Kurt Hughes Daycharter 36

Hey Cat, I don;t see how you do it. This thing is kicking my a$$, and I am a "part timer".
The board trunks are in, but only one rudder trunk and I am going to have to cut most of it out and re-align it. It is pretty bad out of whack. I don;t know how I managed that one...

 

Oh Gawd, where do i start! Health issues put me out of circulation for a year but the brain kept thinking up boat stuff so I'll be catching up for a while yet. The current built is a canoe at http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/wooden-boat-building-restoration/hybrid-construction-36215.html and next is at http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/wo...storation/zipper-seam-construction-18316.html and after that maybe http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/kempenfelt-12-1-2-a-42130.html or maybe . . .

 

plumb level and square

The last couple of weeks have been devoted to joining the beams to the hulls, and getting everything secure and in place before drilling into the bulkheads and installing the bolts.

Getting the correct spread distance between hulls is easy enough. After measuring from the boats centerline to the centerline of each hull, and shifting the beams back or forth, I drilled a single bolt hole into each beam end, and left the nuts loose. This holds it in position on the horizontal plane.

Then its tweeking time for the fore and aft level of each hull, and level athwartships, while keeping the plumblines on their marks inside the hulls. This can be a pain, but I found out that it is just a continual refinement process, shimming here and there etc.

The hardest part for me was squareing up. I was lucky that I was only an inch and a half out of square to begin with. Moving the hulls fore and aft is much harder than side to side. Finally we rigged a come along to the truck bumper, took a few turns around the aft beam at the hull intersection, cranked up the tension, and levered the aft part of the hull with a four by four up under the keel. we moved it that way a fraction of an iinch at the time until we finally got the beast squared up.

Now I can secure everything and begin drilling the other 58 bolt holes, reinforcing the shelfs and the perimiters of the hull openings, etc... Potting the holes in the bulkheads will be tricky, since I don't want to stick the beams to the bulkheads with the goo. Anyone have any ideas as to how to fair out the deck around the beams on top? I cut the holes a bit large there.
All inputs are welcomed.

 

Taking shape very nicely!

 

Thanks Manshed! My work feels embarrasingly crude compared to yours and other builder- posters. I'm sure I would be hooted off over at wooden boat

I was able to scrap out enough material to rough in the companionway stairs. The treads are made from the cut-out material from the deck at the crossbeam holes, and the rails are just some left over balsa scrap made up into sandwiches, Then shaped per the plans. They are light and strong even if they are ugly After I glass them in I thought I would cover the treads with some carborundum wet and dry sandpaper, about 60 grit.

The hatch lid is just the cutout piece of the sheer and deck.(you can just see it in the second photo) I ground down the spruce sheer timber a bit to lighten it up, then stretched the lid out on the other three sides by gouging out the balsa for in inch or so, and inserting some plywood rips. The lips should then cover the coaming and will be scribed to match the deck camber on the sides. The hinge side will be a double coaming. The outside one will mount the piano hinge. I am thinking about mounting some hand holds on each side so I can also lash on some kind of dodger, yet to be designed. I guess the drop boards will be cedar.

Enough for now. I would love to hear others hatch ideas or criticisms before I get too far along.

 

We're building companionway steps already?!? Now I'm pissed!! ha ha ha

You are moving right along, Charly. I can't see anything wrong with those steps. They look great and I like the lightening holes.

 

Deck Goes On Finally

The project has been at dead slow ahead for the last few months. Heat, rain, bugs, day job, cash flow issues, etc.. have all contrbuted. It is a job just to keep everything covered up from the elements. Home building is a savings on one hand, but buildong outside is innefficient otoh.

I bagged the 4mm;3/4 balsa;4mm sandwich on a table without incident, and covered both sides with 10oz cloth. So far so good. I lofted in the deck camber to the table with stringers cut to the correct height, then bent 3/8 sheet cdx over that. Then poly, then the 4mm okume panels were scarfed and glued up in place, then the balsa and top layer of okume bagged on with the perimiter of the bag stuck down with liquid nail adhesive.

The first half went on today. It will be held down to the ledgers with nylon bolts.

 

It's looking great, Charly.

 

Thanks Hoyt!

Here are a few shots of the cedar strip raceway. It runs fore and aft in the middle of the deck underneath, where the two deck panels join. It will be bonded and glassed permanently to one panel side, with the other getting nylon bolts for demounting. It should stiffen the whole assembly up nicely.

I hope.

 

Today the raceway hat section went into place. It was really amazing how much it stiffened the whole deck up. I was kind of concerned about that to be honest. But now- no floppiness at all. I glued and screwed the cowboy dogsh*t out of it. Next week- pull the steel screws and fill the holes, then I'll glass some cloth on top of it where it will contact the starbord half of the bridgedeck.

I got some 3/8 nylon screws with jamnuts for that. The plan is to layout and drill the holes through the deck sandwich, and through the flange of the raceway, and through the ledgers on the other three sides. Then I'll have to prop the deck back up, one side at the time (and that is a pain, believe me) fill the lower holes with some bog and set the jam nuts in it, with the screws already threaded on, then when they set up, remove the screws, put some poly on the ledger, ease the deck back down, and then screw the screws back in, and bog them in place. plenty of mold release on the screws of course.

Someday there will be a boat.


edit: I forgot to say how important it is to seal the edges of the balsa deck all the way around. If you do it all before hand, while the deck is being built up on the bench it is about 100 times easier. I didn't, because I didn't trust myself to make an absolute accurate template that would scribe a deck that would fit like a glove. Well I was right, because I wound up making the thing too big and had to trim it in places. A REAL headache. Moral: dont be an a**hole. Make a decent , sturdy template to start with, make the deck exactly the right fit, and seal it all up before you set it in place or you will be clambering around like a circus clown trying to get at it

 

We still follow your build and appreciate your photographic updates.

 

I'm not sure how much vacuum you can get with a vacuum cleaner. I had a setup that used a discarded refrigerator compressor that worked real good and didn't cost anything. It doesn't have the volume of the cleaner, but if you have a good bag seal, volume isn't important. I would use plastic sheeting from Home Depot.

 

A word of caution: most vacs use the exhaust air from the vacuum stream to cool the motor, so a little "leakage" is advisable or it may overheat. Shop Vac's Quiet Plus vacs have a separate cooling air system.

 

I bought my Shop Vac new, when I got started with the cylinder moulding method used to form the hull panels, back in about April, 2010. One of those larger contractor models from lowes. She is starting to groan a bit after about twelve 5-8 hour sessions, and of course a lot of cleanup duty. If I had to do it again I probably would buy one of those things you can attach to your compressor, just to keep down the noise. I am deaf in one ear, and cant hear out of the other one , but the vac noise definitely does not help. Anyway, it is what the designer recommended, and seems to be working out fine. I use 6mil poly from home dep with liquid nails and clamps as a bag sealant. The hose fitting stays on to flare out the air opening inside the bag. I cut a small x slit and push it through, seal the inside of the slit around the hose with that aluminum HVAC tape, then for good measure take seneral wraps aroung the outside of the hose. Per Kurt's instructions, then drill several 1/4 holes in the hose outside the bag, to act as venturis for cooling air (it looks like a "flute"). Keeping them closed with bits of tape, and after the thing has sucked down good, open a few holes to let some cooling air into the machine. This hot weather I also put a fan blowing across the Vac motor, I don't really know if it does any good or not.

 

That’s great information. The marine (supposedly) ply bottom of one of my boats is delaminating and to remove it would probably disassemble the boat. So your information means I can plane off the damaged veneers and glue on some thin ply to restore thickness using your method. Thanks. Kurt has some good ideas!

On the noise issue - I have one of Shop Vac's middle size Quiet Plus models and it is significantly quieter than the smaller one I had, which died of asphyxiation when the bag clogged up. They’re a bit more expensive than the regular models but I got mine at a sale for only a few dollars more than the old one cost. So if your vac is giving up the ghost I suggest you keep your eyes open for a sale.

Most of the noise comes from the exhaust; I had a spare 2-1/2" hose that came with the old unit so I coiled it up and stuck it on the blower outlet, which cut the noise down a bit more.