Here's where we're at as of mid-February 2021, all the full-width deck beams are in and the cockpit framing is in with the ply cladding temporarily fitted. Temporarily because of a shortage of Bilgekote bilge paint in Australia. International Paints say a container fell off a ship but I reckon they've been relying on "just-in-time" supply chains which work well until a hiccup like Covid. I just had enough paint to finish the hardest to reach areas of the hull under the cockpit and the underside of the cockpit sole which extends out to the sides of the hull. The sole has a lift-out panel for access to the stern gland, the hull and the back of the engine, This panel will be watertight. The two beams at the mast partners and the forward end of the sliding hatch opening and the beams at the forward and aft ends of the cockpit footwell are solid Spotted Gum. The other bridge deck beam is laminated Spotted Gum (because I happened to have just the right amount of suitable laminate timber) and all of the other beams are laminated Celery Top Pine. All ahead of the cockpit are half-dovetailed into the Celery Top sheer clamp, the cockpit beams are let into the underside of the the lower sheerclamp, the aft two resting on an extra cleat of Spotted Gum and the forward two on large knees. I will eventually put a video together on fitting deck beams. Here's some shots of the cockpit structure. The well carlins are dovetailed into the beams, the outer carlins which will be under the coamings are let into shallow housings so as not to take too much timber out of the beams. In the second picture you can see a pattern for the cockpit sole being made from ply strips. With the large number of knees needed for the boat I made a bunch of cardboard patterns and took a trip to Smithy's Boatshed West (my storage container in an outer suburb) and checked my stock of natural Tea Tree (Meleleuca Quinquinerva) knees. I fluked it... I had exactly enough to do all of the knees which will be visible in the cabin and therefore will be varnished. The other knees will all be laminated and painted. I set up a production line. I machined the laminates, steamed them and bent them around simple jigs, then dried them and epoxy-glued them together and added filler blocks. The largest were the four knees to support the bridgedeck beams. I dry-fitted them, drilled for fastenings and primed them. The other laminated lodging and hanging knees are in various states of preparation. I used Tasmanian Myrtle, Silver Ash and Huon Pine in the knee laminates. The laminated knees in the foreground have Tea Tree filler blocks, and there are several Tea Tree natural crooks in the distant pile under the cardboard patterns. Fitting knees will also eventually be shown in a video. Two breasthooks in the bow hold the sides of the upper and lower sheer clamps together. These were both laminated from Tas Myrtle with Tea Tree filler blocks. I will varnish these but they won't be particularly prominent in the finished boat. You can see the central bolt hole drilled right through the stem. The ply cladding of the cockpit will be off and on more than once before final fitting, but it's handy to have it on when climbing in and out of the boat. I'll be starting on the main bulkhead and other interior joinery soon once I get my thickness planer back from repair, I'll tell you that story next time.
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AuthorIan Smith, Boatbuilder (ret'd) Archives
January 2024
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