The progress is now something that is not prescribed in the plans drawn up by Ian Oughtred. It is true that a flush and clean decking with a minimum amount of fittings would be more water tight. But already I can see that the bulkhead access ports won’t really be sufficient to get full use of the bow and stern compartments. So I’ve decided to add hatches to the deck in the bow and the stern. To make this as water tights as possible I’ve created frames before I start laying down the deck.

I also started fitting the decking make sure the kingplank and the deckbeams are flowing right. I found that the straight kingplank at the bow did not match the upward flow of the sheer strake. At first this scared me as it introduces a compound curve for the plywood decking. But in trying it out because the plywood is in two pieces and gets quite narrow at the bow it won’t be too hard to torture it to follow the curve.

Then I got to the framing of the hatch framing. You will notice that they are intentionally trapezoids. It just looked too weird when I mocked it up as square.

I then turned to the fitting of hardware. With the arrival of 4″ 5/16″ bronze bolts for the chainplates I got to work drilling the holes in the beautiful bronze castings from Classic Marine. (I bought them a while ago and feel like it was as we say in french “un petit caprice” especially now that I see the price of bronze has gone up further)

Once complete they are now ready to have the hull and frame drilled too.

The stern hatch frame was completed and a few other beams added to support the plywood decking for good measure as I know I will have children running up onto all surfaces of the boat.

The next steps involve fastening all the benches, thwarts and knees and then removing them before priming and painting the whole interior.

I will also go get some 1×4 of 1×6 cedar planks to use for the floor. My plan is to leave it unfinished as a sacrificial surface that I plan to leave raw.

The winter has been productive but still requires working around cold days where it gets tricky to create conditions to be able to get the epoxy to cure.  This winter was also an active year with every sunday dedicated to coaching nordic skiing with the Hollyburn cross country club with my children.

Here is a summary of the activity this winter :

I bought sunbrella fabric at Dressew for the boat cover.

And over the Christmas break, with my friend Patrice we did a lot of sewing on his Sailrite sewing machine.

I finished carving the first set of eight cleats made of the reclaimed backyard cherry tree from a couple blocks away. I also used Deks Olje D1 and D2. They came out looking great and I look forward to installing them.

More Deks Olje on the centreboard well capping. This wood is reclaimed mahogany from door and window framing in Vancouver. It must be quite old, but looks fantastic.

I installed the aft deck beams and king plank. After struggling a little with the geometry of the bow, I had an easier time in the back… except that this time the deck beams land between the laps and so tracing the fair line for the edge of the aft deck was still a little challenging.

More Deks Olje on the centre thart. Also made of reclaimed mahogany.

Adding the extra bracing to the king plank to allow for a hole to be drilled for the mizzen mast. It is glued to the aft stem and to the aft deck  beam.

I had the foresight of ordering the sails over the winter when the sail lofts are maybe a little less busy than in the spring. I ended having them made from the local loft of Evolution Sails in East Vancouver. The bonus is their loft is right above Andina Brewing.  So far I’m really pleased with the way that they turned out. The real test will come when the get laced up to the spars for the first time.

Then to complete the aft compartment I installed the motor well.

This was a somewhat tricky to glue up and in the end looks pretty solid.  The only thing I’ve not done yet is cut out the hole out the bottom. That is going to be the weirdest part. I might have to put the boat on its side to do that because I can’t fit the jig-saw in from above.

My trusty assistant came in on one weekend to help with the surface preparations and testing out all the dimensions.

Then I had fun with cardboard templates trying to get the shape and geometry of the bench braces just right. It is tricky because you need the benches in place to know where the edges of the bench as well as the height of the bench.

I then returned to a half finished project that I had started earlier and carved out the rowlock risers from more off cuts of reclaimed mahogany. These will look really nice with the Deks Olje soon.

I struggled with the drain plug installation. Since the garboard planks are just 9mm (1/2″) there is not much wood for the screws to bite into. I thought of through bolting the bronze drain plugs but that is also problematic. So I finally took a few ends of 9mm marine plywood and made these risers that I then glued onto the garboard on the inside of the hull. The drain plugs will then be bedded and screwed on with #6 bronze 1/2 or 5/8 screws.

Finally a good Craigslist find, a new set of bronze oarlocks and the not yet installed leather ready for my as of yet not yet made oars.

My plan is to make them 11′ long with a scarfed coupling as described in Wooden Boat 229 by Harry Bryan for a sculling oar. I think that if it works it will allow me to have oars long enough for a boat with this wide a beam. By being able to separate the oars into a 5′ and a 6′ section, they will me much easier to stow and lash down below the benches. I’ve got some pieced of 1/2″ and 3/8″ half round brass keel rub strip that I think I can use for this.

This Sunday for father’s day as a present I got four hours of uninterrupted time. Enough to do the final step that will make this hull finally water tight.  Glue the centerboard well to the keelson.  I set up a string down the centre line to help me line up the centreboard well and make sure it is square.

I then put the first layer of clear epoxy down on all the surfaces and then a nice thick layer of thickened epoxy.

It was a hot day and I had to make sure my sweat did not drip down into the epoxy as I was troweling it down. This was a critical step and I am now looking forward to completing the centreboard well trim and side braces.

then on the next projects:

forward and aft bulkheads

Thwarts and benches,

Knees and floorboards,

Engine well.

Paint and install the hardware.

Find a good trailer for the boat.

So now that all the component pieces of the centreboard well are completed it took me a couple hours to double check everything so that once I have it all glued i would drill the centreboard pivot in the right location.

After double and triple checking squareness I glued it all together.

I also finished making the little shims that fill the wedge shaped gap between the frame and the hull. It is important to fill this as the chain plate bolts would otherwise deform the hull to meet the frame.

I then sealed the underside of the frame so that it is ready to be placed in the hull and not an area of potential rot.