July 17, 2002

I took off the week of July 4th. Had some time to start on the second plywood boat. The first one built from one sheet of plywood was a wee bit small. I don't think Julian had much fun 'sailing' with dad when we were in constant danger of flooding/sinking. In fact the last time we went out to the lake I had to tell 'knock knock' jokes to distract Julian from moving about. (Note: I got the excellent plans from David Beede over at simplicity boats)

Here's the photo of the boat. Not much happening here. I cut the sides from the 1/4 sheet of Luan. Glued the frame together and screw one side to the frame, stem and transom.

Here's another shot of the half boat. Note the screw pads used to screw the sides to the stem.

Well after putting on the two sides of the boat, I decided to glue the chine logs flat. It seems easier than gluing the curve in two directions. Turns out to be much easier to do it this way. The chine logs are 5/8' pine and bends quite easily around the frame.

This sucker is begging to look like a boat. The center support of the frame held by the workmate was great for support.

Detail of the gunwale. I was pronoucing that word "gun whale" for the longest time until someone corrected me, gunnel is how it should be spelled! Also note the red work sandals, don't do this at home! Dropping a chisel can be hazardous to your little toe (who needs-em anyways)

To counter the bouyancy of the plywood rudder, I embedded a chunk of metal into it. I simply traced around the chunk-o-metal, and used a router with a spiral bit to remove the wood -- freehand.

A close up of the ("bad") routing job.

wing