Getting Jiggy

The Pathfinder design I'm building has a fairly flat bottom that is supported, during the building, by a series of cross-pieces or profiles. Each of these (there are ten) is cut specifically to a slightly different height, so when the vaguely triangular bottom panel is flopped across them, it rises a little at the bow and a little more at the stern.

These are just yellow pine one-bys, ripped to a very specific widths and then attached to the building jig. This was a neat step: to see not only the newly cut out bottom shape, but also the gentle curve from bow to stern.

You can also see here how I cut away the edges of the profiles to make it easier to fit my bash-prone hands under the bottom when drilling for screws later.

Also note the upside-down spine and bow curve making a cameo appearance atop the table saw in the background. Farther in the background is the Windmill, a thirty-year-old spitfire-fast daysailer I restored a few years ago, now doing duty as a storage platform.

Now, if only I could get that curve in the bottom panel to match the curves in some of the other components -- centerboard case logs, spine, etc. -- that I carefully drew out and trimmed. Good thing epoxy loves sloppy fits.

With warm weather, breeze and rain and chirping frogs, comes thoughts of getting back out onto the water. It's been a long winter.