Keeping a Level Head

The two big acts of stitch and glue boat construction are, naturally, stitching and gluing.  Actually, there is another act, sanding, which is several times longer than the first two acts combined, but that'll be a subject for another post. 

In the last post, I reported that I had finished the stitching phase (at least on the lower hull).  Before making things permanent, I spent some making sure everything was level, aligned, and generally in the right position.  I did some test fits of various parts (e.g. the foredeck), to make sure things were taking the proper shapes.  Next up I grabbed a bunch of shims and started leveling the hull.  A bubble level on top of a stiff batten spanning the hull athwartships to get things level laterally, and get out any twist that may have been present.  The same bubble level on the bottom of the keel helped guide the longitudinal levelling.  Various diagonal measurements helped get everything square.  On and on.  And of course, it was an iterative process, but slowly things began to converge, and soon I was happy.  It took a while, but it is time well spent.  Looking at a crooked bulkhead for the rest of the life of the boat would really make you regret skimping on a few hours here.

View of the bow.  I dropped the foredeck in place for test fitting.  Here it is being propped up by a clamp.

The assembled hull. 

Test fit of the fore decks.

Yup, the hull is level!

I used this long, stiff batten to checking the alignment and heights of the floors and the cleats that'll support the cabin sole.

The next step was to mix up a batch of Jon's magic thicken epoxy blend #4 and run little beads of thickened epoxy along all the seams between the stitches.  The manual refers to them as "tack welds."  I don't really like that term, but lacking something more proper, I have found myself unable to avoid thinking of them using that term. These hold the boat together so that you can pull out all the stitches.  After that, you run big epoxy fillets over the the tack welds to provide some real structural strength.

For these steps, the epoxy has to be thickened just right.  Too thin and it'll sag and run, too thick and it gets course, grainy, and hard to apply.  For best results, I mix my epoxy, and then add thickener until it roughly doubles the volume of the epoxy.  The exact amount is a matter of judgement whilst you are mixing, but as a rough rule of thumb, my doubling the volume rule sure seems to work well.  For thickeners, I usually use a mix that is about 20% colloidal silica (cabosil) and 80% wood flour by volume.  This seems to give the right balance in terms of smoothness, strength, and sandability.

Thickened epoxy "tack welds"

With the tack welds done, the next step will be to move on to the big structural fillets.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but it seems that I have a tough time only working on one boat at a time.  When I was 80% done with my Redfish cedar strip kayak, I started work on a Pygmy Osprey Double kayak.  As I could see the light at the end of the tunnel on that one, I started work on this boat.  And now, yes, I find myself working on yet another boat (sort of).  This time it is a CLC cradle boat.  This little boat/piece of furniture more-or-less a 1/2 sized version of CLC's Eastport Pram, with some modifications to turn it into baby cradle.  I'm building this as a gift for some friends who are expecting.  And hopefully not reading this.  Thanks to John C. Harris and the guys at Chesapeake Light Craft for this unique and beautiful product.

Boat #5! (4.5?)  Cradle boat under construction.

Syttende Mai

I could write about how I spent some time today tightening wires, measuring, leveling, and aligning stuff on the boat, and how next time I get a chance (which sadly probably won't be until next week), I'll be tacking the hull together with thickened epoxy.  But, I'm not going to write about that.  On this glorious Norwegian Constitution Day, I'm going to eat one more piece of lefse, and leave you with this line from the Norwegian National Anthem:

Ja, vi elsker dette landet,

som det stiger frem,

furet, værbitt over vannet..

---Translation---

Yes, we love this country

as it rises forth,

rugged, weathered, above the sea...

Is it any wonder that I love hiking in the mountains and sailing the seas? 

<><>

	

It's Starting to Look Like a Boat!

The lower hull, stitched together.  The long batten laying athwartships is there to aid in leveling the hull.

View of the interior of the boat

Every written account detailing the construction of a stitch and glue boat will at some point have an entry titled "It's starting to look like a boat."  There is something magical about way a couple of funny shaped slices of plywood take the form of a boat's hull in just a few hours that causes the builder to involuntarily utter, "it's starting to look like a boat."  The "lookin' like a boat" feeling happens in other forms of boat building, but there it is more gradual.  In stitch 'n glue building, its abrupt, like...WOW!

So, since the last update, I've managed to get most of the lower hull stitched together.  I finished sanding the the hull side panels, and almost immediately set out to start stitching.  I started by dropping in the port bilge panel (recall that starboard panel was already in from a previous burst of enthusiasm).  Stitching well pretty well until I got up to the bow.  Up there the plywood has to make quite a bend in order to give Pocketship her relatively (for a 15' boat with a 6' beam) fine entry.  But with a bit of stubborn effort, it came together.

Next up was to stitch in the floor at station #4 (the front of the centerboard trunk).  From there, the hull sides were added, one at a time.  Again, the bow was a bit of a tussle, this time not because of the curvature, but due to interference with the bilge panels.  After a bit of prying and a few imprecations, it too came together.

Next up were the transom and bulkheads.   The edges of the transom got a nice bevel to match the angles of the hull.  Getting all the stitches in for the bulkheads and floors requires a bit of bending, stretching, gently climbing around inside the boat, and generally performing precision acts of acrobatic legerdemain.   Just a few more stitches to go.   Then after pushing, pulling, jiggering, jostling, leveling and aligning the hull, it'll be time to move onto the "glue" stage of the stitch 'n glue process.

Other projects that have been occupying my time have included 'glassing the centerboard and rudder, and constructing trophies for our monthly soup-making contest at work.   The trophies and centerboard are done, the rudder is still in work. 

The centerboard gets a layer of 'glass

The rudder progresses

The Aerodynamics Soup Contest Trophies

Tall Ship

Aside from continuing fiberglass work on the new hull panels, I didn't make too much progress over the weekend.  I ran out of peelply, so I've reverted to the old three-coats-of-epoxy method.  It takes longer, but after a couple of boat, I've got to be pretty good at it.  There'll still be a bunch of sanding in my future as a result of it, but it is what it is.

So, why didn't I make more progress over the weekend?  Because I was given a trip sailing aboard the Lady Washington for my birthday!  Actually sailing takes priority over boat building.  And sailing on a square rigger, well, enough said....

The Lady Washington brig-rigged replica of the smaller of Capt. Gray's vessels that he took on the first American expedition to the west coast.  She was built in 1989 in Aberdeen, WA, as part of Washington State's centennial celebrations.  Since then, she has roamed the waters of the west coast.  She has starred as the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek: Generations, and as HMS Interceptor in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.  I visited her way back when she was under construction: shortly after her keel was laid, as I recall.  I been aboard several time since, but this was my first chance to sail aboard her.

The original sailed from Boston in the company of the Columbia Rediviva on a voyage of discovery to the west coast of North America in the late 1780's  Notable discoveries included the Columbia River and Grays Harbor.  From then, she served in the fur trade voyaged to China.  She foundered and was lost around 10 years after sailing from Boston.  She was originally rigged as a sloop, but was later re-rigged as a brig.  The replica was rigged as a brig, although, if I recall correctly, so was still sloop-rigged when she sailed with Columbia.

At one point, the dreamers that brought us the replica Lady Washington had also planned/imagined building a replica of the ship-rigged Columbia Rediviva, but this dream evaporated with the onset of financial realities.  These days, the Lady, sailing under the auspices of Grays Harbor Historical Seaport, sails the waters from California to Canada in the company of the square tops'l ketch, Hawaiian Chieftain.

Rework

After a few days spent moping and playing sad songs on the violin, I got back at it.  I picked up two new sheets of plywood.  I ripped them in half, stacked them up, and set to work.  After the last go at scarfing, I swore off using power tools to create scarfs.  So, I pulled out my assortment of hand planes and set to work.   I wish I had done it that way to begin with.  Long curls of wood materialized as I ran the plane along gradually receding edges of the plywood.   It just felt right...like an artisan practising his craft using the time-honored tools of the trade.   And the results were perfect.  Why didn't I do it this way to begin with?  Why did I think a power tool could beat a well handled plane?  Never again will I use a power tool to cut a scarf.

I made several passes with the jack plane and then finished it off  with my block plane.

OK, now here are some 8:1 scarfs to be proud of!

There are times that I think power tools and wooden boats were never meant to be brought into contact with one another. Except for random orbital sanders.

I glued my newly cut scarf joints together.  How'd they turn out?  Perfect.  These has turned out exactly the way that the first set should have.  So good, that I've contemplating redoing the other panels so that they too are of the highest quality. But aside from the desire to attain perfection, I can't really justify doing this.  I've inspected the other long panels are solid.  And they may be ugly, but all those surfaces will be painted.  The godfather of stitch 'n glue boatbuilding, Sam Devlin, says that you have to set realistic expectations or else "you will find yourself bogged down by an obsessive desire to have everything perfect."  So, I think I will leave well enough alone.  But still...

Continuing the re-work, I laid out and cut the new side panels, sanded them, and set about re-fiberglassing them.  With the keel and building cradle in the shop, I am a little short on space in the shop, so I only have room to fiberglass one panel at a time.  So, right now I have one done.  The other will get done in the near future. And then it'll be back to sanding.

Deja vu...Haven't I 'glassed panels just like this before?

DISASTER!

Not just a disaster.  A big disaster.  A big, unmitigated disaster.  I was just getting back into the groove, and then, bam! 

What happened?

Well, I have been doing what were to be the final preparations before starting to assemble the hull.  The bulk of the work has been sanding.  And sanding.  And sanding.  I started with sanding the bulkheads and floors. 

Sanding Bulkhead #1

I can only take about 2 hours of sanding at a time, so I changed things up and laid out, cut out, and assembled the building cradle. 

Assembling the building cradle

The completed cradle

Then I sanded some more, but having the completed cradle sitting in the shop was too much of a temptation.  So, I lugged the keel into position and dropped it into the cradle. 

At this point, you are probably wondering "what about the disaster?"  We'll get there, but first, a philosophical interlude.  I've done a little thinking about it (and a little research to back up my thinking), and I have concluded that, for Pocketship, the act of dropping the keel into the cradle officially constitutes laying the keel.  Quite a moment for pondering existential thoughts.  At one moment, there was nothing...just a collect of boat-related parts that I'd been working on.  Just hunks of wood, really.  But, by a simple act of bringing two of those parts together, like the moment of conception, something new was created.  In that moment, there was no physical change to hunks of wood that make up the keel assembly, yet it was transubtantiated; the essence of those hunks of wood were forever changed.  It won't float yet, but given time it will grow, change, take on a character all its own and eventually take to the seas.  As of April 10th, 2011, I officially have a boat in the shop.

The keel, in place, the boat, under construction.

This all was pretty exciting, and after trying to sand a few more minutes, I caved in, and dropped the starboard-side bilge panel into place, and started stitching it to the hull.  Stitching is a pretty simple process.  There are matching hole in the keelson and bilge panel.  Into each hole, a wire stitched (mentioned in the previous post) is inserted.   The panels get aligned and the loose ends of the stitch are twisted around each other, thus holding the parts together so that later, the seams can get glued together.  Stitch and glue. 

At this point, I really would have liked drop in the port side bilge panel and stitch it up too, but doing so wouldn't leave and room in the shop for sanding.  So, I resumed sanding.  As the week went on, I managed to get all the bulkheads and floors sanded.  This just left the side panels.  And these would only require light sanding thanks to my use of peel ply.  The hour was getting late, but I figured that I would at least set on of the side panels up on sawhorses before calling it quits for the day.  That's when the disaster struck. 

I laid hands on the middle of one of my side panels, hoisted it over my head, heard a snap, and felt my heart sink to my shoes as the scarf joint parted.   I really hadn't been happy with the quality of my scarf joints, in terms of appearence, but didn't really suspect any structural problems.  After all, I used a ton of thickened epoxy, which should be stronger than the surrounding wood.  What happened? 

On inspecting the scene of the crime, I found that a large percent of area the joint had plastic wrap in it.  I had used plastic wrap while the glue in the joint was drying to keep the squeeze-out from sticking to anything that it shouldn't. Apparently, in jiggering the pieces around to get them aligned, the plastic wrap had worked its way into the joint.  Epoxy doesn't stick to plastic wrap, so my scarf joint on that board had almost no strength.  It is a miracle (of sorts) that I didn't break sooner.

It is also a miracle that it broke when it did.  Had it held a few more days, it would have become a permanent part of the boat.  I can just imagine spending months and months building the boat, only to have it break in half when I roll it over to fiberglass the outside of the hull.

Busted!

I'm considering recovery options.  At this point, the only thing I can think to do is buy some more plywood, and start over on the side panels.  This time, I'll cut the scarfs the right way, with a hand plane.  I also need to inspect the other long hull panels and see it they have to be redone too!

In the meantime, I'm going to spend a few days moping.

Poking along

Progress is still slow in the world of boat building.  I've been putting along, trying to get the point where I can start stitching the hull together.

Since last post, the sailing hardware package arrived.  Well almost.  The box containing the sail track is still on a walkabout across the country.  Apparently, there had been a little confusion on this order, but thanks to Ed and the other guys at CLC, it all got straightened out.  Thanks guys.

All the blocks, rigging, padeyes, and doodads a guy could ever want.

In an attempt to get into the groove, I decided to tackle something mindless and easy....preparing the stitches.  I bought 150' of steel wire and started cutting this into 3-4" lengths.  For the most part, would then bend them into something resembling large staples.  The staple shape makes stitching things together much easier and minimizes the amount of fighting you have to do with the stitches. 

Measure and cut a length of wire.

Bend it into a staple.  I've found that using a DVD case as a mould makes the perfect staple.

The finished product.

A whole bunch of the finished product.

 I've also been coating the bulkheads and floors in epoxy.  The last coat is drying even now.  The next step will be to sand, sand, sand.  I'm not really looking forward to that, but it has to be done before the hull can be assembled. 

Floors and bulkheads waiting for epoxy.

Roll on the goo.

Two coats on each side is all it takes!

Now for the really exciting part.  Over the course of the last two kayaks, I constantly struggled with keeping the shop clean as I work.  Boat building generates a lot of used gloves, paper towels, mixing cups, stir sticks, brushes, odds, ends, fiddle and faddle.  There are many times when you are working to fast to keep ahead of epoxy that's about to kick, and in your haste to not ruin your project, a lot of that flotsam ends up on the floor of the shop.  I've tried cleaning up after each session, keeping garbage bags handy, hanging bags from the wall, on, and on, and nothing really seemed to work.  Bags were too small, too hard to open, not conducive to easily putting rubbish into, and so stuff still ended up on the floor.    To illustrate the insanity...

It is a rudder, and a waste bin!