Progress, not fast but still, it's progress.

I was able to spend a little more time at my son's garage again today making some more progress toward the day when I can start assembling my pile of parts into a boat. I started by drawing and cutting out the center case cheek pieces and trimming them along with the center case doublers and the bottom curve of the case sides themselves. I also dug through the pile of lumber that I have and found a fairly decent piece of long leaf yellow pine that I am using for the center case logs.

Profile of the center case with doublers and cheek pieces

Forward end of the dry fit center case

Aft end of the dry fit centerboard case

Inner doublers and out cheek pieces

Fiddling around a bit with the center case dry fitting to see how it all should go together. It turned out to be an enlightening bit of fun. I have come away with an idea of how to order the assembly of all the pieces. John shows on the plans to counter sink screws from the inside to attach the doublers and cheeks as well as the 20x20 seat supports and the top case stiffeners. I think I will then fill the screw heads with epoxy and then glass the insides then attach the case logs to one side only then the other side to the rest of the assembly. Of course there will time to insure that the centerboard itself fits and has room to move through the entire range needed to go fully down and come fully up. By glassing the inner panels first before assembly, not only assures ease of process, it also helps control the inner dimension of the case. Thus allowing room for the board itself to be glassed without becoming too thick to move freely inside. At least that is my thinking at this point in time.

I also took a little time to mess around with a couple of other parts, the lower bulkhead of frame #3 and the upper arms of it also.

Frame #3 upper arms cut out and trimmed

Lower bulkhead portion of Frame #3 with the upper arms dry fit

Not much to write about here just that these were roughed out last week I think and now they're trimmed and dry fit together. Doublers for the hatches and the seat support will be added later when I start the gluing process.

Bulkhead #1

Again not much here but bulkhead #1 is ready for doublers and the anchor well floor support when the gluing starts. The plans show limber holes at the base of the bulkhead, however I'm not sure how they will fit with the 20x20 doublers on either side of the stem piece by the time the planking goes on. There won't be much room down there if any at all.

So another day at the workbench and a few more items get checked off of the to do list. Progress, not necessarily fast but progress none the less.

Until the next time,

Geoff