Panic or Frustration

Not really “Panic”, but more like frustration. As a Fire Chief, Registered Nurse and Paramedic for years I have seen my share of panic. Last night had its moments of highs and lows. Gary and I started off with all smiles, reminiscing on how good the boat looked. We began working on planking the bottom of boat near the bow. We measured the area and yes we double and triple checked before we made the cut. The plan was to get both sides out of one sheet of mahogany plywood ($69 sheet). Well, things did not go as planned. The piece was too small. That’s where panic came in and then we said it’s just a piece of wood and not a finger. We tried everything we could to make it fit and finally just gave in to our mistake. We knew why the piece would not fit after we scratched our head. We measured from a straight line but a straight line is not really a straight line when it runs down the keel – stem – to the tip of the bow. When you bend a straight line it becomes a curved line and there’s our problem.

I still had enough wood from the remainder of the sheet to cut another side so we pressed forward. After laying the new oversized cut piece into position I had a difficult time trying to figure out how to bend this and get a “sweet curve” without snapping it in half.

I sent a panic email to another good friend and Zip builder Chris Atwood to confirm that I was installing it correctly. Chris got right back to me and we were both on the same page. You have got to love cell phones and reassuring friends.

Here is how I installed this piece. It may not be the right way but it worked well for me. No hot towels or steam was needed and the piece went right into position. All three sides of this piece needed to be custom cut and fit. After rough cutting the pie shaped piece I fitted the edge along the Chine. Back cutting the edge with a slight bevel as we went along. Then we started the bend. Using wood blocks as washers to give more surface area we stated at the bow point and worked our way along the chine line and the stem toward the rear of the boat. Then we struck a line across the boat to fit the joint between the panels. Next, I marked and cut a straight line along the stem. I did leave about a 1/8” overhang on the stem that will be planned off after the epoxy dries.

After six hours of determination I was very happy again with nice job we did. All is good.

Planking and Epoxy

It is amazing how much you can get done when you have a three-day weekend. This week was President’s Day and I had Monday off for the holiday so I put my time to good use. My good friend Terry Kohler and my brother Gary came over to lend a hand. When it came time to epoxy and screw the sides and bottom on I had my hands full and they were a big help, always one step ahead of me.



Gary Gauthier and Terry Kohler, they work for food...yeah







I learned that you really don’t want to leave a lot wood over hanging because it just causes you more work later when you need to trim it off. Another lesson learned is that I wish that I had made my “jig” a little taller. If the boat frame was mounted just a little higher it would be easier to get under the boat if you wanted to mark something or just look things over. It would also be just a little easier on your back, not having to bend over so much.

I was very happy to see how well things fit. All that fairing is paying off. The seams along the joints fit great and things are going well. A few straps helped the clamps pull everything into position for the final fit. Pre-bending the plywood with hot towels really gave the wood shape so we did not need to put a lot of pressure on side pieces.

I am using famowood wood filler to cover the screws and MAS epoxy with wood filler to seal the joints.
Next…. will be to finish sand everything smooth and epoxy an end cap ¼” plywood on the transom. The only end grain that will show will be covered with a stainless steel transom band.









I will also need to finish planking the bottom (front), fill the screws with filler and seal the joints with epoxy. I am not sure when this will happen because I am leaving for vacation this week and will be gone all next week. My wife, Lynn and I are off to our vacation home in Longview, Texas located on Lake Cherokee.

Fairing & Plywood Side Planking

I know it has been a while since my last post but I did have two excuses. My first excuse is that fairing is hard to see and fairing is very boring read about and my second is that I lost my camera. The following photos I took with my cell phone and the light makes them look brown. Fairing is just smoothing or planning off wood on the chines and sheers so that the plywood planking will lay flat on the surface of the longitudinal members. It is a long slow process and you really cannot see anything happening in photos. I wished that I had taken a couple of pictures with all the wood chips on the floor; you really do remove a lot of wood. I just needed to take my time and keep checking my progress with a straight edge. Fairing is an important part of building because if you don't get it right your boat will not have smooth sides and bottom. I was sure glad when it was completed but I was pleased to see how it all turned out.

Once all the fairing was done it was time to move on to the side plywood planking. The idea is to attach the 1/4" mahogany plywood to boat framework with #8 3/4" silicone bronze screws. I purchased 4'X 8" sheets and they needed to be cut in half making two 2' X 8' pieces for each side of the boat. The problem is that the plywood needs to wrap around the framework and curve was too sharp without once again adding some steam so the wood would bend without breaking. The other issue was the length was about 16' so I need to fiberglass them together make one long plywood piece for each side that was wider than the 24” width that I had. I was trying to get the most out of a sheet of plywood because they are $129 each; I off set them so I would have the correct width along the length of the boat. I used a piece of plywood as a backer board and fiber glassed a butt joint to achieve the length that I needed.

I found that pre fitting the plywood with clamps and using towels soaked in hot water made bending a breeze. When it came time to do the final assembly, the wood went right into position.

The one thing that I did just prior to gluing and screwing with epoxy was to the test fit with clamps and marking all the screw holes with an “EVEN RIVET FAN SPACING TOOL”. This is a fan spacer that has 20 fingers / opens to 38” @ 2”. I happened to have this tool when I built my airplane and I used it for layout and marking of equal spacing for screw hole patterns. It worked out great for spacing the screws in a straight line every 3". You can get one of these for $45 at Averytools.com

My brother Gary came over once again and helped me install this 16' piece. A good friend, Terry Kohler also stopped by to see my progress so I put him to work helping us clamp things into position while we drilled and screwed the plywood sheet into place for the final time. Be careful, if you stop by to look you may become a boat builder.

It's a Boat Party

Yes, people can tell it is a going to be a Boat and not an Airplane !

Today we had a build party and finished up with the sheers. We epoxied the strips of 5/8" thick Mahogany together for the last sheer. It was fit into position, screwed and clamped. My brother Gary was amazed how many clamps we used (52) and we still could have used more. My Brothers, Gary, and Joey came over along with my nephew Travis which made the job of gluing everthing up a simple task. When I clamped up one of the Chines, I was all by myself and not only was it a tough job but it took three times as long. (left to right...Ted, Gary, Joey)

Ted, Joey, Gary & Travis Gauthier

THE BONES OF THE BOAT ARE DONE:

I call it the bones of the boat because it is the main structure. Well not all the structuce because there is certainly more to do once we flip this thing over but for now we are done building the framework. I am very happy with the all the joints and my epoxy work. Next job in order will be to begin the fairing. Fairing is when you bevel all the pieces to make a smooth transition around the bottom of the boat giving the planking a solid resting surface.

I have attached some photos of my crew and our progress so far.

The Breasthook / Sheer attach point.

The Sheer clamped into positon.

The Sheer / Transom intersection

A closer look at the intersection joint.

Chines - Sheers and Limbers

Chines
The Chines are now epoxied into position. They were a real chore. Having two 3/8" pieces for each chine I needed to epoxy them together and I found that it was easy to do with them clamped in position on the frame. I just separated the two pieces and used a foam roller with epoxy resin and squeezed the roller between them, then clamped as I went along. The following day my brother's Gary and Joey came over and we cut the chines to fit the stem and transom and then epoxied both chines into position.

Sheers
The sheer bending went great. Soaking the strips in the PVC tube for 48 hrs and then wrapping them with hot towels really worked well. I am limited for space because I am building in my basement so the plan was to bend one sheer (two pieces of 5/8") and clamp for a day. Then dry for a day. Then I removed the bent wood sheer and flipped it over and clamped it to the other side where space was limited. Then I bent the next sheer using the same plan, soak in water for 48 hours and using hot towels....All went well. The best thing that I did was to make a clamping block for the breast hook. This gave me something for the pipe clamp to clamp on.

Limbers
Limbers are just drain holes in the bottom of the boat that allows the water to move aft and find its way to the drain plug. I used my router with a fence attach to make the limbers in the rear battens. I did not put any limbers in the Keel because I was not sure if that would make that area weak. I will need to do some research to find out what others are doing. If I leave the keel separating the limbers then I will need to install two drain plugs, one on each side of the keel.

What's next?
I will need to epoxy the sheer pieces together and fit to the notches in the frame. Then cut and fit the sheer to the breast hook and transom, epoxy and screw it all together.

Bend Wood with Steam and Hot Towels

I have been working hard on the boat but the progress did not show so it has been a while since my last post. My brothers Gary and Joey have been very helpful. Gary has been pushing me along when things sometime come to a slow crawl.


I glued up stiffeners on Keel and Battens. This process went along just fine with no surprises. Just cut the marine plywood to fit and mix up some epoxy and clamp.


The Chine Log pieces proved to be a real challenge. After snapping this very expensive piece of mahogany the first time, I did not want to repeat. I came up with new plan to soak the pieces in water for a couple of days. Gary came up with the idea of buying a 4" diameter PVC drainpipe and gluing a cap on the end. We placed these 16 feet pieces in the pipe filled with water and strapped the pipe to the handrail in the stairway. It sure helps to have an understanding wife.

After the pieces soaked for a couple of days, out to the steamer they went. Gary and I removed them from the steamer and clamped them into position. Yes, success....so I thought. This process worked great and I would do it that way if I ever had to do it again. The only thing that did not turn out just right was the front section between the frame ( frame 5.5) and the stern. It needed a little more twist. We solved this problem by making a jig. We just screwed some blocks down on the table. We wrapped the pieces in very hot towels and poured hot water on the towels keeping the wood wet and hot. After about 30 minutes of this process, the wood was placed into the jig to dry for 24 hours. The results were great.

The buckets underneath the chine were used to collect the dripping water and boy did this work great. A couple of dry towels wiped up what little water landed on the basement floor.

Now that the Chine logs are bent to the approximant shape it was time to epoxy to two pieces of wood together. This was easily done with a temporary clamp to the forms while spreading them apart and applying epoxy with a foam roller. The hard part was the clamping. I used every clamp I had and it took a good hour to get them all in place.

My next job will be to epoxy to the other two pieces of the second chine log together.

Broken Chine Log

Wood Steamer Step-up with PVC pipe and a turkey heater.

It was time to bend wood. I was fortunate enough to borrow fellow Zip builder Greg Mazurek's steamer to bend my "Chine". I researched this and thought I had a good grasp on how to do this because so many builders before me have had a problem making this bend.Well, I did it......Welcome to the club... I snapped the "chine log" into two pieces. This is a 16 foot piece of Mahogany that is 2" x 3/4". I put the piece of wood in the steamer for about 2 hours and proceeded to fit it to the frame. After building an airplane, kayak and hot air balloon all I could do is smile, giggle and say to myself, welcome back to homebuilding. In a funny way, I proved to myself that I still have the patience for building.

I understand why others want to give up when they have such a setback. I just look at it as a challenge to solve and that is what interests me.

I keep saying, "remember the journey" and move on. If your good at hide n seek (looking for a tool you know that you just had in your hand a few minutes ago), you stay organized, follow through and keep moving forward, do something everyday (even if it is just reading or research), have patience, then you are a builder and will complete your goal.

So I am still feeling good about practicing what I preach.