The Big Grind Begins

Last weekend 28th Feb I started the final grinding of the outer hull along all the weld lines.
The sandblasting day is coming fast.
Theres a few things left to do structurally and Im trying to get them all done before the blasting starts.
Theres probably a few days grinding left..


The pics below are only taken today 4th march on my phone so the quality is bad.
I designed a 1200Litre Freshwater tank for the front under floor of the boat.
As I moved the engine back in design Im adding a bit of water to counter 0.8 degree.

Eurofab (Nose cone ppl) got this laser cut and its been down there for a couple of weeks waiting for time to weld it.


We got some of it tacked today and its lining up nicely.
I dont have TIG welding gear nor have I ever done it, so its pro welding here...

Front end, waiting for the other bit of the floor to get tacked.

The tank will sit across Frames 9, 10, 11. and matckes the shape of the boat exactly.

more pics when we do more on it.

Not getting any comments or mails for ages , yet over 900 views a month..

all quiet out there....?

Since oct 2007 14,000 people have viewed the blog.. thanks...

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No Longer Shiftless

Previous to cutting in the hatches, I worked on making the cut in my deck for mounting the throttle/shift control. While I had originally planned to get a stainless steel metal bezel made, my fellow boat builder Ted suggested that I make a wood bezel....great idea! I decided that a two piece bezel would provide a tighter fit and cover up the "dogbone" look of the deck cut out.

Starting with a mock up "box" to mount the controller, I developed the cut out hole that would allow installing the controller levers up through the hole. This mock-up work provided lots of procrastination time from cutting into the real deck and was worth the trouble. After figuring out the cut-out hole size and shape, I used scraps from the deck planking to make the bezel. The deck edge was used to trace a gentle curve to the long edges as a rectangular bezel just didnt look right with all the curves of the boat.

After making the bezel it looked like it might interfere with where I might want to locate the windshield bracket, so I decided to move the controller outboard 3/4". So an auxiliary extender piece was made to add to the carling to shift the shifter and better reinforce the mounting holes. Finally, I put some blue tape on the deck, laid out the hole, "took a brave pill" and drilled a couple of big a*# holes in the deck. Using a hand saw I cut between the holes. Bla, bla, bla, ...look at the pictures.

The first photo shows the mock-up box, the second the deck cutout and the bezel split apart. The third has the bezel located around the shifter and the fourth the extender piece underneath that was added.

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Faking It

In order to determine my plan for the deck planking appearance, I made up some sample boards from the scrap cut offs. I did one set in natural colors on one board. On another longer piece of plywood, I made two sample sets, one with the perimeter and king plank dyed a dark brown and another with perimeter and king plank in a vintage cherry redish dye. I put on a couple coats of epoxy and after a review with my aesthetic advisor, we agreed that the reddish dye was more interesting and seemed to bring out the grain better than the dark brown. The all natural was too much the same. To get a preview of the look of the boat, I set the selected sample on the bow and propped up a mirror behind it to give the appearance of the front of the boat. With the choice made, it was back to getting the decking ready for staining (using a water based dye product).

The first thing to do was plugging the screws for the perimeter planking and king planks. The steel screws used during glue-up were removed, holes bored deeper, silicon bronze screws installed and then wood plugs epoxied in. Plugs were made from cutoffs from the boards used in each place. After setting the plugs were cut flush and sanded.

Then I worked on the outer perimeter, getting the plywood subdeck and planking layer flush to the sides with a vertical edge about 3/4" high. This edge will allow enough surface for a 1/4" radius on the top edge and then a 1/2" stainless steel rubstrip. I had to do some epoxy fill-in at the aft end of the boat where I had previously over cut the plywood due to the tumblehome of the rear sides of the boat. The edge lays over slightly as it approaches the transom so the rub strip will twist a bit towards the transom.

The next order of business was sanding. I took my small belt sander to the whole deck and sanded down any high spots along the king plank edges and over the whole boat to fix quite a few places where the grain was running upwards causing some surface tearout. Then it was a progression with the random orbital sander through 80, 100, 120 and 150 grit paper. A rather small paragraph to explain a whole day of tedious work.

I decided to make a thin molding about 3/16" thick and 3/4" wide to go around the inside of the cockpit and motor well areas to cap the planking boards ends and edges. While simple in concept, it is a bit more involved to fit tight and get around the radiused corners. I made a couple of glue-up jigs to create the molding in the corners. I traced the radius on a piece of plywood, cut it out on the bandsaw, and screwed it down to a scrap board. On the table saw from the planking scraps, I cut about 8" long strips about 0.060" thick, ran hot water over a piece and then formed it into the corner on the boat, taped it in place and let it dry. Then laminated a couple of pieces at a time in the jig using water proof Titebond glue. After a while I had 4 corner moldings that almost fit. The molding is in seven pieces around each opening. The picture shows the epoxy and clamping of the side pieces and a center piece. Then the corners and remaining pieces. Lets hope it all looks good in the end.

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Doing A Doughnut In My Boat

You may recall I decided to make a Shilling rudder.

This short video shows what it can do.

Enjoy. Sorry about the reflection

It works as you can see and Im glad I went to the extra effort.

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More Ceiling

Ceiling again today. The center area is going to be pained white and is ply wood the same as the sides.  First the supporting frame.

2 x 1 battening glued and screwed

Working single handed and putting up a ceiling is challenging.  With the aid of the ratchet prop used yesterday for the bucket and some temporary hold ups heres how I did it.

 

And heres the finished ceiling.

All that needs doing now is a good sanding down and painting.  I will do the bedroom tomorrow having already put up the frame work.

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The More You Know The Less You Know

I was reading a forum item about water up the rudder stock tube.  This was something I had never considered or been told about although on very hard reverse on my NB I would get water up the tube.  I just put this down to poor design because of its age.  When the water came up it just ran off the self draining read deck, but on this boat its going to go into the engine room bilge.......... Not good.

As I hadnt considered this I needed to work out how to retrospectively fix it.  Much head scratching and I came up with this idea.

I disassembled the rudder, ram and removed the stock.

I then slid a length of PVC pipe over it having first coated the shaft with silicone grease.

I reassemble the rudder and stock then filled the gap between the stock tube and the PVC tube with closed cell expanding foam.

Once cured I trimmed off the excess.

I think this will solve the problem.

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A Whale of an Adventure Begins

Traveled all day yesterday to board the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow at the Newport, RI naval base. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program, I get to join scientists monitoring whale populations for the next week and a half in the Gulf of Maine!

Hoooo weee!

Pictures of the ship to come, as well as a link to my “official” NOAA blog that will be up and running in the next few days.

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Laminating the Keel

Once I had all the patterns I needed for the keel chunks, I assembled a cradle from 4x6s fastened with lag bolts and started laminating the pieces of keel from thinner stock. Several hundred board feet of Southern Yellow Pine 2x8s, 7 gallons of epoxy and 15 gallons of fumed silica later, I had my keel chunks laminated.

There were big lessons learned in the process:

1) I will need about 500 clamps to build this boat.

2) It would have been ideal to buy the construction grade lumber I used at the exact moment I needed it and no sooner. Even when stacked properly in a rather consistent climate (the desert), it tended to warp and twist and required all manner of cursing, cajoling, and sweet-talking to get it to laminate up into a straight chunk of wood. I guess its good to make due with what you have. If I waited for the perfect tools, the perfect materials, the perfect budget, and the perfect place to build, Id probably never get started.

3) Epoxy is not fun to work with. Laminating the keel with epoxy made the decision to plank the boat rather than use plywood easy.

As I laminated a piece, I traced the shape of the pattern on each face and cut them a little outside the lines with my Skillsaw. Then I took a chainsaw and cut down until I met the Skillsaw cuts on each side and then whacked off the chunks with a hatchet and chisel. A power planer was my best friend in getting the pieces true to shape.

 

Boat building in hindsight: For the next boat (a 50 ft. cargo junk schooner, perhaps?), I will definitely buy the timbers Ill need rather than laminate them from thinner stock-- it should be much cheaper and easier.

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Metalwork Today

Makes a change to do some metalwork again.

I got the lids for the stern lockers back form the press works so it was now a case of making up a rim to make the lids self draining but NOT into the lockers.  I only stitch welded the frame as I didnt want to distort things too much as the lids are a snug fit.

 

 Gas Locker

With Lid

 Port locker

With Lid

The white line is sealer and is in place of full welding.  

I have also started rubbing down the primer ready for another coat to bring in the areas I have damaged by welding then it will be on to undercoat and top coat for this area.

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Its Getting Real Now

Final preparations are now underway for the European trip.  The dogs have had their rabies jabs and their pet passport is in process.  I have booked the ferry.  The transport is booked and the cranes both ends are also booked. I am talking to home insurance companies about extended periods away from home cover.  Most only allow less than 60 consecutive days away.  My current one is 45 days which is woefully short.

So dear readers, what should I call the next blog?  Currently I have Avalon Afloat and have only dabbled with it as blogging UK waterways has been brilliantly and well and truly covered by other bloggers such as my friends Sue and Vic, Jill and Graham, Leslie and Joe to name a few.  All of these friends have many more links to other UK waterways blogs.

So what would you (shall I) call the new touring blog?

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Let the Show s Begin!!!

Our 2013 show season is about to start in a big way. We are off to Tavares, Florida for the Annual Lake Dora Antique & Classic Boat Show. Its one of the biggest in the country. It runs March 22nd-24^th, 2013. For more information go to http://acbs-sunnyland.org. All of the images in this story come from the Lake Dora Show. Click on any of them to get a better view.

This show features antique & classic boats (see the article listed to the right for more about what they are), sea-planes, Amphicars, Jersey Skiffs and other raceboats, as well as a variety of vendors. People come from from all over the US and Canada to be there. The boats are always special. Among the vendors are The Rope Locker, Bigshipsalvage.com, Bar Craft Boat Bars, and many, many others too numerous to describe here. Its worth seeing for yourself.

 

 This is the first in a series of three antique & classic boat shows that we have done yearly for nearly 20 years each. Those are Lake Dora, Florida in March, St. Michaels, Maryland in June (the largest antique & classic boat festival in the Mid-Atlantic and a personal favorite) and Clayton, New York in August (home of the Antique & Classic Boat Society).

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Of course, we also do new boat shows and we will be at the Bay Bridge Boat Show in Stevensville, Maryland April 20^th– 21^st. Its Big! Antique & Classic Boats will be there, as well, sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Chapter of The Antique & Classic Boat Society.

Check out their website at http://www.chesapeakebayacbs.org

 Since most of our models involve carving wood, we get invited to many Carving/Decoy/Art shows. In fact, as soon as we leave Lake Dora, well be headed to the Easter Decoy Festival in Chincoteague, Virginia on Friday and Saturday, March 29^thand 30^th. We will also be at the Havre De Grace Decoy and Wildlife Art Festival in Havre De Grace, Maryland May 3^rd– 5^th. In November, well be at the world famous Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland.

 


Weve written some stories in the past about some of these shows with lots of photos on this blog, so you might want to take a look back. For our current show
schedule go to http://intothings.com/shows00.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its probable that we will be adding other shows and book signings throughout the year, so put the address in your favorites and check it for new additions.

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Happy Independence Day!

Fabulous day today! 
Ramon joined me at the boat shop this morning and we were able to put up three frames. This afternoon while he went on a cactus-gathering expedition to get us some nopales and pears, I worked on another frame. Just THREE left to go!

Lots of non-boat stuff happened too:

Ramon and I whipped up a 4th of July dinner of baked brie, apple chutney, bruschetta, and tabouleh. Yum!

After dinner the ranch owners wife joined us for an evening chat. Here on the border, the around-town gossip usually involves drug smuggling, so-and-so public official who went to prison for human trafficking, so-and-so neighbor who fires his automatic weapons too close to the street, etc. You know, the usual boring small-town stuff.

Oh yes! AND I just submitted my application for graduate school.

Machete and tongs in hand, Ramon prepares to hack up the neighbors yapping chihuahua. Just kidding. Hes getting us some cactus to chow down on tomorrow.

Yum! Pear cactus sorbet, anyone?

As American as apple chutney.

I made re-fried beans with 15 different bean varieties. Not too bad-- but it tasted like the regular kind.

Done and done! Let freedom ring.

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