Building Forms

The basement exercise room became the room of choice for building the boat....never got any use as an exercise room anyway. I didnt want to tear out the carpet, so the old ping-pong table that needed to disappear became the foundation for my form. I reinforced the underneath side of the ping-pong table with 2x4s and by rotating each half 90 degrees...

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Shiny Stuff

I have been working with the pram cover maker to make the stainless steel tube frame to take the cover.  Normally he contracts this to a SS specialist.  He normally makes a light alli tube frame as templates then the SS guy does his bit.  Between us we have made the frame combining his know how and my metal skills.  This has saved...

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Bulkheads

Monday 12th Nov 2007Bulkheads front and back of the engine room.As the hull is still floppy, it had to be jacked into the correct shape to fit the bulkheads.Very slow to fit but a 100% fit makes the boat hull true to shape and is the basis for all the rest of it to follow.BHD 8 fitted.Big thanks to Paul for the 2 hours he gave us as we really needed...

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The broken technology icon

Here it is, a little icon, a crossed wrench and screwdriver that means something, I dont know what exactly.  I think it might mean that by clicking it, I can mess with the technology enclosed in the box that its in the lower right hand corner of.But I think of it as the broken technology icon.  And for some reason, it reminds me of the hammer...

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Building the RSJ Frame

In August we built the Frame to build the boat on,Steel supplied locally and built on our own steel deck staging as we havent level ground anywhe...

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By The Way We Make Model Boats

Weve made over 300 models. Here are just a couple. We design and  make every single piece of every model that we do. Its very time and labor intensive. We also practice photogrammetry. Weve made models of new boats, old boats, sail, power, ships-modern and ancient and many other things. As a result, we are able to make models of any boat that...

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Mark 25 Remote Shift Linkage

I was reviewing my blog yesterday and noticed that I had a comment posted back in April from a reader wanting more detail on my Mark 25 shift linkage as his was purchased in pieces. Here are a couple of pictures and I hope it helps. I put some carpet foam that happened to be nearby under the linkage so the details would not be obscured by background...

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Aligning Frames and Laying the Keel

After the confirmation that this boat will make it out of the basement, I secured my frame pieces to the leveled form rails. After checking a hundred times if things were square to each other, I aligned the stem using a string and plumb bob method. I tried a laser but it was better at confirming the set-up than actually doing it. I used steel carriage...

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Amateur Boatbuilding Coming Alive Again

All things boating have taken a hammering over the past decade, with most people suffering to a greater or lesser extent through the financial woes that flooded the world. Initially, amateur boatbuilding seemed to stay quite strong, while sales of production boats went into a deep slump. After amateur boatbuilding also started to weaken, it was interesting...

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Cracks Filled Filler Filed

After three coats of epoxy to get the boat surfaces sealed and relatively smooth, it was time for filling the grooves.Following in the footsteps of others, the method chosen to make the pretty stripes and fill the cracks between the planks was pigmented epoxy. A little tape masking, a little white pigment in the epoxy, some white silica thickener,...

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Alls Well That Ends Well

For the stainless steel rub rail, I decided to use the 1/2" wide, half oval type since at the back of the boat, the edge is not wide enough for a wider strip. It also seemed like it would be a better look on a small boat. However, there doesnt seem to be any ready made end spears available, so I experimented with shaping and forming the end until...

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