Varnish and Paint

After applying two coats of CPES Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, Tom applied three coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish with a light sanding in between each coat. After the varnish cured, the boat was flipped and prepped for painting. After applying two coats of Interlux Primer and two coats of Interlux Brightside White paint with, once again, a light sanding in between coats, we are close to being finished.

While the various coats cured, Tom laminated knees for the fore and aft center thwarts. Once the boat was flipped back over again, he was able to fit, shape, sand, varnish, and install them. He also installed the stern seat slats after painting the bulkheads, built a bunk for the customer's dock, and ripped three ash bows for use with the boat's cover. After attaching all of the bronze hardware, you can't help but marvel at the beauty of this boat.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Finishing Out the Interior (Part Three)

Here's a better look at that quarter knee

The building phase is just about complete. This week, Tom added the trim and the sunburst design to the bow seat. We had ordered three sets of brackets (they were chrome as bronze was not available). Each would hold a flexed piece of wood which would then "tent" the cover so that water would not pool on it. But, it just didn't feel right putting those metal brackets on this beautiful wooden boat, so we didn't. Tom fabricated brackets out of mahogany and they blend in much nicer and look far better than the metal ones. He also built the oarlock chocks, rounded the edges of the gunwhales, drilled the stem for the bronze bow eye, applied two coats of penetrating epoxy and the first coat of varnish.

Presently, Tom is building the stern seat. The slats will be cut to match the sunburst design on the bow seat. Also, he is laminating the knees for the fore and aft center thwarts out of Phillipine Mahogany.

The oars arrived from Shaw and Tenney (http://www.shawandtenney.com/) out of Orono, Maine and they are beautiful. They're 8' flat blade spruce with 10" sewn leathers.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Finishing Out the Interior (Part One)

A cradle for the boat has been built and it sits on top of the building jig base. This brings the boat up to a nice working height. With the addition of foam, the cradle will also be used in the delivery of the boat.

The first task after turning the boat over was to clean up any epoxy squeeze out that wasn’t cleaned up before it cured. Luckily there were only a few spots that needed attention. The entire interior of the boat then received a thorough sanding before starting the building process again.

A laser level was used to layout the riser lines for the front and rear seats/flotation compartments. I don’t know how they did this accurately before lasers came along. Tech, tech, technology. We're grateful for it. After the lines were drawn, Tom installed the risers as you can see in the photos above.

We feel we are getting close to being done but there are still many items to complete, i.e. seats, oarlock chocks, breast hook, gunwales, epoxy saturation, quarter knees, etc. etc. After the building is complete, the final phase will be the paint and varnish.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Ready to Flip

First shot of the interior with the frames still attached.

After attaching the last two planks (sheer planks), we went to work fitting the outer stem and keel. Quite a bit of time was spent getting everything just right. An extra keel support piece was added where the keel meets the transom because the boat's keel will rest on a roller when not in use and the front of the boat will rest on a cradle.

Final fairing of the hull was completed before sealing the exposed plank edges with epoxy. Before removing the boat from the building jig, the entire exterior was sanded and then saturated with two coats of penetrating epoxy which was lightly sanded between coats.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

In Between the Planks

A bevel in progress.

There are a number of things that need to take place after one plank is completed and the next plank is ready to be epoxied into place.

Bevels:

The first step is to remove the 85+ screws used to clamp the previous plank while its epoxy cures. Once the screws have been removed, the edge of the plank can be trimmed flush with the stringer it is attached to. The router makes quick work of the trimming except around the stem, transom, and bulkheads. In these areas, the trimming is done with a combination of saw, file, and plane. Once the edge is trimmed, a line is drawn 3/4" from the edge of the planking marking where the edge of the next plank will lie. The space must be beveled so that it is on the same plane as the adjacent stringer so that the next plank will have a flat area to lie on. Some beveling will need to be done on the adjacent stringer for the same reasons. Besides beveling the plank edge and the stringer, the bulkheads and transom must also be beveled to accept the new plank. The final step in prepping for the next plank is cutting the gain which was covered in a prior post.

Fitting the plank:

To fit the next plank, the planking stock is clamped to the boat and lines are drawn on it using the stringers for guides. The plank is rough cut a few inches wider than the lines to provide some room for adjustments and to provide for the 3/4" that needs to be added for the 'lap' section that overlaps the adjacent plank (that we just beveled). Once the new plank has been cut out, it can be re-clamped to the boat and new, more accurate lines can be traced onto it. The plank is then removed again so that 3/4" can be added to the arc drawn for the lap edge. A batten is then used to connect the 3/4" marks and redraw the curve. The plank is then sawn about 1/8" outside this line and then a plane is used for final trimming to the line. The final step for this plank edge is to sand it with a sanding block further fairing the curve and putting a slight radius on the outer edge.

After the lap edge is ready, the plank is clamped back on the boat to continue with the fitting process. The lap edge is checked to see that it matches up with the 3/4" line that was drawn for the bevel on the adjacent plank. The fit at the gain is also checked and adjusted as needed. If all fits well, then a line is drawn 3/8" in from the lap edge which will designate the middle of the stringer below it. This will be used when laying out screw locations. If the fit looks good, a couple of screws will be put in to keep the plank from moving throughout the rest of the fitting. The middle of the lower stringer can now be transferred to the plank and marks are made about every four inches on both the top and bottom lines for screw locations. After pre-drilling all of the screw holes, the position of the scarf is marked and the plank is removed to cut the scarf. Epoxy is brushed onto the plank and the boat before applying thickened epoxy to all of the mating surfaces. After the plank has been screwed to the boat, all of the epoxy 'squeeze out' must be cleaned up immediately. Excess epoxy is scraped off and then a final cleaning is done using acetone.

That completes the fitting of one of the half planks. Attaching the other half plank entails the same steps with a few slight differences. The scarf will now be on the bottom of the plank instead of the top like the previous plank and two inches must also be added to the plank for the scarf. Each full plank takes about six hours to complete. (6 hours x 12 planks = 72 hours of planking).

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.