February 15, 2008
I started working today. I began the whole project by going to a copier and making two copies of two different books that contained boat plans. In total it actually ended up being close to two hundred pages that I printed out. Then I went to my grandparents’ house around 4:00 after I finished copying my books. My grandfather, and I who would be helping me create the boat, sat down and dissected all of the plans I presented. The criteria that I set for the boat I wanted to build was that it had to be fast, and it was preferable that it were under twelve feet long so it did not have to be registered. However, we ended up choosing a twelve and a half foot ‘cat boat’ with 97 square feet of sail area.
Feburary 16, 2008
I spent the whole day today discussing how to proceed and what we had to buy and act on first. One of the major problems that we encountered was that the plans that we were using were outdated, the book was published in the 1950’s. This meant to us that there were different types and sizes of wood that we needed to find. Another of the problems that we encountered on this day was the fact that the book’s dimensions were very cryptic. This problem lead to us going through almost every length and question it and prove that the lengths all made sense.
February 17, 2008
My grandfather and I spent the morning searching all of the local lumberyards for supplies and a large roll of construction paper to start our drawings. First we went to Home Depot in East Hanover, and we failed to find what we wanted. The next stop on our journey was Casterline Lumber in Morristown, and although they did not have what we wanted we settled for paper that was a foot too short. After we got back home we got stuck with a problem. We had not known enough of the terminology to determine all of the dimentions of the keel piece. In order to move on we spent the rest of the day reading up on boatbuilding language.
February 18, 2008
We spent all day today, over 7 hours, determining the shape of the keel, and how it changes shape from frame to frame and station to station. The most troublesome aspect was the idea that the book did not give the actual width of the keel, instead, it gave us a point that was parallel to the width, and this confused us.
February 23, 2008
Today we determined how all of the frame pieces fit together, and drew up one view of frames 6-T.
February 24, 2008
We went to Casterline this morning and bought 1”x3” spruce pieces to create the frames out of, and after that we went to Home Depot to buy a table saw that was capable of cutting the wood to the proper angles for the shaping of the frames. We then determined one of the angles of a part of the frames and cut all of the spruce to the correct angle.
March 1, 2008
We cut the other parts of the frames, the horizontal pieces, and discussed more on how all of the pieces are pieced together.
March 2, 2008
Today we did two more drawings, the plan view and elevation. Later we also started discussing models for the centerboard box, keel, skeg, and transom knee. This proved to be more difficult than we previously expected, due to the fact that the plans did not mention the shape of any of these pieces.
March 8, 2008
This past week I found a carpenter in May’s Landing, NJ that specialized in boat pieces and could make our pieces for us. This would include the trickiest pieces to fabricate: the keel, chines, and stem. He gave us $600 estimate, since this was twice what I had budgeted for I dropped him and looked to other places to fabricate these pieces. Anyway, today we went to Home Depot and bought red oak 1”x3” for the floors and 3/8” plywood for the gussets of the frames. When we got back I cut the red oak to length and the gussets to shape.
March 9, 2008
Today we put together the frames in halves we also drew frames 5-0.
March 10, 2008
Today we had a big discussion on what the keel shape was and how to cut the floors and the frames to fit. Then we cut the pieces to fit the keel and chines
March 11, 2008
Today we went shopping for a transom and centerboard box sides and varnish. In the afternoon we assembled the transom and cut it to shape
March 12, 2008
Today I talked to Ed Matthews, a carpenter, and he said he could make the keel cheaper than $600. Also, today I painted the first coat of spar-varnish on the frames
March 13, 2008
Today we undertook the huge job of making the centerboard box pieces. This required cutting a 3”x3/4”x4” piece out of a 10’x8-7/8”x1-3/4” white oak plank and cut slots for the sides to sit in. After that we went looking for headledges and bought red oak 2”x4”
March 14, 2008
Today we ripped the headledges to size. Then I varnished the rest of the frames, the transom, and the centerboard box sides and headledges.
March 15, 2008
Today we started to assemble frame #1 and cut limber holes in frames 2 3 4 and 8 9 10. Then I varnished the holes and the back of the centerboard pieces.
March 17, 2008
We finished our full-sized keel drawing and visited Ed Matthew’s shop. He looked really busy and I was worrying if he would be able to finish the pieces in our time frame. However, he sounded confident and said that he was going to get the wood sometime next week, but would have to wait to make it because he had 3 kitchens to install. When we got home we beveled all of the frames and chiseled the chines into the transom.
March 18, 2008
We drew the mast step, beveled frame #1 and made the mast step from left over white oak all in the morning. However we had a major setback in the afternoon. We found that there was a knot in a piece of wood in frame number 10 and it ended up breaking. So we removed the defective piece, but because we did not have the right lumber we could not fix it then. So we decided to clean everything up for our trip to California.
April 4, 2008
Today Boom picked me up from school at 2:30 and we went to Ed’s shop in Patterson. When we got there the chines, keel, and stem were all ready for us to pick up. We left with the pieces and thanked Ed profusely. On our way home we also picked up the lumber for frame #10.
April 5, 2008
This morning I was at school for a lacrosse game, but when I returned I got right to work. We first went to Home Depot and got three sheets of 5/8” plywood to stand all of the frames on. The next things that we did were fix frame number 10 and proceed to sand all of the frames to fit the keel. After that I secured the three sheets of plywood together and marked all of the stations and added supporting blocks for all of the frames to be attached to.
This night we attached weights in the form of paint cans and lead chunks to the chines and keel, trying to bend them to shape.
April 6, 2008
The first thing we did today was attach all of the frames to the plywood floor. Once we had all of the frames in place I realized I had made a mistake and took all of them out. We measured 25-1/8” up from the waterline and cut all of the frames to fit. After this was completed I proceeded to brace all of the frames to the correct length apart.
April 12, 2008
Today we started out really well. We got the keel in all at once with no problems at all. We stopped for lunch then moved on to the chines. We got the first three in to fit the slots we had made, and then at frame eight the outer bit of the chine started to split. At that instant we stopped and proceeded to put rags soaked with boiling water on the chines. Then we went to Home Depot to get ratchet clamps. Once we returned with the clamps we started to get the chines in, but we were stopped because of sunset. So we placed tarps over the chines in order to enclose a humidifier, which was to act as a steamer.
April 13, 2008
We started today by working on the chines at frames 3-1 and 10. Frames two and three went in fine, but at frame 1 the whole bottom part of the frame separated from the part attached to the chines and the keel. This instilled a twist in my stomach, which caused me to worry about what we had just caused for the rest of the day.
April 20, 2008
Today we started by remaking frame number 1 then put it in place while drawing up the outline for on of the sides of planking. We chiseled out room for the chines to meet at the keel at station 0, which we had to redo multiple times, and then screw the chines together into the keel.
April 21, 2008
Today I worked all day on fitting one piece of the planking. I cut all of the planking for the first half, and then I took four hours to sand one of the pieces to fit.
May 8, 2008
Today I got picked up right after school and went to Boom’s house. The first thing that I did was finish attaching the centerboard box sides to the bed logs. Then I proceeded to stain the inside of the box with a very dark stain and finally stealing the insides with the same spar-varnish I had worked with earlier on the boat. Then I went on to fair off the sheer height on the port side of the boat. We also cut down the frames to the correct height.
June 11, 2008
Today we made the skeg and the keel and inserted them with 3-1/2” deck screws. Then we moved on to the missing frames and could not figure out how to get the correct angle to fit the sides and the bottom to the plywood sides.
June 12, 2008
Today I worked by myself on the ribs and got almost all of them in. I split the bottom of the frames from the gussets and made a new bottom to fit the angle at each frame.
June 13, 2008
Today I worked on the last two or three frames, then at lunch we discussed the crown and positioning of the deck frames and the clamps/1x1’s that run b/w frames
June 17, 2008
Today I went to the sailboat shop to look at the parts I needed to rig my boat. They offered me all of the parts from a beat up ’00 Precision 165.
June 18, 2008
Today I put almost all of the 6” frames in for the upper deck. I also made some of the 3/x3/4 pieces that fit b/w the frames.
June 19, 2008
Today I made up the deck beams for frames 1-3 and created the newly designed compression post for our new mast rig.
June 23, 2008
Today I screwed the upper deck beams in place and then fastened the compression post to the frames. I also finished the 1x1’s and ordered 1.5 gallons of epoxy today.
June 24, 2008
Today I had to work until three, but right after that my Grandfather and I went up to The Sailboat Shop in order to pick up a mast, boom, and multiple cleats/blocks. When I got home from the Shop I cleaned the sails and bleached the rope to take the mildew off of the lines that came with the rest of the stuff.
June 30, 2008
Today I put both of the clamps on the length of the boat today and on last Friday the epoxy got delivered so I started vacuuming the sawdust out for that. I also put in supports for the mainsheet blocks under the decks. The next step is to put a hole into the transom for the drain plug.
July 1, 2008
Today I made the hole for the drain plug then went back and fixed some of the limber holes that I had forgot to make before I put the frames in. After that I cleaned up the sawdust in the bottom of the boat to prepare it for epoxy. Then I made a small batch of epoxy and tried it out on a few small pieces of wood, and then on a small piece of the boat in the very front.
July 5, 2008
Today I epoxied the entire inside and one quarter of the sides of the boat.
July 8, 2008
today I got the report that the epoxy on the transom has set up nicely but on the plywood on the inside was still too tacky to let me flip the boat over. Oh well! I think, however, that it should be ready to be flipped by the end of the week.
July 26, 2008
Today I put wood dough and small blocks of woods on the bottom of the boat preparing to epoxy and fiberglass it.
July 27, 2008
Today I sanded down all of the dough on the bottom, and all of the rest of the wood. Then I cleaned up all of the dust and was finally ready to epoxy the bottom.
July 28, 2008
Today I fiberglassed and epoxied the entire bottom and sides of the boat.
February 12, 2009
Nearly the anniversary of starting this project and admittedly I have not kept up with the diary fully. By now I have 3 sails, a mast, boom and all of the deck hardware as well as purchasing ash planking for the seats and floor boards. I Oiled the planks with boiled linseed oil on the undersides of the planks and tung oil on the showing side. Not to toot my own horn, I feel like the boards came out especially well and I am excited for the warm weather to come so I can put the seat frames in and put the paint I just bought on. I just got 1 gal of white "Easypoxy" topsides paint and primer from West Marine. I have also realized that all of the seals are waterproof, due to rain seeping through the tarp over the boat now. However one of the problems that did develop over the deep of winter are parallel cracks in the fiberglass along the joint between the bottom and the keel on the undersides of the hull. Also, I have all of the decks on with 4 coats of varnish; another addition was a 3' bowsprit on the bow of the boat to allow for the 110% jib and forestay of the rig I bought (and possible a code 0/gennaker soon to be made). For the new jib I collected and prepared the fixings of a pvc roller furling system to allow for easier singlehanded sailing, and for the option of jib furling when the wind starts going. On the opposite end, I bought two large pieces of aluminum for the centerboard and rudder-board, and I have successfully shaped and drilled the centerboard. However, I am still hesitant to cut out the rudder blade because I am not sure wether or not I will use the head fitting I already made or recycle one from my first boat. I have made all of the other accessories for the rudder, and the tiller is made of white oak and has a nice varnish finish on it.
September 2010
I have now succesfully sailled the boat multiple times, in places like the Miles River in the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Anna, VA, Massachusetts, and Spruce Run, NJ. I can honestly say that the coolest thing I have ever done was sail in the Chesapeake Bay, the perfect setting for a classic wooden sailboat, with my family on vacation, proving the ultimate success of this time and effort consuming process. But, in four words: "It was worth it." It is the best small boat I have ever sailed on in terms of stability, comfort, and sailing ability. I have also had to take the boat out of the water and refinish the bottom twice due to cracking in the fiberglass and a small leak, but I am still confident that this is a solid boat that will be around for a while.
|
