Interior work

Sally and I are preparing to head home to Virginia. Skorpa is not ready to come with us yet. Here are a few photos to bring things up to date.




I placed some glass fiber to reinforce the forward section.



This is a view looking down into the forward section. Bulkhead number one has been filleted and taped.





Framing in the seats.






Here are a few shots just to show where we are. She is beginning to look like a boat!

Bulkheads

After running fillets and fiberglass tape on both chines it is time to install some bulkheads.

This is the aft bulkhead along with a nice assortment of my clamps.





Then I did bulkhead number 3 the lower cabin bulkhead.




In the lower cabin bulkhead you can see a slot on the left side. This slot will be enlarged later to accommodate the the center board trunk. The trickiest part of installing a bulkhead is getting the right shape to fit. The aft bulkheads have fairly straight lines so it is possible to take several measurements and come up with a close approximation of the required shape.


The forward bulkhead is a bit more complex. I used a different strategy.




I used a plumb bob to establish a line where the bulkhead will meet the hull.







Sally is checking out the pattern I have made. I installed a scrap piece of plywood in the location for bulkhead number 1. Then I stapled little scraps of plywood like fingers touching all the important points around the perimeter and some inbetween.









OK now what?







How did that cat cat up there without altering the precise position of any of my indicator strips?





I made a mark at the tip of each indicator strip, connected with some fair lines and cut out with a jig saw.

What do you do with a very large skiff?

Here are some photos taken just after the jig was removed.






I fitted some temporary thwarts to hold things together until some of the internal structure is installed












That is the stem sitting up there in the bow. I had some concern that something would spring loose when the jig was removed, but all the plywood acted like it had no intention of going anywhere.





What do you do with a very large skiff?


Why you fillet.

Pronounced fill it.





Thickened epoxy is placed in the chine and then shaped to a concave surface.














After the fillet sets up just a little, a layer of fiberglass tape is laid down. Then the glass cloth is saturated with unthickened epoxy.

Lets get her setting on her DWL

DWL is the design water line.

If a boat is sitting on a very still lake, the line around the boat that the surface of the water creates is right on the DWL. That is if the boat is loaded properly and everything went according to plan.




I wanted to do two things before I removed the building forms.



First is to level the boat fore and aft as well as side to side. It is easiest to do this before the jig is removed because the base of the jig lies in a straight line parallel to the DWL.



Sally is adjusting one of the straps that has the hull suspended so it can be leveled and a cradle fitted under.


Second is to build a cradle that will support the boat while I finish the interior.





This is the forward cradle. I wanted something to hug the hull and prevent the forward sections from spreading when the jig was removed.




This is a support for the hull about two feet forward of the transom.








My third support structure is a little less elaborate. Go figure.

Roll Roll Roll your Boat

My boat moves out to see the light of day.








The boat and jig together are pretty heavy.


I can not even lift one corner of the boat.


It feels like it is fastened to the ground.



I use pipes for rollers. Sally and Judy help me roll the boat out into the driveway.









Hoping for a soft landing.



Many thanks to my neighbors the Baldwins and the Ciolfis for their able assistance.


























Back to bed right side up.















Goodnight

Zenos Paradox resolved

The stem of my boat was not moving and yet I have been having trouble reaching it.





Finally I remembered Marks solution to the paradox.


I got as close as I could to the stem, then I bridged the gap with some epoxy thickened with wood flour.








Voila!


The hull planking is complete at last.


Next the boat needs to be rolled over so that the temporary forms can be removed and the interior finished.

Zenos paradox

Or why it is taking so long for me to finish the hull of the boat.



Zeno was a 5th century B.C. philosopher.
Achilles was trying to catch a tortoise. No matter how fast Achilles would run, by the time he reached where the tortoise was the tortoise had moved a little further. Thus Achilles could never catch the tortoise.

To paraphrase the paradox.

On the first day you complete one half of the distance to your goal.

On the second day and each subsequent day you complete one half of the remaining distance.

You will never be able to reach your goal because there will always remain at least a small distance between you and your goal.







The first plywood hull panels went on fairly quickly. They were pretty big and pretty flat. Before long I was working towards the bow.





As the hull developed more and more curve the panels had to be made shorter and shorter so they could be bent to the shape. Because the panels are curving the straight edges of the plywood could no longer simply be butted together.

To fit nicely each edge had to be gently curved.


The closer I got to the bow.

The more difficult the fit and the slower my progress.





The piece in the foreground is dark because I have soaked it to make it take the shape more easily.

There is more than one way to scarf a cut

The plywood pieces that make up the hull need to be fastened together.


You can butt the ends together and reinforce with epoxy fiberglass.


Or there is the hard way.





When you cut through plywood at an angle the layers of wood form an interesting pattern.


In a previous post What Knot I described cutting a scarf joint in the 1x4 by 24 foot board that was to become the keelson.


Here I am cutting a scarf joint in the 1/4 inch plywood that is to become the sides of the hull.



I have been too chicken to try to get the circular saw to cut the slope down to a feather edge so I finish the job with a plane.




Here are some of the panels forming the side of the hull.

Hull

The bottom hull panels of an EC 22 are two layers of 4mm plywood.





Here the first layer is being glued down.






After the first layer is on, a second layer is glued on top.

The joints are staggered.







I used a notched spreader to apply a thin coat of thickened epoxy.





Additives are used to thicken the epoxy to a consistency tailored for each job.


There are at least a half dozen additives that can be used. Phenolic microballons give the mixture I am using the brick red color.





The second layer needs to be held down firmly and evenly to make a nice epoxy sandwich.





Staples, clamps, screws, weights, whatever can hold the sandwich together.












The reason for using two layers of plywood is that up near the bow the bottom panels begin to bend quite sharply.

A single thicker layer of ply would not be able to make the bend. Even the 4mm plywood takes a good deal of force to take the bends near the bow.