progress pics

Moving right along now. Deck installed, cockpit rails installed tonight (clamped up in pics), centerboard shaped and glassed. Going to try and get everything finished this week to sail this summer, and then build nicer pieces over the fall/winter (wooden mast, solid wood centerboard, etc).

deck will get primed tonight (weather permitting), and will also hopefully be making/fitting chainplates, shaping the rudder, tiller, etc.

 meanwhile, left unsupervised, the dogs help themselves to the pumpkin plants 

newest rig design

Looking at 2 possible rigs.

The rig on the right is the standard National 10 class sailplan, where as the rig on the left uses the jib I already made, and cuts down the main I already made (for the original 12' design).

The sloop rig would require moving the mast step aft to the next frame, but where it hasn't been built yet, all that would require is stepping in another kingpost, and leaves the option of either rig open.

decisions, decisions...

decking

starting to install the decking now, and Waldo inspects the boat interior

updates

I've been busy the past few weeks with other things, but tried to put all free time towards finishing the boat. Got the gunwales installed, interior primed, exterior first coat, and one of the aft deck panels installed. Centerboard is in the process of being shaped, still need to cut out a rudder though.

Also dug this "Footy" class R/C yacht out of a box in the basement. Never got around to finishing it, and figured it might be fun to do so. Will probably use a piece of steel or aluminum for the keel, cast a lead bulb, etc. Will probably end up making it a smaller model of the big boat!

not sure why the picture came out upside down...?

rope stropped blocks

Along the way of building this boat, I've also been fooling around making wooden blocks. Here are a few photos of the progression, They seem to be getting better!

First try. Maple, peened copper pipe thimble, manila rope, dacron trolling line for seizing. I used a hole saw to cut circles from a black plastic cutting board, then chucked them in the drill press and shaped them with a rat-tail file. 

 First and second. Second one is mahogany, sisal rope, and sisal twine seizing (no thimble). Still not liking the squareness of the shape, or how big the body is.

 Third time's a charm? This time I used 1/2" maple, shaped the sides to a convex surface, and used a small stainless thimble I found at Lowe's (still sisal rope/twine). Shaped the sheave with a microplane rasp this time, works a lot better than the file. Finished with "Early American" stain and a coat of poly.

I wonder if I could go even smaller? 

cb trunk brackets, stringers

Last night I added blocking where the shrouds will attach along the sheer. I also made some brackets to support the centerboard trunk back at the frames, and installed them. I also ripped down some spruce into 3/4 x 3/4 stringers for either side of the cockpit. Wasn't sure it was going to take the bend, but they went in without too much fighting.

apologies for the picture quality, it was after dark

kingplank, centerboard trunk

Finally starting to get some big ticket items installed. Sunday I got the kingplank installed, and made the brackets for what will be the rails in the cockpit. Picked up some stock for the gunwales and laminated up some fir for the rudder too. I can already tell the rudder is going to be a pain to shape, since the alternating grain planes nice on one plank while tearing out on the adjacent one. Maybe I will see if I can rough it out a bit with whatever works, and then finish with the belt sander. 

Got the centerboard trunk assembled and test fit on Sunday as well, only needed a minor amount of reshaping. Monday it saw a pass through the bandsaw which yielded an almost perfect fit, and it got installed. 

Next on the list:
-Install blocking for the shroud mounts
-Brackets to the centerboard trunk from the frames - considered a thwart here, but I'll probably end up leaving the cockpit open. 

-Cap on the centerboard trunk

-Probable cutout on the top on the transom

-Install gunwales

-Install stringers for cockpit rails, figure out decking at transom (if any)

king post, king plank

This morning I cut and installed the kingpost. I am using a 2x2 douglas fir post, and will be using the same for the kingplank as well. I am building it so that the kingplank will have right-of-way over the kingpost, with the thought that this will help to distribute the load of the mast.

kingpost installed

Adding to the "hindsight is 20/20" file, I chiseled out a relief for the kingplank to sit in the stem, which would have been a lot easier to do on the bandsaw before I installed it, but it ended up not being too difficult. 

relief cut

test fit with scrap DF piece

I need to pick up some more wood for the kingplank, and will probably end up grabbing stock for the foils and spars as well. Everything seems to be moving along very smoothly now, which leads me to wonder if I'm actually doing everything right, or if it's just the calm before the storm. Let's hope it's the former!

deck beams, centerboard

Friday night I cut the deck beams out and installed them. They are made from 1/2" ply.

After that was done, I decided to finally get to laying out the cut for the centerboard. Slightly unnerving to cut a giant hole in the boat that was watertight up to that point.

hole location laid out

and cut!

Meanwhile our dachshund Waldo, could be less concerned. 

resize complete

Finished up the resizing last night. Took my 12ft long flexible batten (1" x 3/4" pvc trim) to mark the new sheer on either side, and then cut with the jigsaw.

first side cut.

then flipped it over, trimmed the stem and panels that were sticking out past the transom

Next step will be to frame the deck and mast step/partner, and install the centerboard trunk. 

The Redesign

I've hammered down most of the main points for the redesign of my boat, but I suppose it remains a work in progress. The overall dimensions will be 10ft in length, and a max beam just shy of 60". These numbers we somewhat picked at random by the "what seems alright" method, however they also comply with the Classic Moth class rules, which can be found here: http://www.mothboat.com/

The Classic Moth limits overall length to 11ft, so I imagine my boat wouldn't be highly competitive being a foot shorter, but fitting into the class is an added bonus for the future. One of the main differences between my boat and the traditional moth designs is that I wanted something deeper to keep the cabin dry most of the time, and to add some stability should the conditions get rough, as the harbor is known to do.

the working design(s)

Still somewhat undecided on rig, centerboard vs. daggerboard, and probably a bunch of other things, but I think I'm at least heading in the right direction. On the left the Moth Class sail is shown, while on the right is a somewhat complex gaff rig that would make use of the poly-sails already made for the previous design. Current plan is somewhere along the lines of starting with the rig on the right, and eventually having the rig on the left as well. 

left: new design (10ft)                       right: old design (12ft)

I'll use this blog to document the process of the boat I am currently designing and building. What first started out as a boat that would fall under the "National 12" class rules, has taken a slight change of course and will end up being a 10ft boat with slightly less than 60" beam (width).

I'll start with the original design. Using a program called "hulls" I came up with a design for a "three planker", which means the boat has 3 panels per side. This was a slight departure from a "four planker" design which is   a common building design. My idea was that less panels would make for an easier build, but I later found out that 4 planks were probably more commonly used because the smaller panels would be easier to bend. This would be the first of many "hindsight is 20/20" moments.

Here's the original design:

                                
General Specs: 
Length Overall : 12ft
Max Beam : 6ft 6in
Sail Area : around 103sf (main + jib)

The Hulls program allows you to output each panel's shape, which can then be transferred to plywood, and cut out (the panels are not straight, but have curved edges, so that when you put them together they "automatically" form the hull shape). The panels were then cut and assembled via the "stitch and glue" method, to form a hull:

Trying to form the very bottom of the bow ended up cracking the plywood (so this is why four planks are used...) so after researching a bunch of dinghy designs, I decided to cut 2" off the bow, and fit a piece of oak  for a more solid structure. This was eventually capped with a 1.5" piece of douglas fir, which was then faired to the hull shape.

that tiny piece of wood sticking out was used as a wedge to hold the shape while the glue dried. 

Once the hull was finished, the seams were glued inside and out, then finished on the outside with a strip of fiberglass over each seam for added strength. After lots of sanding, a primer coat, more sanding, and more coats of primer, I arrived at something that was starting to look alright.

homemade scrapwood sawhorses proved to be very helpful

Finally, it was time to flip the hull over for finishing the interior. Somewhere I was reading online a person suggested this was the point of being "50% complete, with 90% to go". Sounds about right. 

However, now I was thinking "wow this boat is much bigger than originally planned." Normally, this wouldn't be much of an issue, except the original idea was to car-top this boat, and also be able to get it out of my yard via a narrow alley. Not so much! Ideas of "sell it", "take it apart and start over", and "burn it" were all suggested. After a day or so of fiddling with the design in AutoCAD, I decided I would be able to shorten the boat to 10ft, and also bring in the sides to a max beam of 58-60". My plan of attack was to leave the bottom panels as they are, and just adjust the top. I also figured it would be easiest to install frames that reflect the new shape, and then attach the upper panels to the new frames. This brings us up to present time: frames have been built and installed, transom cut down to the new size and moved forward in the boat, and the panels are (hopefully) ready to be reattached. 

frames fitted and held in place with whatever method seemed to work while the glue dries

Hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out, but I guess only time will tell!