Strake 3

Progress has been slow, because of a backlog of gardening and home improvement projects.  For example, last summer I replaced my porch floor, cut off the rotten bottoms of the posts holding up the porch roof and replaced them with pressure-treated wood, and installed stair rails.  Of course the pressure-treated wood had to weather for many months, so I ended up puttying, sanding, priming and painting everything this summer.  I managed to do it (took four days) just before the dry weather ended.

Anyway, I had to put in seat stringers before putting on the third strake, which meant I had to notch five of the frames.  While trying the stringers on, the scarf joints broke apart, so I had to redo them with a shallower angle.  After putting them on (picture), one of them broke again (I neglected to put a screw in the frame nearest to the joint).  Clearly the stresses on these bent stringers are heavy.

Finally I put on strake 3.  The hardest thing about lapstrake construction may be shaping the strakes so they meet at the bow exactly right.  Normally this involves planing a rabbet in both strakes.  My rabbet plane was not working properly, however, so I ended up planing and sanding a scarf instead.  It worked out fine.

One lesson that I learned, though, was that it's very nice to have a helper.  When putting on the port strake, I did it all by myself and it was slightly off, which meant that the lapped edges did not line up properly, and I had to (slightly) force them together using screws and pieces of scrap plywood.  Once the epoxy cures I'll be able to remove them. The starboard strake went on much more easily, because I enlisted my wife's help for about 5 minutes to hold one end of the strake straight.  

The fourth and final strake is ready to go on, after the epoxy cures, strake 3 is beveled with plane and sander, and the tips of the frames are notched for the inwales.  After that, it will be time to put on the skeg and keel, and finish the bottom (set the nails, putty, sand, epoxy and paint).  Then I'll need to get some friends to help me flip the boat right side up to finish the inside.  With some luck I'll be done before the cold weather sets in.

boatbuilder