Gunwales, inwales and knees

As per the previous posting, I have fitted the drain-tubes into the bottom of the central seat and this has connected the pre-cut limber holes.  The result is not exactly pretty but the tubes will be hidden from view and they would be difficult to fix if they came loose once the top has been fitted to the seat.

As you can see in the picture below I have also fitted the inner-gunwale to both sides and today the oak capping has been glued in place on the starboard side.   The lengths of oak supplied were only about 4m long so I had to scarf them into longer lengths, it is the first time I have done a scarf joint and while not perfect I have put the best side on the outside and it doesn’t look bad at all.  I cut the scarfs by hand using a pull saw but I think if scarfing thin strips of wood again I would use a router and straight guide for greater accuracy.

While the epoxy on the starboard side was starting to cure I decided to have a crack at the stern knees that help to tie the top of the transom into the hull sides.  To some extent I have been putting this off for a time when I wouldn’t be rushed as there are a lot of different angles to cut to get a good fit.  The plans show a simple triangle but I I fancied something a little more curvaceous.   In the end I finished with a pair of good knees that are almost ready to fit, one of which is shown below.  The fit is pretty good and thickened epoxy will fill any small gaps.   I will fit these slightly proud of the hull sides (as with the gunwale and inwale) and then plane or use the belt sander to trim back to size.  I have yet to make the bow knee but that may be a job for tomorrow.

Happy New Year

Christmas has come and gone and we find ourselves in another new year, I hope it is a healthy, happy and prosperous one for those reading this.   I certainly hope it is a healthy one in this household as it started for me with a serious dose of “turbo man-flu”, I gather it can be terminal but having been struck down since boxing day I am finally (on the 5^th Jan) starting to pull myself together.  If you are not familiar with man-flu you need to see this for an explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ

Since the last update the front and rear buoyancy tank tops have been glued in position and a fillet of thickened epoxy run around the edges, it is all starting to look very smart although I have yet to cut the hole for the mast but will probably do this with bearing guided strait router bit so that it is cut back flush to the structure underneath.  I have already run the router along the inside edge of both tanks with a radius cutter to reduce the number of sharp edges to fall against in the boat, the middle seat will get the same treatment when complete.

The side frames for bulkheads for BH2 and BH4 have been trimmed and glued into position.  The side frames for BH2 required a lot of shaping to fit correctly and I was surprised by the vertical curvature (if that is the correct way of describing it) in the plywood hull side.  The tops of the side frames have all been trimmed back so that they are the same size at the inwale spacers so the inwale is probably next to go on.

BH2.2, that is the new one I have added to be the front of the middle seat has had some WRC framing added before being epoxy coated wet-on-tack.  Finally these have been glued into position in hull.   Next steps will be to fit the draining tubes and then I think I need to buy another sheep of Plywood to make and fit the seat top, annoyingly I would probably have enough spare if I had been a bit more cunning in my marking and cutting out of all the various pieces.

On a final note I have bought some really lovely stainless steel rowlocks on ebay because I just couldn’t face putting cheapo plastic rowlocks on the boat after the work put in.