Transom and bulkhead-4

 Had a few extra days off during the holidays.

With some rearranging, the transom, bulkheads, and frames (8 pieces total) can be cut from just 4 pieces of plywood.  I chose to cut frames 1, 3, and bulkhead-4 in two pieces each and scarf them together later.

I laminated the two transom pieces together to form a 1" thick transom.  The 12mm plywood has a lot of flex to it, but two pieces laminated feels wonderfully stout.

Each of the transom, bulkheads, and frames will have the sides and the bottoms cut at an angle to match the curves of the hull sides and bottom.  The plans don't give these angles, so I determined approximates using a drafting program measuring the plans pictures.  Between the angle of the transom and the rocker of the bottom, I cut the bottom of the transom at an angle of 30 degrees.  The sides were cut 9 degrees.  The angles aren't critical, all the connections of the boat will get thoroughly embedded into epoxy and covered by fiberglass. 

The plans show the top of the transom to have a curve, but no other detail or measurements are given.  I envision the designer saying "Just giv' her a jaunty ol' curve, lad!"  I drafted an oval on my computer which nearly fit, and lofted the measurements to the piece.  I then hand drew one end and cut it. Then traced it's shape onto heavy paper, cut it out, and used the pattern to draw the other side.  I then used a 3/8" round-over bit in my router on the transom's top. 

  Bulkhead-4 contains the door from the cockpit to the cabin.  To conserve plywood, I cut it in two pieces and scarfed them together.  Not a angled, boat making, scarf, but just an old carpenter's construction scarf of adding another piece of plywood along side of it.

I haven't determined how tall the cabin will be, so I left bulkhead-4 extra tall (nearly 30% of the height you see in this picture is above what the plans call for.  A couple in Australia raised their cabin roof 2 inches.  Whether I'll raise mine 4, 6, or 10 inches... who knows.

The basement store room adjacent to my workshop.

 Both these pieces still need two layers of epoxy to seal them.  They won't be assembled into a hull until some time in May/June??

The transom and bulkhead-4 came from the first two pieces of plywood.  The other frames will come out of two more pieces of plywood.  I cut the full pieces into 2 pieces each and now have them in the basement workshop.  Gave them 24 hours to dry a little, then put them on the table with weights to flatten for during work week. 

 

A hangout

 In all my internet browsing on boat building, I came across a boat building organization here in Portland.  They host open houses twice a month and so this last weekend I went to see what they're about.

 They call themselves the "Rivers West Small Craft Center".  They have a work shop nestled amongst a bunch of other non-profits on a 7-acre ex-industrial site down on the river next to a big public boat ramp which is next to the scenic St. Johns Bridge.

A lot of the non-profits on this site are making use of those cargo containers.  Rivers West has two containers with a 25x40 ft concrete slab in between them with the whole works covered by a permanent tarp roof.

They do various events throughout the year and rent floor space to anyone wanting to build a boat there.  Currently there's a 15 foot sail boat and a 22 foot cabin cruiser under construction along with a couple of small projects.

 When I went there were about 15 members and a few open house guests.  More than half the members are retired, grey haired, and grey bearded old guys.  I had the funniest feeling... like... "I found my people!"

It might be a fun place to hang out in my retirement. I signed up online already ($75/year).

 

Bugging me

I've encountered a problem with the boat shed in the back yard.  Mosquitoes.  Lots of them.

I had originally folded the extra plastic at the bottom of the walls back up and on the inside.  I had even ran a cord along the bottom of this fold in an attempt to keep it snug against the ground.  What I hadn't counted on was condensation.  This fold has filled in spots with significant water.  I can't swear that's how the mosquitoes started, but I've always assumed they needed a puddle of water..

I've bought a bug zapper and have cut the folds off and even poke the little excess plastic to outside the tent.  So far I'm not sure it's making any difference.

It's annoying and psychologically uncomfortable in the tent with that many about the place.  I've even bought a racket-ball style bug zapper.  I spend the first 5 minutes walking around swinging it at everything I see.  It seems to at least temporarily help.

They're a weird bunch of mosquitoes, because so far I have yet to be bitten.  Between my racket and the bug zapper, I'm sure I've killed several hundred of the critters.

Do they need an actual water puddle or is very wet grass enough for them?

 

Making sawdust begins

I don't have a garage, so the boat will be assembled in a back yard tent-like shelter, but I do have a work shop in my basement. 

As it's probably too cold to do any epoxy work, I thought I would start the process by cutting the frames, bulkheads, and transom.  By splitting a few of the frames down the center and cutting them as separate pieces (scarfing them back together later), I can get all the frames out of 4 sheets of plywood.  

I carefully drew out each piece on the first two sheets of plywood, then rough cut around them with a jigsaw, making them small enough to carry the first four major pieces into my basement work shop.  That was all the time I had this weekend.  Next weekend I do the fine cutting and maybe epoxy the transom together.

layout in fine ink, rough cut in sharpie marker.

 

Raising the sheet on blocks for cutting.  

four pieces in the basement work shop.

 Although the stack of plywood in the shed looks flat, this Okoume marine grade plywood is highly flexible and it has sagged and warped a little because the supporting saw-horses and frame are only 3 feet by 12 feet in size.  After putting the 4 new pieces on my basement work bench, I added some weights to hopefully flatten them out again during this work week.

Shed Door

 Built the shed door from scrap plywood.  Covered the outside with plastic.  Hung it using some spring loaded hinges.  Added a catch on the outside to keep the wind from banging it in the night.

 

Plywood Arrives

 Here's the mostly completed shed.  Originally I thought it would only have a roof tarp, then I decided if I want any chance at all of working during the winter I'd better wall it in.  Even with the walls, the greenhouse effect may not be enough to do epoxy gluing in the dead of winter (December, January).  I left the end open to carry in the plywood. 

 An inside shot.

 When I was ready to go get the plywood (90 miles away), I thought I'd better call them a day or two ahead and confirm.  Glad I did, they only had 4 sheets in stock.  After talking to a couple of different people, they said they would place an order for more and it would be 2 weeks because its got to come from the east coast.

7 weeks later....  The plywood finally arrived! 

Had borrowed the brother in-law's trailer with the thought I would tow it with our Nissan Rouge, even though the tow capacity is technically less than what the trailer and plywood would weigh.  But the week the plywood arrived, the Rouge was in the shop.  Ended up using the brother in-law's car and trailer.  

The good news is that the plywood turned out to be nearly as beautiful as their brochure showed it, and the new price was only a little more than the original price they quoted.  Even at the new $80 per sheet it still saved me $1200 more than what I could find locally.  20 sheets of 12mm (1/2 inch) and 4 of 6mm (1/4 inch).

Here's the stack of plywood.  2 stacks making a 16 foot long table to work on. 

 

The work shed all battened down.  (I still have the door to make.)