Stringers built: 3
Stringers still intact: 2
Stringers still to be built: 14
But things are moving: #4 is clamped to the workbench as I type this, wrapped in plastic and heat clamps, curing away at a happy 86.1 degrees.
When I unclamped the last two stringers, they were long and rubbery-soft, unwieldy twenty-foot strips flopping all over the place. Kinda tricky in a 23-foot garage.
The great thing about these is test-clamping them in place to show the sheer (edge) of the boat and -- evidently -- to test their bendiness.
Breaking a stringer is a very clear signal that that particular stringer probably wasn't up to the job. Of bending. Which is the whole reason for a stringer's existence.
Luckily, although #2 is now in three pieces on the floor of the garage (after the first break I bent it again, unbelieving. It broke again. Now I believe.), #3 has been behaving much better and in fact has become a bit of a show-off, here arcing gracefully out of frame as the shattered remnants of #2 look on. See, #2? That's how it's done.
Did I mention I talk to myself while boatbuilding? What?
Finally, the GOOD stringer clamped in place. The shape of the boat is really starting to take ... shape.
1 comment:
It's a beauty! I've actually read that talking out loud as you work on a "problem" will help you resolve the problems quicker and with a greater chance of accuracy. Maybe you didn't talk to that first stringer enough when you were working on it. The trick is not to act embarrassed when people aslways ask, "Just who are you talking to out there??"
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