Building the hull

The building.

The first cut was made July 22nd 2015

Aug. 25th 2015
So far I have purchased plywood and wood for the hull, except for the cabin. By today the plywood is cut, including rudder and rudder head; the sides are scarphed, bulkheads prepared and the boat has gone 3D.

The deck beams I made directly on the bulkheads, following those curvature, clamping some blocks for support and using clamps for giving bend. Those small black clamps are actually some designer lamp clamps that were left over during installation, and have well found their new purpose in boatbuilding instead.

 
Scarphing the sides; and sides ready to be assembled. I lofted the sides starting from front end on one plywood sheet, and from the stern on another sheet. As it is a longer version - the normal 2 sheet length was not sufficient, a piece was added in the middle. I fixed the front part and the aft part to another sheet of plywood, aligning the center line well, then suited in the center part; and jointed all together. The second one I made on top of the first. For scarphing, the best worked for me doing rough shape by block plane, then cleaning up by router, and finally sanding smooth by orbital sander.





  

Then all the shape of one side was sanded smooth; another was placed on top of that and milled to same shape and size by hand router and a bit with bearing.




The bow piece was cut out by handheld circular saw (the same as all the plywood and also all the wood); just setting the angle and cutting freehand. Then glued together and sides plained. The angle at lower portion appeared to be different and was corrected later.

  

A major landmark - going 3D.

It's best to do with helping hand, but dry fit I managed to do alone. I clamped a piece of wood to the bulkhead, at height that it would rest on the sides.

I clamped some blocks to the sides as well, to mark the position of the bulkhead. That was also useful during final assembling.

I didn't take it fully apart before final assembly, just pulled the sides a bit apart at the bulkhead; removed it, smeared thickened epoxy and assembled it back. For pulling sides apart, I made a tool from 2 pieces of board, joining them together with bolt for pivoting.

The frame logs and chine logs are installed; the hull is turned around, now preparing chine logs for assembling the bottom. And some bottom dividers yet to be added,

At the same time the bottom is also prepared, just to be epoxy sealed and ready for assembly. Now a bit oversized, to trim flush with sides later. There s a center line marked on inner side of the bottom. So have all the bulkheads, to match centers together during assembly.

Aug 29th 2015

Today she has got herself a bottom.

For preparing to install it, I used an aluminium bar, to check that the chine logs are level to each other and bulkheads.  Checked throughout the length and corrected using block plane, and sanded a bit later with sanding block.

When the bottom was dry fitted, I drilled holes for dowels, through the bottom plywood to bulkhead #3, in order to easily catch the right position when installing permanently

Here the result 

Next will be to trimm the bottom flush to sides, shape the bow, Chine runners


Sept. 7th 2015

The bottom and sides are now glassed, except top sides of chine runners. It was too much for 1 day with 2 people; wouldn't do it again. I covered the glassing with peel ply, to get smoother finish, avoid sanding after glassing and hopefully reduce fairing.

At the same time looking at some other things... Working on mast; and here mold for lower gudgeon

It will be covered with packaging tape when starting molding it...



Sept. 13th 2015

now fairing the bottom, then covering it with copper powder/epoxy mix for antifouling

Oct. 3rd 2015

Not much visible progress on hull, which is now turned upright. Glassed the inside bottom, carlins are fitted, now filleting all voids, making shelves, place for battery, preparing to paint inside...

Oct. 18th 2015

Temperatures have dropped, so it is not possible to work with epoxy now, so the progress will be slower for a while...

In the meanwhile the lower gudgeon has been cast. There is an overdrilled coupling nut cast into it. Some trimming on top side yet to be done...

Rudder stock and rudder blade have been laminated...  One of the conjoined layers was sanded to shape before laminating, rest will be trimmed by that, after lamination by router.

Inside of the hull is ready to receive paint.


May 29th 2016

Current status:

The sides are pained from inside, ready for preparing insulation.

The chinerunners are now shaped and glassed

Rudder is shaped and lead cast to it

   
And here equipment used for that

At the same time also mast is faired and primered

Mast and sail