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Here I am, sawdusty and full of marine caulking, with a splinter in my left index finger, a little too hot, listening to Rod Stewart's 'I was only joking'.
My boat is a little over half done, timewise.
On Thursday we assembled sawhorses, glued three boards together with splines into the transome (back board on the boat), did a bunch of really fancy angle cutting with a hand saw and then glued + nailed the midship brace together (piece that goes in the centre of the boat to hold the sides apart), jigsawed and planed the sides (I rock with a jigsaw), nailed + caulked the sides onto the front (stem) oak piece, and nailed + caulked one side of the midship frame to the side of the boat.
(you're in my heart, you're in my soul, you'll be my friend should I grow old, you are my lover, you're my best friend, you're in my soul)
Today, we attached the sides to the transome (back), which sprung the midship frame out to the proper place on the side. At that point the other side of the midship frame could be caulked + nailed.
Then we slid the chines in. A chine is a long thin piece of wood that runs from the stem (bow, front, point) of the boat along the bottom of the side to the back. It's cut to fit at a weird angle, then bent, and it is really messy covering it with marine caulking (sticks to everything!) and then bending the fouteen-foot length of wood to fit into the slot on the bottom of the boat and snapping it in -- there's not even a spare millimeter of space if you cut it right, and we did. Then clamp, clamp, clamp, and nail. Then the other wide.
Then we cut the bottom of the boat, nailed it on with more marine caulk, and planed the edges flush.
So far, we've used just under maybe 35' of 3/4" x 1 1/2" douglas fir with a beautiful, beautiful straifght grain, about 10' of lovely 2"x8"ish douglas fir, a big freakin' chunk of oak for the stem, and three sheets of 1/2" or so mahogany marine plywood. Plus, we've used about two bottles of marine caulk, and a ton of various sizes of bronze ringnails.
Marine plywood of that type is worth about $135 per sheet. It's kind of scary to be working with this beautiful wood, getting goop all over it, banging it up sometimes, nailing things into it even, leaning it against the cement floor.
The boat is a 12' Bevin's skiff; I may have said this before. This means it's manageable to work with. By manageable I mean that it's actually possible to nail two 14-16' lengths of flexible plywood at a really weird angle to the stem if you have three or four people.
It's launching on Sunday, and it's not going to be painted first. The name will be the Hope Chest, which is my final decision. The decision was made because I overheard mom say to one of the carpenter supervisor guys, We bought our live-aboard boat in '99, and Greenstorm lived there for a couple of years with us. She's on her own now, but she liked it enough that she wants to live on a boat in the future. This birthday gift is sort of her floating hope chest.
:)
I thought, I should make shirts for everyone who helps that say hope chest across the front. Then I thought, hah, no I shouldn't.
In summary: come help make the boat Saturday and Sunday between 9am and about 3pm. If you're going to Zombiewalk, come in your icky clothing and we'll make it ickier, then you can go. It's fun. :)
My boat is a little over half done, timewise.
On Thursday we assembled sawhorses, glued three boards together with splines into the transome (back board on the boat), did a bunch of really fancy angle cutting with a hand saw and then glued + nailed the midship brace together (piece that goes in the centre of the boat to hold the sides apart), jigsawed and planed the sides (I rock with a jigsaw), nailed + caulked the sides onto the front (stem) oak piece, and nailed + caulked one side of the midship frame to the side of the boat.
(you're in my heart, you're in my soul, you'll be my friend should I grow old, you are my lover, you're my best friend, you're in my soul)
Today, we attached the sides to the transome (back), which sprung the midship frame out to the proper place on the side. At that point the other side of the midship frame could be caulked + nailed.
Then we slid the chines in. A chine is a long thin piece of wood that runs from the stem (bow, front, point) of the boat along the bottom of the side to the back. It's cut to fit at a weird angle, then bent, and it is really messy covering it with marine caulking (sticks to everything!) and then bending the fouteen-foot length of wood to fit into the slot on the bottom of the boat and snapping it in -- there's not even a spare millimeter of space if you cut it right, and we did. Then clamp, clamp, clamp, and nail. Then the other wide.
Then we cut the bottom of the boat, nailed it on with more marine caulk, and planed the edges flush.
So far, we've used just under maybe 35' of 3/4" x 1 1/2" douglas fir with a beautiful, beautiful straifght grain, about 10' of lovely 2"x8"ish douglas fir, a big freakin' chunk of oak for the stem, and three sheets of 1/2" or so mahogany marine plywood. Plus, we've used about two bottles of marine caulk, and a ton of various sizes of bronze ringnails.
Marine plywood of that type is worth about $135 per sheet. It's kind of scary to be working with this beautiful wood, getting goop all over it, banging it up sometimes, nailing things into it even, leaning it against the cement floor.
The boat is a 12' Bevin's skiff; I may have said this before. This means it's manageable to work with. By manageable I mean that it's actually possible to nail two 14-16' lengths of flexible plywood at a really weird angle to the stem if you have three or four people.
It's launching on Sunday, and it's not going to be painted first. The name will be the Hope Chest, which is my final decision. The decision was made because I overheard mom say to one of the carpenter supervisor guys, We bought our live-aboard boat in '99, and Greenstorm lived there for a couple of years with us. She's on her own now, but she liked it enough that she wants to live on a boat in the future. This birthday gift is sort of her floating hope chest.
:)
I thought, I should make shirts for everyone who helps that say hope chest across the front. Then I thought, hah, no I shouldn't.
In summary: come help make the boat Saturday and Sunday between 9am and about 3pm. If you're going to Zombiewalk, come in your icky clothing and we'll make it ickier, then you can go. It's fun. :)
