With the jig done, it was time to fasten on the bottom of the hull. Lined up perfectly centered, the hull panel is held on with four screws through plywood pads and into two cross members on the jig.
I then squared up all the routed aligning indentations with a small chisel, and squared up the corresponding tabs on the bulkheads with a file, and then did a dry-fit of the parts. That was pretty neat - I can really get a sense of the size and shape of the hull now!
Before gluing any of that in, I need to finalize the centerboard case. I decided to epoxy the doublers on to the panels before installation.
The next pieces I need will be the solid stock for the ends of the case, and that's still getting epoxy coats, so is delaying the process. But that gives me time to think about where I want hatches.
And opportunity to keep applying fairing mix and smoothing that off the rudder and centerboard. With each iteration they get closer to done...
Nice blog! What's the slot towards one side of the hull bottom for?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Erik. That's where the (off)centerboard drops through to keep the boat from sliding sideways in the water. -- Dave
ReplyDeleteHuh! It didn't occur to me it could be off-center. I was also surprised to see the boat has a flat front-end instead of being pointy. Does the flat part mostly ride above the water line so it doesn't matter?
ReplyDeleteRight, the flat part is well above the waterline. And the benefit of that flat front is that it allows a boat of a given length to have more volume in the bow. So, more flotation than you would otherwise have in a boat this length. It's a very practical thing, though some think it looks strange. I like it.
ReplyDeleteIt looks great to me!
ReplyDeleteDave, How did you finish your CB? Does graphite epoxy provide enough UV protection? What are your thoughts here?
ReplyDeleteBrent
Brent - I first adhered the fiberglass cloth with epoxy. The cloth wraps around the leading edge from each side, so there are two layers there. Then I put a couple more layers of dynel cloth over the lower part of the leading edge and along the bottom. I put several layers of decreasing size on, so the bottom front corner (which will hit the bottom first) has a total of three layers. I figured it was likely that I'll be finding the bottom fairly regularly with this part of the boat... I then faired it out with epoxy mixed with microballoons for ease of sanding, and then a couple coats epoxy/graphite to finish it off. I don't think UV is a concern because the centerboard is either hidden in the trunk or in the water under the boat. -- Dave
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