parts is parts, right?

So back in the garage the parts pile is starting to take on a life of its own. I find myself standing looking at the floor in a sweeping circle and trying to identify what ever part comes into view. Most of them are still just rough cut but a few are sanded to the line and ready for packers and pieces. The aim is to get all the frames and bulkheads the stem and transom trimmed then have a giant epoxy blowout glue up session. Ha! Fat chance, I don't have enough clamps to glue all the parts the same time.

Here are the latest parts as of this afternoon.

This is the bulkhead section of frame #3, again still just rough cut.

 The arms for this part were drawn out on the ply at the same time but not cut out. Instead I copied them onto tracing paper and will draw them later on some of the scrap ply I'm making. I thought I could get the #1 bulkhad out of the same sheet, but I guess I'm not that good at saving space.

And of course the transom.

 Pay no attention to that dark line across the bottom, it's left over from another attempt to fit as many pieces as possible onto one sheet. Oh well, I'll probably just end up buying another sheet and be done with it.

Bulkhead #2.

Bulkhead #2 was an especially intense ordeal, with part of the mast box glued to the forward face right down the center from the cutout for the king plank all the way down to the keel batton, the hatch doors needed some juggling and resizing to get them both to fit with out the mast box being in the way. I was able to connive the largest doors/hatch covers possible. they are 375mm wide and 260mm tall at the center and 220mm at the outside edges. This may or may not be the final size, we'll see how it goes.

The other thing I'm wanting to do is to cut a slot from the seat top up through the king plank just big enough to allow the 80mm lower mast section to be slid into the box and then raised/ leaned rather, up to position and then fabricate a mast gate of some sort that will not only keep the mast from falling backwards out of the box but also put some pressure onto the mast itself holding it tight in the box. Sort of closing off the opening in the king plank and restoring its integrity. I like the arrangement that Ian Oughtred uses on the Caledonia yawl being built by Geoff Kerr on the Off Center Harbor site. I am trying to think something up that works very similar. The whole object is so that there is no need to lift the mast up and over the deck then try to aim it into the deck opening. At 68, I don't know how many more lifts I have left in me so let's make this as easy as I can.

Next time in the boat shop, I will tackle bulkhead #1, centerboard and if time allows start the rudder.

Until next time.

Geoff