Sparring with the Bowsprit

I was looking for a break from cutting plywood, I decided to tackle cutting some timber.  It was a cold (as in sub-freezing...brrrrrrr....) day outside, but clear and sunny, so I decided  to set up shop outside for the day.   My first project of the day was to cut out the blocking for the centerboard trunk.

Cutting out the centerboard trunk blocking material.

 I didn't have the piece of wood on hand that was quite wide enough to allow me to make the horizontal piece of the blocking out of one piece (due to the fact that it curves up to meet the diagonal piece), so I cut out a little filler piece to take care of the trouble part.

Filler piece.

All the blocking for the centerboard trunk.

I ordered the Pocketship epoxy package from CLC, but it has yet to arrive.  This package contains the gallons of goop required to get through this project.  Until that arrives though, I'll have to put the rest of the centerboard trunk construction aside for now.

Have plenty of time left in the day, I moved on to something that I've been looking forward to for months, building the bowsprit.  I started with a beautiful piece of 4x4 (a.k.a. 3.5"x3.5") CVG fir. I first cut this piece down to the specified size (3"x2.5") for the bowsprit blank.  In doing so, I ended up slicing off a piece of fir that should be ideal for the gaff....bonus! 

This chunk of wood is destined to become a bowsprit.

I started off trying to copy the pattern for the bowsprit from the plans using the same method that I've used for the plywood parts.  But that was a little clunky.  I realized that the tapers are actually absurdly simple, so I took a couple of quick measurements off the plans, made a few pencil marks on my blank, and was off.  Per the manual, I elected to use my table saw to freehand the tapers.  In relatively short order I had rough cut the spar.  Between the belt sander and a plane, I got the bowsprit cleaned up, and then whipped out the router to chamfer the edges. 

Cutting out the bowsprit



The bowsprit, rough cut



The "completed" bowsprit

So, one spar down (less a ton of sanding, a couple of coats of epoxy, and many coats of varnish), much more work to go.  Hopefully my epoxy will arrive soon, so that I can really start putting this boat together.