Well in my efforts to build have been going well and I will now take a break.
It now has a shape and I can see how big it is.
All the timber is stored away on the braces under the strongback. the garage looks very full and like a work site. I'm happy and slightly nervous about it.
After cutting the scarf joints, I got myself together found some old folding chairs so I can use them as lightweight horses to hold the timber at the same height and found bits of timber to start gluing together.
The staple gun was filled with stainless staples, epoxy bought (more on that in the stuff list), glue stuff got out and away I went. The keel was glued together, and 8 full-length 8m stringers. I then let it all set for the next 2 days because I'm nervous about building the boat.
still, without a camera person, I forgot to get a video of me stuffing about for hours building this thing. Not that it missed much. Every time I did something to the keel id 2nd guess myself. It caught a few small mistakes but that made it worse. Still, the keel is in, frames 2 and 9 attached with clamps to the holders and it has shape. I've been slowly following the instructions.
The funny thing is the keel is yet to be glued in. I will do that last when I take the frame off.
But the transom, bow and all the ribs have been glued to the gunwales.
It took a lot of effort to get the first 3 bits of timber in and the next 2 took bugger all because a friend of mine (Grant Morrison) was able to come over and help me with it.
The best thing I can say is to get some straps or someone to help you.
I think I will get insert some photos and let them talk for a bit.
I got the Keel in and couldn't resist. I got 2 bits of the gunwales attached and I put in all the ribs and strapped them together so I could see it. Racer X(L) then had form and lots of it.
I wish i could have heard myself say "take time". The stem got attached with screws, had to have them taken out, twisted to the right location and then redone again. thank god I've not glued it.
Trimming the gunwales to the stem looks like crap but it seems strong. with the amount of epoxy, it won't come off. thankfully it can be trimmed and filled in the future to flatten the bow. Take your time at this point. somehow I wished id seen a video of it all to do it right and used only 1 board but I have 2 parts to the gunwale and the bow is an odd shape. Nothing that time and some trimming won't fix. It will be covered soon enough and look smooth. This isn't a fast boat but could be stronger. but all the gunwales are glued together with thick epoxy.
So the boat has form and I hope will be finished before Christmas. There are the chines to put in but that will be done next week. Parts of the ribs will be trimmed down. This is a small thing because I've used a gunwale of only 36mm total and not the 42 in the spec.
The Hoop pine I'm using is stronger than WRC so I hope this change is a moot point.
wait and see, this will go well and be a big presence on the water. I just hope I can be good with it.
D
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