Sunday, January 3, 2010

Little less progress than desired.

Tomorrow is a return to work for DW and I and a return to school for DS and DD after a relaxing week spent mostly at home. Because this is the case, today seemed to be mostly dedicated to doing those things that we wanted to get cleaned up before the start of a busy week.

One of my least-favorite tasks of the year, the un-decorating from the Christmas holidays took place today. Somehow, I always find that I think the plain tree is as beautiful as the decorated one. Perhaps we'll have a live tree in a pot next year instead of cutting one so that we can leave it in the house for the winter.


The other cleaning that went on was the mess left over from cutting out the patterns yesterday and rounding the inside edges with the router. It's much better and safer to work in a clean shop. So, DD and I spent time making it look a bit less like a disaster area and more like a boat shop.

I'm re-using the fixturing that I made for the Sea Tour 15R. This wasn't too much of a stretch as the new boat is only 1' shorter than the Sea Tour. I was concerned that the end mounts and plywood crosses that I came up with wouldn't work on this design. To assure myself that it would work, DD and I set up the strongback on some sawhorses and marked out the pattern locations. We then put on the end mounts and plywood crosses in those locations and clamped the patterns to them. Using the same techniques as were done for the Sea Tour, we put on the sheer stringers. Things look pretty good, although a bit of trimming on the end mounts needs to happen to allow the chine stringers to pass by the end patterns. Still, it's looking like a boat.



We've got a bit more sanding to do before we start the major assembly, but not much more is left before we can get started in earnest.

2 comments:

Mackayak said...

Impressive progress!
Looking good.
Wish there was someone around here to teach the skills.

Canoez said...

Thanks for the compliment!

Well, for the right price... ;-)

It's not really that hard to do. The tools required are relatively simple. You could make do with a hand-held jig saw, a hand drill and a few clamps. Certainly someone with a table saw would make quick work of the long stringers but it *can* be done with a hand-held circular saw.

Most of the materials that you need are probably available at B&Q with the notable exception of the marine grade plywood and the polyester fabric used to cover the hull.