for the bevels. I know that most people would call them bevel gauges but around the yards where I started out they were simply "bevels" so that's what I'll be calling them. I have one of the commercially available sliding models with the wing nut but I've never been able to find a use for it that one of these didn't do better, hence it has seen little use and certainly doesn't have the patina that these do. "Patina" here means a combination of linseed oil, cuprinol, sweat, oxidation and years.

The first two are what were known as the big bevel and the little bevel. Everyone had their own and you never used anyone else's hand tools. These were accurate but quickly made and plain to a fault. I guess I'd describe them as "friction bevels" because they were made to flip open with a rap on a solid surface but were stiff enough to stay where they were set long enough to transfer the bevel to a timber, board, pattern or saw setup. They could be used with one hand while the other one was occupied. The big one would be used, for example, for measuring and marking the compound angle to be cut on the end of a deck beam. or other large-ish timber.

Wood Triangle Hardwood Wood stain Plank


The small one, along with the last one in this blog lived in my pockets every day. The only other things that I always had on me were my tape measure on my belt, a pencil behind my ear, and a bunch of 1 1/2" nails in my back pocket. This little guy would be in my shirt pocket and the other one in my other (left) back pocket. It was used in much the same way as the big one but was used far more often because it was always right there and it was so versatile. I can't begin to list the places where this little tool was used and in most of them nothing else would work as well if at all. A fine old friend indeed. It's made with a hacksaw blade and a piece of scrap bending oak.

Wood Natural material Feather Hardwood Fashion accessory


While I've seen lots of bevels like those above in other yards and in others' hands, Frank is the only one that I ever saw with one of these. It's a special purpose planking bevel and he had me make mine soon after he started to teach me to plank. Again it can be used one handed and it is made to be used left handed because of its specific and only job. When a plank is being made for a carvel style hull, the angle between the edge of the adjacent, already fastened plank and the ribs to which it will be fastened must be measured every foot or so as it is a changing bevel and must be reproduced on the new plank in order to fit properly.

This little bevel is marked off in degrees (0 to 15) both "under" and "standing" so that when it is set on the edge of the fastened plank and rotated with the fingers against the rib it reads off the number of degrees above or below 90 and that number can be written on the pattern or spiling stick or whatever you are marking on with the other hand. That's why it reads properly only when used with the left hand.

Wood Tints and shades Artifact Circle Plywood


Roman numerals are easier to etch into copper with an awl than our usual numbers. (Arabic?) It is fastened at the pivot point by a copper nail and a rove, riveted over. If it gets too loose a couple of light taps with a ball peen hammer will tighten it right back up.

Wood Fashion accessory Metal Auto part Circle


Looks like my table saw fence is pretty square.

Wood Finger Wood stain Hardwood Plywood


That's it, just a little nostalgia for me and perhaps a look into something different for you.
This was fun, maybe I'll post a few more when they turn up.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul
Your posts are always of great interest to us all Paul, These are obviously treasured pieces & bring back great memories of the happy years spent learning & applying your trade skills.
Like you I still have some of my first tools form serving my apprentership as an Electrician whick I started in 1959, back then we got a tool allowance which had to be spent on tools.
Great days,
Thanks for the great memories ::)))
Pete
 

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#327 ·
Harbour Ferries .... 25 Year Anniversary

I sold the Victoria Harbour Ferries in 2004 after fourteen years. (See blog segments 20 - 23) This year the "new" owners celebrated twenty-five years, 1990 to 2015. I was sent the following video of their celebration on the harbour. It features the ballet that I dreamed up back in 1993 with very few changes. It has become a regular feature on Sunday mornings all summer long in Victoria. It's nice to see the business still flourishing.

Water Sky Boat Water resources World





Thanks for looking in

Paul
 

Attachments

#328 ·
Harbour Ferries .... 25 Year Anniversary

I sold the Victoria Harbour Ferries in 2004 after fourteen years. (See blog segments 20 - 23) This year the "new" owners celebrated twenty-five years, 1990 to 2015. I was sent the following video of their celebration on the harbour. It features the ballet that I dreamed up back in 1993 with very few changes. It has become a regular feature on Sunday mornings all summer long in Victoria. It's nice to see the business still flourishing.

Water Sky Boat Water resources World





Thanks for looking in

Paul
Very impressive Paul
 

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