Sheeting the hull

The hull was turned over and placed on a base for work on the interior.

Planking is now done. The hull has to come off the mold. Once all the screws had been removed from the hull it lifted off the mold without problems.

Here you can see progress. Two more planks to go!

The mold was covered in packing tape to make sure that the planks did not get glued to the frames and stringers. The planks were added sequentially on either side.

The plywood under the screw head can be seen here as the plank is fitted.

The next plank was fastened to the frame by driving screws through the plank and the plank below and into the stringer on the frame. Each screw had a plywood square (3/4 x 3/4) under its head so as to spread the load.

The chamfered edge of the plank was epoxied with un-thickened epoxy as was the mating edge of the next plank. Before attaching the next plank the chamfered edge was covered with a thin coating of thickened epoxy (just thick enough not to drip). This coating would fill any uneven parts of the joint and would squeeze out.

Once the epoxy was set, the glass was trimmed to the edge of the plank and the glass on the chamfer was sanded to accept the epoxy that would glue the next plank.

I wanted the bottom panel to be glassed so that it would take the bumps and scrapes that would happen as the hull gets dragged up the shore. The butt joint along the centerline of the hull was glassed with a strip of biaxial ply tape. Then 8 oz cloth was laid on top and over the chamfer that had been cut on the edge of the plank.

The plywood panel is marked with a line 3/4 of an inch in from the cut edge.

The spokeshave is then used to carve the wood from the plywood panel down to the line.

This gives a 3/4 inch wide gluing area along the hull with the chamfer properly cut and varying along its length according to where the next panel will sit.

The next panel is glued to the chamfer and is clamped to the lower stringer.

Screws are used to pull the glue joint tight to the upper stringer.

I added a block of hard wood to each handle of a spokeshave so that the block would ride on an adjacent stringer while the blade cut the wood from the panel edge.

A bit about making the chamfers on the panel edges.

Each panel edge has to be chamfered to accept the panel below (upside down - above if you are the right way up) and this edge has to be done fairly accurately and the angle changes as you go down the length of the hull. How to do this?

I did it this way and used the stringers to identify the angle of the chamfer.

The bottom planks are fitted to the shape of the first stringer.

They are butted together at the keel and cut to fit just over the stringer.

The clamps holding them in position can be seen.

Assembling the Frames

This is a shot from the stern quarter.

The stringers are 3/4 inch square and will be used to create the shapes of the plywood panels and to be a base for the panels while they are glued together.

Anyone built any model aeroplanes many years ago?

The stringers are now in place. They were only screwed into the notches.

They are a part of the framing. They do not become a part of the hull.

The panels will fit from one stringer to the next.

This is a shot from the bow.

The frames were aligned in all directions.

Note the notches for the stringers that will be put into place next.

This is a view of the frames placed in position on the base.

Note the battens in place that are keeping the frames vertical.

Here are the frames stacked against the wall of the garage

Remember the base that was used for the scarfing of the plywood sheets?

Here it is again. The frames will use this as a base that is straight and flat.

Building the frames

As they were completed they were stacked up in front of the sink.

Here are the frames showing the 36 inch bases and their shapes.

Then the frame was cut on the lines to give me a frame cut to shape

Templates in masonite were made of the half shape of the hull at each frame position. They were aligned to the bottom of the frame and the center line and then the shape marked on the frame on both sides.

A center line was struck down the middle of the frame ensuring that it was perpendicular to the bottom edge of the frame. The board across the bottom of the frame was cut to be 36 inches long.

Simple 1/2 by 4 pine boards were shaped and glued up to form the outline of the frames

Scarfing the plywood sheets

Next I had to build the frames.

The sheets were aligned and glued with waxed paper between the sheets so that the panels would not stick to each other. The sheets were prevented from moving by using brads nailed to the 3/4 inch plywood base

I built a jig to hold the sheets in alignment while they were being glued together. This jig became the base for the frames later. It was 16ft long by 3ft wide.

After that I used a random orbit sander with 80 grit paper to provide a good bonding surface.

The sheets were planed with a power planer to get most of the edges off and then smoothed with a jointing planer to get things flat.

Scarfing the sheets of plywood. The 8x4 sheets were cut in half lengthwise to make them easier to handle once they were scarfed. They will be about 16ft by 2ft once scarfed. The sheets were place on an old door with a ply side screwed to it to align the sheets. They were placed with their edges two inches back from each other to give the correct angle of the scarf.

The boat so far

I am building a 14ft loa by 6ft beam, lapstrake dinghy for some fun sailing.

Here is the sequence of the build so far.