Expedition Wherry: Part VII

I think, and hope, that everything is ready to put on the main deck.

First, the fun part - taking a block plane and planing the bevel for the deck.  CLC provided a board that was a copy of the deck camber.

Planing wood with a nice sharp blade is fun and rewarding.  The shavings come off with a sweet curl.  I was tired of epoxy, and it felt good to be working with wood and a nice block plane.

First, the deck needs to be scarfed together.  With the puzzle joints and available weight, it's a piece of cake.

Looks a lot better without the buckets and weight on the joints.

The boat is cleaned up and ready.

The bevel of the sheer strips looks good too as you look the length of the boat from the stern.

Mix up some epoxy and sawdust, put it in a quart plastic bag, snip off the corner, and spread it on all surfaces that the deck will touch.

I love it.  The instructions are to use packing tape and tape the deck on!!  To be honest, I was dubious as to taping as a boatbuilding method.  But, it worked a lot better than I thought it would.

First ML and I set the deck on top - it needed both of us.  Then I taped at the frames and then every foot, and then wherever it looked like it needed it.  Looks good!

Gibsonton Bike Week!

If you know me, you'd think that the "Bike" in the title above refers to a bicycle.  But you'd be wrong.  My friend and neighbor George invited me on a "photographic" expedition to the Gibsonton Motorcycle Week.  He was taking photos as part of a Meetup group.  He's a really good photographer.

Me?  I tagged along and tried to emulate him.  Here's what I got.  It was fun.

Lots of "bikes."

It was a "cold" day, in Florida anyway.  But beautiful sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. 

We even got entertained! 

This is "Galaxy Girl," who climbed 127 feet into to the sky and did some "amazing" acrobatics on the top of the pole.

George asked me if I would climb it for a million bucks.  I'd try.

There was some fine jewelry, too.  I wanted to get one for ML, but George said, "Maybe not."

VROOM!

Building the Expedition Wherry: Part VI - Straight and Narrow

Now the boat is encapsulated with epoxy and cloth, and I shouldn't have to worry about it getting wet from rain or the sprinklers anymore.  Whew, that' s minor relief.

First, I better put on the keel to make the boat go "straight and narrow," even if the owner can't.

Even though it's a lousy picture with the house roof in the back, at least the keel looks straight.  I sunk a couple sheet rock screws in the forward part and "blue taped" it off the hull to keep it straight while the epoxy set up.

I forgot to take a photo, but I also clamped a stick vertically in the middle of the transom to give me a "line" so that it was centered and vertical.

Looks good here, too.

 It's time to flip it over and glue in the support for the "cockpit" decks, which in turn also support the sliding seat rowing unit.

The frames were just a bit off so I used some tie-down straps to move them the 1/4 inch I needed to make the deck plywood flush.

The bricks are making sure the deck supports are sitting down on the glue.  The end of the tie down is just pulling the frame back just a bit - hopefully to make the edge and frame match perfectly!

After waiting for the deck supports to dry - and after epoxying cloth on the top of the plywood deckboards to protect them a bit better, I glued them in and piled up some old bricks to hold them down.  It's good I saved those old bricks!

The circle you see is the cutout for the deck hatch so you can store stuff in there if you want.  There's not really a lot of room under these decks.

 In the photo, you can see the stern deck without bricks and with some decent filets all around.  The forward deck looks about the same.  The cockpit will show for all viewers and myself, so I tried to take care to make the filets look good.  You'll have to judge for yourself when you come try it out after it's finished and painted.

I spent a surprising amount of time sanding the filets and the surfaces, with some re-fileting thrown in.  Even though I wanted to continue the progress, I knew that it would be a LOT easier to sand without the deck on, so I tried to take my time.

I'll leave you with this photo, which I just happen to like.  I drilled a half inch hole in each knee support, even though the plans didn't mention it.  I think I could put a line through it and be able to tie on the bailing can or other boating paraphernalia.  Don't you just love the colors of wood?  I do.

Building the Expedition Wherry, Part V

Stitch and Glue boatbuilding is pretty much what it says.  The stitching needs to be finalized and then it's time to start gluing.

This entry includes many hours of epoxy work.  Plus, unless you're very organized unlike me, you have to wait for the epoxy to cure in order to get to the next step.

We left off when the boat was all wired together.  It took me a couple of hours the next day to tighten all the wires and make sure the boat was straight and true.  I also wanted all the joints to be pretty consistent as to which edges were touching each other.  But, in the end, I was pretty happy with it.

The tools of the trade: MAS epoxy, mixing containers, cheap throw away brushes, stir sticks, plastic spreaders, and various widths of filet makers (see the stick on the bottom left of the photo with two different radii of half ovals).

After I mix up some liquid epoxy real well and stir in an amount of sawdust to make it the consistency of peanut butter, I spread it between the wires and into the seams of the planks and frames.  The "secret" here is to use as little epoxy as possible but still glue the boat together pretty well.








The photo above and the one to the left show what it looks like as I epoxy between the wires.  Subsequently, I took out all the wires!!  The gap in the epoxy is where the wire was holding the boat together.

After I took out the wires, I used epoxy to fill in where the wires were.  I also lay "cloth" in between each frame and spread unthickened epoxy to fill the cloth.  You can see the excess cloth in the photo over the boat gunnel on the right.  The rest turns a pretty wood color since it turns the white cloth clear.  Pretty neat, huh?

Now I've epoxied cloth between each frame.  When you epoxy cloth, you put a second coat of unthickened epoxy over it to fill the weave of the cloth.  What a nice color!

Time to turn the boat over and do the outside.  The plank plywood is maybe 4 millimeters thick - it needs the epoxy cloth inside and out for strenthening. 

The day I did this, it started raining when I was halfway done spreading liquid epoxy on the cloth.  I had to quick move everything in the garage. 

I moved it outside again to cut the extra cloth from around the gunnel.  You can see the extra cloth.  Luckily, a razor knife makes short work of getting rid of the extra.  But, either rasp or sand down the edge if you don't want to cut yourself.  It's wicked.

Now for the keel and the inside decks.

Building the Expedition Wherry, Part IV

The next part is pretty fun.  CLC has learned a lot on how to make a boat builder friendly since I first started with them 20 years ago or more.  There are tabs on the frames that fit into the planks.  All you do is wire it up!!!  In fact, the type of construction is called "stitch and glue."

First wire the first two planks together.  CLC even drilled the holes for the wire!! 

The tabs on the frames fit into the bottom two planks.  No measuring!  

Then add the next planks and wire them up loosely.

Keep on going with the third plank.  The frames are notched for the sheer strip.  These planks needed a helper and I found a great one.

Looks pretty good so far.  Everything is together except for the transom that gives a wherry the sweet stern.

And there she is, all wired up loosely and ready to go.

It's a rewarding day.  Now to start gluing it together.

Building the Expedition Wherry, Part III - NOT SO FAST!

The buckets and bricks are off!

But, hmmm.  Those planks don't look very good.

It's hard to see in this photo, but notice how the plank on the right doesn't arc correctly.  There's not a consistent curve to it.

The one in the middle doesn't have a consistent curve either.

That's not right!

But how could I have screwed that up?  I remembered being careful to make sure the puzzle joints lined up correctly.

Oh no.



It reminds me of one of the few jokes I can remember.  My boss and friend of many years ago, John A., told it to me.  It was actually during my evaluation conference when he was explaining to me that I was a bit too direct with people who worked for me.  Or, to put it another way he said it, "Bill, you're just like a turd in a punchbowl."  John was a great guy and I learned a lot from him.

In Sergeant Johnson's office one day, the Corporal says, "Sergeant Johnson, we just got a fax.  Private Smith's mother just died." Sergeant Johnson replies, "Tell the men to fall in."  "FALL IN" yells the Corporal.  The men come running and stand at ramrod attention.  Sergeant Johnson comes out of the office and yells,  "OK men, all those soldiers with living mothers take one step forward!!   PRIVATE SMITH, NOT SO FAST!!!"

Now back to the boat.  I goofed around with different configurations but I couldn't put my mind around the screwed up planks.  ML helped by saying maybe another of the planks was wrong.  I sent CLC a photo of the planks and they promptly replied with a diagram of the planks with some measurements.

AHA!  I had used a section of plank 2 that should have been on plank 3.  Plus, the middle section on plank 3 was backwards.  Yes, it's an embarrassing moment.

Fortunately, things in boatbuilding, like most construction, can be fixed.  It just takes time and/or money.  Sometimes lots of either or both.  After puzzling in my mind, I decided just to cut the joints as carefully as I could with a jigsaw, and reglue with some thickened epoxy.

Here is a "normal" glued puzzle joint.

Here is one after I jigsawed the above and joined the correct plank sections.  There's a lot of leeway in that joint prior to the glue.

Another thing I've learned over the years is that I need to be careful not to let one mistake lead to more misery.  I was as careful as possible to make sure the new planks were the correct length and had consistent arcs and lines.  If I didn't get them right, I knew that I would be fighting that difference for the rest of the boat.

Now they look right and measure right.  Luckily, I have a long enough concrete surface that I could mark on the concrete and then glue the planks using the marks.

It took another couple days, but I think I have everything ready and as designed.

The last step before putting it all together is to glue the sheer strips on the top of the upper side planks.  In this photo, the 3/4" by 1" sheer strip is glued and clamped.

I was careful to make sure the sheer strips were "mirror" images - in other words glued on to the correct side of the left and right planks.  I didn't want to embarrass myself again.

OK, everything is ready to put together and make a boat!

Buildling the Expedition Wherry, Part II

Time to get started!

The frames are taped together - that's nice of CLC.  They are spaced periodically within the interior of the boat and support the planks or outside skin.

They need some stiffening by doubling up the plywood on the top.  Some also need some 3/4 inch square wood glued on to support the interior decks.

 Shoot, things are going so well, I'll glue up the planks.  With a little epoxy glue, the "puzzle" joints fit together easily.  With some buckets and bricks to weigh the joints down, and some plastic so that everything doesn't stick together forever, it's a piece of cake!

A little cleaning up of epoxy and I'll be ready to put it together!

Building the Expedition Wherry, Part I

I started the building the Expedition Wherry a month or more ago.  I ordered the kit from Chesapeake Light Craft out of Annapolis, MD.  I really like CLC Boats.  This is my third boat that I've built using CLC: first a small kayak from plans and then Jimmie Skiff from a kit.

A big part of the delay in writing about building the wherry is trying to figure out what it is that I'm trying to say.  To be honest, a "how-to" blog is more than I can handle - I get started and forget to take the picture that shows what I need to show, etc. etc.  Plus, CLC provides a 143 page manual with hundreds of pictures along with the kit or plans - which is many times better than anything I could ever do - plus, what little audience I have would be bored to tears.

So here we go.  It's better just to take a little step and see what happens.  Maybe I can inspire someone to build a little boat: it's fun to do and the boat is fun to use when you finish.

Not long after a person takes the plunge and lists his or her credit card info in the proper slots, a nicely packed bunch of parts shows up.

The flat box is the wooden parts.  The box on the right contains the epoxy.  The box in the back is our laundry.

Don't you love opening boxes?  It's just like Christmas.



The parts you see will result in a boat - hopefully.  In fact, the boat will be about 18 feet long.