The aft seat

First I wanted to smoothen the mahogany edgings of the thwart with a plane.   As my planes were getting dull I first sharpened them on a waterstone. 

I have a honing guide to get the right angle when sharpening.  The length out of the honing guide determines the angle of the blade.

To simplify the measurement process I made a jig with the right lengths for 25 and 30 degrees,.  Easy does it.

After the smoothening I made a soft edge at one side on the router table. As I had not yet bunged the holes for the positioning screws in the mahogany the router wheel went through the hole making a slight dent in the edging. Not very clever.  The bungs will be made later but first I wanted to use the thwart to measure the position of the side seats and screw them to the seat beams.


Making the aft seat was relatively easy. Nice to see the effect of of having the seats in.

Next step is everything out again and rounding the edges with the router.  Also the screw holes are bored with a 8 mm bit to be able to bung the holes in a later stage.

The seats wil not be glued to the beams but only screwed.

Now it is time for bunging the mahogany edgings.

First I made 8 mm holes in a role masking tape on the drillpress.  Nice trick I learned from a book. Now you don't smear the wood with epoxy while bunging.

I used red cedar for bungs. They are a little more flexible than mahogany bungs and give a nice detail hopefully.

Finally I did put epoxy primer on the backsides of the side and aft seats.  I am running a bit low on epoxy and primer so I have to buy some extra stuff.  Also a good moment to  buy the paint for the outside of the hull. My plan is to use white.  The only problem is that my epoxy supplier is almost 2 hours driving.  Maybe I can ask someone to pick it up for me.


Don't have a program yet for tomorrow but I think I will round the front seat and also prime the backsides.

Thwart in the making

Yesterday I purchased an extra red cedar plank at my favorite wood merchant in Arhem. ( www.af.nl)   When you have to pay you always remember why you won't take your wife to this kind of outfit.  But a very nice piece of wood!

This morning I used my mold and the tick stick to scribe the contour of the thwart.  After cutting with the jig saw and some refining it did fit well.




To make the thwart look smarter I glued pieces of mahogany to the front and aft side of the thwart.

I did not use clamps but crews to position the mahogany and get it tight.

Tomorrow we will see of my plan really works.

The thwart is on the critical path. I need to test fit the thwart to be able to finalize the right shape and position of the site seats.

And the site seats have to be in place to be able to scribe the inner part of the aft seat.



To spend my time somewhat usefull I took the mylar full size drawing of the rudder, placed it on the remaining red cedar stock and punched the contour on the wood. The stock is slightly to narrow so I will modify the rudder a little bit.



The rudder is designed with a movable blade.

As I won't beach a boat in our environment I will make it in one piece.

The first cut looks the right way.


The cheeks of the rudder should be 12 mm plywood according to Arch his drawing. I will make them of my remaining pieces of mahogany.



Enough done for the day. Tomorrow when the epoxy has cured I will try to finish the thwart and do the test fit. Maybe the other seats will be finalized to.

Front seat

I tried to contact my local supplier for some more Red Cedar.  Alas, he is on holidays.

Monday I am close to Arnhem and will make a stop at my favorite wood supplier for the wood.

The inner two planks of the front seat were not to my liking. The gaps between the planks were too wide so I re did them. Just enough wood left.

After some finetuning I made a dry fit with screws to the seat beams, the mast partner and a floating beam to keep everything together.

Also from another perspective not bad at all!  The hole in the seat and mast partner already cut to size.


Next step was using the router table to make a nice round edge on the seat.

My plan is to screw the seat planks and not glue them to the beams.

The screw head will be covered by bungs so I used my drill press to make nice 8 mm holes for the bungs.

Curved sides of the planks is a nice detail.

The coming days there will not be much work done on the boat due to other activities.  So I hope on Tuesday I have the wood for the thwart so I can continue.

Thwart and seats

Today work on the thwart and seats was started.

First I started with making a mold for the thwart using a tick stick to get the form of the hull on the mold.

In the process I noticed that the thwart beams were not parallel for some unknown reason. Must have done something wrong.  The results is that my widest stock of 290 mm does not give the 10 mm overlap on both sides I was aiming for.

If I cannot get easily wider stock I will use it anyhow en give only overhang at the backside.

Next I used a tick stick again to get the right shape of the side seats.  there I noticed that the thwart beam and the two seat beams in the rear are not in one plain.  I can't figure out what was done wrong but now have to search for a corrective action.

I thought making the seats would be fun and an easy job......

For the middle part of the rear seat I need more
stock.

I also started with the front seat. 

First I made the mast partner that will be fastened below the front seat.

Also I made the other parts of the front seat.

Those part need some refining. First I need to make a support beam under the seat to make it possible to fasten the centre parts of the seats.

Tomorrow I will check of my "local"  supplier can deliver wider red cedar. Otherwise I hve to go to the original supplier in Arnhem. somewhere the coming week.

Also I will try to use my router to get a nice round edge to the seat planks.

Priming the inside

After more cleaning and sanding at last I could apply the epoxy primer.

I have used Poly-Pox Injecteer.  It impregnates the wood and makes applying the epoxy coats easier.



Normally you would apply the first layer of epoxy on the Injecteer when it is still sticky.   I decided to let it dry first.

Tomorrow I will glue the flotation cleats in the seats and after a light sanding apply the first layer of epoxy on the inside.



In the mean time the preparations for the thwart and seats can start.

Back in the shed

Yesterday I did most of the outstanding tasks in the garden.

As can be seen the lawn was cut to perfection....

So now back to the real work.

With scraper, chisel and a lot of elbow grease I continued cleaning the inside.

Be sure when building the next boat I will clean better before the epoxy has cured.

In the process I decided that cleaning could be a little less thourough under the seats and thwart.

Not the right attitude I know but sometimes you need to be practical.

While cleaning I noticed that the screws in the blocks for the oarlocks where not yet bunged,

As I had a little bit of 5 minute epoxy left this job was done swiftly.

Tomorrow I have other engagements but I hope that Tuesday some serious sanding can be done to prepare the inside for priming en several layers of epoxy.

As I want to put floaters under the seats I also have to install cleats for that.

It is almost time for the fun part of making the seats!

End of holidays

Yesterday afternoon we came back from our magnificent 3 weeks trip to the German Wad. Good to be home.

The Elfs have not completed the Peapod during my absence so still a lot of work to do.

But first things first.  As the weather has been quite wet the grass did not take a holiday.  A lot to cut before I can re enter the boatshed.

Holiday update (2)

This picture is not made after a tsunami but just at low tide in the harbor of Juist.

From the island of Juist we moved to the island of Baltrum through quite heavy seas that tested the seaworthiness of the crew. The ship of course not being a problem.

Now we are at the island of Langeoog where there is WiFi in the Marina of the Segelverein Langeoog.

Tomorrow we will move to the island of Spiekeroog. No interesting wooden boats until now. Plastic rules.

Will keep you updated.

Holiday update

No bootbuilding but a holiday update.

After leaving the Netherlands at Delfzijl harbor we went to the German mini port Greetsiel.

As the windforecast indicated 5 Bft for the coming days we decided to move to the island of Juist to avoid getting stuck in Greetsiel. Not that Greetsiel is bad but one day was enough for us.

Sailing the Wad means taking the tides into consideration. If you don't know the Wad you should read the 1900 spy novel  "The riddle of the sands" by Erskine Childers.  Or look for the 1979 movie with Michael York on Youtube.

As can be seen on the photo our boat is stuck in the mud during low tide in Juist harbor.

This blog entry is enabled by the WiFi connection of the Juist Sailing Club.