Right side up

The boat is now turned right side up and I'm ready to start building the benches and decking. After giving it a second coat of paint, I got the keel and stem band pieces from my carpenter friend, glued and screwed them on, puttied the screw holes and finished them with two coats of epoxy. The stem band needed to bend and I didn't want to build a steaming apparatus for such a short piece, so I used a method that has served me well in the past: I made some small saw cuts on the inside of the piece which I filled with epoxy compound. The stem band is visible in the thid photo.

After giving  the garboards and second strakes a third coat of paint, the boat was ready to flip. It is so light that two friends lifted it so I could remove the sawhorses, which, being cheap and flimsy, had almost collapsed; only two of them are even repairable. I also removed the strongback. Then the three of us flipped it and put it on two home-made cradles (first photo).

In the second and third photo you can see the frames and bulkheads: one in the front, two in the middle which will form the rowing thwart, one aft for the rear bench, and two partials for supporting the side benches. Now it will be time for some serious carpentry, but it should go pretty fast. Wish me luck!

Nails and glue

Here you can see the forward part of the keel with integral stem and garboard cleats. I cut off part of the forward end of the cleats because the bevel angles get complicated; I will bevel and add this part later. You can see the great outdoors just beyond: the construction is taking place on our terrace under a roof overhang. The remnants of the Mediterranean hurricane have just blown by, with no ill effects on our island or the boat construction, despite several days of strong winds and rain.

The second photo shows the centerboard trunk walls. On the left is the outside, with garboard cleat and cleats for two bulkheads. The bulkheads will be topped with the rowing thwart, and the space filled with expanded polystyrene for buoyancy. On the right is the inside, with spacers. If you look closely you will see a space carved out for the sheave of the centerboard lifting mechanism. Once the two parts have two coats of epoxy on the inside they will be glued and nailed together and then attached the same way to the forward and aft keel pieces.

The last photo has the aft keel/skeg pieces (with garboard cleats) glued and nailed together. Note the part above the cleats in the rear: it will anchor the transom vertically and the aft bench horizontally, but will not be visible inside the buoyancy compartment.
 
If all goes well the entire centerline backbone of the boat will be nailed together tomorrow.

Skeg, keel and all

I spent the last two weeks mostly doing things that are neither glamorous nor spectacular, namely trimming strakes and filling seams with filleting compound (epoxy and wood flour).  Then in the last few days I put on the skeg, keel and bow trim.

The skeg (on the right) was cut and laminated from two layers of 3/8 inch (9mm) plywood.  It was screwed and glued on with some difficulty (and with my wife's help), since I had to duck under the boat and drive the screws from below through the keelson.  Once that was done, I reinforced the bottom of the skeg with a 3/4 x 1 inch length of solid oak. 

Then I screwed and glued a strip of 3/4 x 1 inch oak along the rest of the boat's bottom.  It's a little small to call it a keel, but really that's what it is--a sacrifice keel to be precise.  It's there mainly to stop rocks and other stuff damaging the bottom.

Then I put on the bow trim.  As I said before, the bow was angular, so I used the trim to give it a nice rounded shape (left).  This I achieved with two 3/4 x 1 inch pieces and one 3/4 x 2 inch piece.  The latter was the one that was cut and sanded to achieve the necessary curvature.  Skeg reinforcement, sacrifice keel and bow trim were all secured with bronze screws from the outside.  They are recessed and the holes will be filled along with all other holes, gaps and blemishes.  Throughout I was once again reminded of how hard oak is, with several screws inevitably getting stripped or broken.

The final photo shows the entire boat.  It is ready for recessing the last nails (I have done over half), filling all holes etc., sanding, two coats of epoxy and two coats of paint.  I chose the most standard paint I could find (which happens to be one of the cheapest too): Rustoleum topside boat enamel, navy blue high gloss for the bottom, white semi-gloss for the fore and side decks.  The inside will stay natural with spar varnish.  I am not using bottom paint, since the boat will be trailered and does not need protection against gunk growing on it while sitting in the water.  The colors were chosen to reflect the colors of the Greek flag, and they are (along with the brand of paint) standard and ubiquitous: fancier paint is less likely to be around when I need to repaint the boat.

So there we have it.  Next time the plywood and oak will look smooth and uniform in their gleaming epoxied form,  and after that shiny and positively naval in blue paint.

Until then, keep checking 176inches.

boatbuilder