Build a Boat in a day

Remember those 16 ft panels that we glued the chine clamps to.  Now it is time to make the boat

Here, drilling holes just off the front of the boat, for the zip ties to bring both sides together.  See the waste block above with the drill holes. Put the block below the plywood, and then drill the 1/8 inch bit thru the ply, into the block.  Leaves a nice hole in the ply, not rough.

 Time to bevel the sheer clamps so that they will come together nicely

 Drilling the aft end of the boat for zipties

 Here we see the aft end of the boat, where at the last second,a little bit of the chine rail had to be removed in order to accommodate the transom.

Here shows test fitting the block to the transom.  The chine rails on the sides of the boat attach here

 Here shows just the chine rails (shear clamps) attached to the transom.

 Notice how those sides flair out.   Part of that is because that transom is not straight, but rather a curve.

 See how much the chine rail (shear clamp) rises above the transom?  Guess where the hand plane will be going later tonight?  All of that excess will be shaved off.

 See that gap at the front.  Keep it open for a little while longer. Gotta add those bulkheads first.

Bulkheads rough added, then precisely added by measuring from transom, per plans.

Now it is looking nicer. See how much better the nose of the boat looks now.

Time to glue up the nose of the boat and tighten those zip ties. See that scrap of plywood on the top, helping keep the front nice and tight?

Inside view of front of boat, after cleaning up the glue.

 The chine rails (shear clamps) near the transom are held in with 3 inch ss screws,so they come out first, all the way,to make room for glue, then the little screws that attach the ply to the transom

Inside view of transom/side panel join, before glue clean up.

Ok...now it's time to take those chine rails down near the transom.

Just look at the size of that plane.  The wife'g grandad who was a ship's carpenter during WW2 gave me a box of tools, with 4 planes, this being the biggest.  Took that wood right on down.

And here is what it looks like after the plane has done it's work. Nice and level.

Cross braces now added.  Let me tell you, those took forever, with lots of waste from bad cuts.  Had to bring out the harbor frieght angle'ometer  to find out how much off vertical the chine rails are twisted as they approach each end.  So each crossbrace has 2 angles to cut.  They are currently screwed but not glued.  Today's job starts with backing off those screws and adding glue to the crossbraces, then tighten back down. The stainless screws will remain in the crossbraces,.

Breast hook fitted out, and screwed in, but not glues yet.

Pretty boat

Cutting, Measuring & Remeasuring

Lines drawn.  This is the ama bilge

Here are the sides of the boat, now glued and stapled to the sheer clamps (

 ft by 1 1/2 by 3/4)

These are the main hull bilges, ama sides and ama bilges, left to right

After remeasuring many times to get the cuts perfect, I began cutting out and gluing the two 8 feet sections together so they could set in time for me to begin building in the AM.  Again, a generously spread amount of PL construction adhesive, and air staples.

This is test laying out the sheer clamps (long thin pine that the plywood is attached to)

Working with PL construction adhesive.  I found this method of wetting out fiberglass cloth from a airplane building website.  By wetting out inside folded over visqueen, you are able to fully wet out the cloth and carry it to where you want it, pre-wet out the receiving surface and then open up your visqueen and lay the wetted piece onto the joint.  I cannot recommend this method highly enough.  It works so very well, that if you take nothing else from this blog, take this tip for wetting out smaller pieces of cloth.

Formed and ready to go!

Bulkheads, Bulkheads, Bulkheads!

2 x 6 x 16 ripped down to 3/4 slices for shear clamps

The plans include some pretty nifty templates

Thank god for the wood shaper to take the rough edges off. Also, if your line isn't exactly straight, the wood shaper, being around a foot long will help your line get straight again.

Bulkheads cut out

Bulkheads test fitted with wood bracing but not glued yet

$29 dollar Harbor Freight air stapler purchased just for this

Notice edge of bulkhead has PL construction adhesive spread on the edges of the bulkhead awaiting clamping of edge bracing and stapling.  This stuff is sticky, remember to wear gloves.

Where NOT to try to build your boat

So....This is where I first built the work table, under my outdoor kitchen.  Wife was kinda grumbly about it.

All the tools were gathered in the entrance of the pizza oven

Spread everything out, had the plans started measuring...and then a big rain storm blew up!  I ran inside the house and when I came out an hour later sideways rain must have blown in because everything was wet, the plans were soaking wet, the ply, everything.

So I started the process of moving to a new location.  Notice how wet the floor is?

Here we are at the new location.  Notice the boat right in front of the table that never really captured my heart so its being moved out to make way for the new tables.