Saturday, March 14, 2009

Boat progress

Things are rolling along with the boat. Fortunately I have photographic evidence: these are about a week old, but are still a good status snapshot, since most work since then has been on small and nearly invisible components.

First, the centerboard. The lights appear to be huddled around in fascination, but in fact are trying to keep the temperature high enough so the epoxy cures instead of freezes. The bottom of the centerboard is at left, and the dark patch near the middle is about 45 pounds of lead.
The whole thing weights approximately 9,000,000 pounds, and will break anything it knocks into, including me.

Next we have "my" bottom. That's right, it's hilarious. Here it is, half-cut out of the plywood:
This also shows the incredible neatness and organized nature of the garage. Don't be intimidated!

Once the bottom was cut out I had something that was almost a boat-shape for the first time on this entire ding-danged project. This was so exciting I decided to prop up the frames for a very rough 3D view of the basic shape:
This is looking aft; the thing shaped like a stop sign at the top left of the image is the transom, or the very back part of the boat. There will be more frames than this, but they're a little tricky to prop up. Another view, looking forward:

The heart-shaped piece is actually a bulkhead just aft of the pointy bow. I'll eventually cut an opening in this piece for a round hatch. Since I don't actually have said hatch yet, it seemed safest not to go cutting holes in expensive plywood.

This was an exciting moment, seeing the big shape together like this. I'm almost at the point where I can start assembling these pieces like a dinosaur skeleton.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Lotsa progress since we saw it. It's looking like a great boat! Keep sending along those pix!

Anonymous said...

Looks cool! I see Log in the corner of the picture under the bottom. I also see what look like the frames leaning up against the wall in one picture. Great looking centerboard--nice smooth transitions. Does it pivot, and if so, where's the pivot hole?

S R Wood said...

Thanks guys! Peter -- that's not Log, Log is too big to fit under the building jig and has been relegated to the other side of the garage. Log may become my tiller.

I just drilled the pivot hole yesterday; through the corner in the wide flat area at the top (right side of the picture) of the board.

It's still unclear how I'm expected to haul up an 80-pound centerboard.

Perry Burton said...

Great progress. Your centerboard turned out great! Watch your toes taking it off the bench though.

S R Wood said...

Thanks Perry. I have never seen anyone build as fast as you; I've been watching your progress with astonishment. If I were in Newfoundland I would use the weather as an excuse for my slow progress. But beautiful sailing up there. Not to mention good music!

The CB is heavy enough. But when installed into the heavy well sides (I used locust for the seat risers and pivot support) it is a nearly unliftable beast.