Gunwales dry fit

Here's a pic of the gunwale. This is the dry fit. This was easy. Lined it up, clamped it on, and put in the screws. Yes, I attached one to each side of the boat, smirk. Yeehaw.

Transom detail and trouble

This pic is of the transom meeting the side panel. The right of the pic is the transom. The left of the pic is the side panel. The boat is upside down right now so what looks like the top of the transom is actually the bottom of the transom with a 20.5 degree bevel.

But, something isn't correct. If I angle the transom back so it lines up with the side panel's vertical angle, then the 20.5 degree bevel on the bottom is way off. If I line up the bottom transom bevel to the side panel, then the transom doesn't match the side panel's vertical angle. Kinda of hard to explain, I hope the pics helps make it clear.

So I can either angle the transom back and redo the transom bottom bevel or just trim off the side panel. I'm going with trim off the side panel. When I look at the Bolger original and Featherwind drawings, I see the transom is raked slightly back 5 to 8 degrees. When I line up my transom bottom bevel that's what I get - a raked back angle of about 5 degrees. So I figure I'm ok with trimming the side panel.

I read in another blog that someone else had a problem with the transom. Could just be the place where mistakes happen. Could be a mistake on the plans? My advice would be to not cut the side panel transom angle until you have the side panels on the frames. Just skip that cut for the time being. But do mark it well and dark. That way you'll have more freedom as to where you place your transom and if there is a mistake in the plans you've got it covered. I think my situation may have cost me a few inches off the length of the boat. Well darn it. Stuff happens I guess. But I'm super happy it's an easy fix. Like I said I'll just trim the panels.

Here's a pic of the transom all trimmed and happy after I got a little farther along in the build. I used the flush cut pull saw to trim the side panels . Gotta say that saw is cool. Cut off the excess side panels perfectly flush. Really nice.

Dry fit frames, transom, and stem to sides

Here's the pics of the assembly of frames, stem, and transom being attached to the side panels. First frame goes about in the middle.









Next frame attaches between the first frame and the the stern.










The next frame attaches between the first frame and the bow.










Next I've attached the stem in the bow, and the transom in the stern. Now the boat is right side up and you can tell it's a boat. A happy moment for sure.
This is all a dry fit. I like the dry fit idea. Nice to be able to work out any little problems and line things up without glue or epoxy messes.

Frames & Transom Beveled & Glued

Here's a pic of my completed frames and transom. Letting them set till the epoxy has cured. The limber holes, and bevels on the sides and bottom, have been cut. I used epoxy thickened with talc for glue. Weird thing about my frames or maybe it's the plans... the width of the bottom of the frame is exact to the plans... the length of the sides of the frame is exact to the plans... the angles are exactly 15 degrees as measured with my protractor... but the width at the top of the frames differs from the plans by about 1 inch. I noticed this inaccuracy when I was dry assembling the frames and decided to ignore it. I think my frames are good.

I built the taller version of transom just to be safe. Not sure if I should cut the top of it straight or curved like a dory. we'll see before too long. I forgot that the transom framing is smaller than the other frames so my transom frame is also from 1x3's. No biggy, just a little extra wood there.

I cut the bevels on a table saw. I used a protractor to get the table saw blade set at the correct angle cause the angle set on the saw is a degree or so off. I bought the protractor for 5 bucks at a tool store near my house. Was worth it and has come in handy. You can run it down the length of your bevel to check it. Can use it to check/measure angles on the plans. Can check your table saw angle like I did.

Stem cut from a 2X4

Here is the stem cut from a 2X4. I'll probably trim down the X4 part of the board to a X2. The stem length is 28" which will give me some extra stem above the gunwales to attach a line to or to decorate. I think it would be fun to decorate the stem with a figurehead. We'll see, something interesting may turn up.
I set the saw for 26 degrees and made 2 cuts to give me the needed 52 degrees. The plans said it would also be fine to make one 52 degree cut and have one side of the stem longer than the other. True but I had to have it look symmetrical, ha.

Chines cut with a table saw

Here's a pic of my chine ends, the bevel came out well. The cut is even down the entire length. Much better than the first try. I decided to cut the chines on a table saw even though I had read in in a wood working forum that ripping a 16' piece of wood on a table saw is not a good practice. I put the table saw on the driveway and set up boxes and boards that would support the the 16' feet of floppy lumber while it fed into and came out of the table saw. I rehearsed the feed through the turned off saw a few times and adjusted the support track to give a nice smooth entrance and exit to the saw. The support system is what really made it work and allowed me to make the cut easily. I wish I took a picture of that, looked kinda funny 32' feet of crap out in the driveway with a table saw in the middle.

Ripping Guide

Here is my version of the ripping guide that the plans suggest making and using. I have already ripped the gunwales using a 20"X8' width of plywood clamped to the 2X8 as a fence. That worked ok. The gunwales look to be usable and I expect that I can smooth out the rough spots with sandpaper and all will be well.

I wanted a better, smoother, more accurate cut for the chines so I made the ripping attachment. I didn't want to take the time to make it but after seeing the cuts I had so far, I decided I wanted to see if I could do better with the guide. Turns out it was worth making it. I did get a much better cut. Wish I had just done that right off the bat.

Now to take that ripped piece and turn it into two chines by ripping it again with a 15 degree bevel. I liked using the guide so well, I think I'll modify it for cutting the beveled chines.

Cut hull side panels

Here I have the hull side panels cut out. I cut these as the plans suggested - free hand with a circular saw and both at the same time clamped on top of each other. I stacked the panels smooth side to smooth side which results in both the C sides ending up on the on the inside of the hull and both the B sides on the outside. Glad I remembered to mark the frame locations before cutting. Much easier to mark those before cutting the panels out.

Getting Started

This is my boat, or will be, with luck. Got the lumber home from my local chain builder supply store. I dug through a whole stack of quarter inch 4X8 sheets of BC plywood but it was worth it. Found some really nice ones. And I dug through the pile of 1/2 sheets of plywood as well. And the pile of 2X8X16's and 1X3X8's. That was a whole lotta digging that took a couple of hours. But I did get some nice boards.

While at the store for wood I also picked up everything else that I needed. Screws, glue, rubber gloves, sandpaper, etc. Ordered epoxy and fiberglass tape online.

Here I've cut a 20"X8' piece of plywood for a hull side panel and am getting ready to use it for a fence while I rip the gunwales from the 2X8x16.






Here the gunwales and chines are ripped. Still have plenty of board left for the other pieces. I decided to use a 16' length rather than the longer length suggested in plans. Looks like it'll work out ok.

The plans show a ripping guide you can put together and attach to your circular saw to get smoother more accurate rips. If I was doing this over again, I might give that a try. Even with a fence clamped on the 2X8 my rips came out a little rough. I think I might end up redoing the chines cause the sloppiness of the bevel is nagging me.


Here you see some frame pieces cut from 1X3's. So far I'm just cutting up boards into the pieces needed to start building the hull.





Here the 8' X 20" plywood hull sides are being joined together with epoxy and fiberglass to yield two 16' X 20" plywood sheets from which the hull sides will be cut. The joint is setting up under the weight of the tool bucket and assorted stuff that was handy. Had epoxy on my rubber gloved hands so I didn't get any pics of the process of putting this together.




Here is one of the cured hull sides that was set up in the above pic. This was my first time working with epoxy and fiberglass. It's neat stuff, pretty cool.

The plans give a good explanation of the process of attaching the sheets together. I watched a couple of youtube videos of people wetting out glass which also helped me feel like I could do it. I think the joints came out pretty good.


Here I'm marking out the shape of the hull on the hull side panel and am clamping a piece of wood on the marks so I can draw a nice line from end to end.