Hartley TS14 Construction

Launch Day!

2011-09-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm skipping ahead in the blog posts, since I've been too busy building. I'll post more about the last bits of construction when the sailing season is over. We successfully sailed in some light wind. Didn't even get the wrinkles out of the sail, but was just enough wind to be great practice for the first time sailors like ourselves. I should get more good sailing days in before it gets too cold and rainy.

The boat performed well, except ... there was little too much weather helm I think. I'm going to try to raise the CB slightly next time to cut down on that. She floats a little lower than I anticipated. Hopefully her scuppers won't be underwater with 4 people aboard. (I'm going to test that next weekend.) Also, the rudder vibrated at about 2Hz whenever we got up to speed. I think it's because I didn't tighten the pivot bolt enough. I tightened the pivot bolt and will see if that solved the problem next time out. The rudder raising tackle needs some tweaking too.

I lost a bolt that attaches the boom vang, so I couldn't test that out. I will next weekend though.

The neighbor snapped a pic of us driveway sailing on launch day.

Just arrived at the boat ramp. The locals have a different philosophy regarding the size of a towing rig.

I felt the need to decorate the tow rig so it would appear more legit.

After the mast is stepped in the parking lot, the tow rig pulls around to the boat ramp.

Easing her into the water for the first time.

Bobbing up and down at the dock for the first time.

She floats high enough to not take water through her transom scuppers. Whew!

Not enough wind to take the wrinkles out of the main sail.

The wife at the helm.

The wife tending the jib sheet. She's on the leeward side since there isn't much wind.

Sailing by south waterfront of downtown Portland.

Mast Hardware

2011-08-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the boat a lot recently. I'm rushing to get the boat in the water within a month so I can have some sailing time before winter. Progress is slow. I'm installing purchased hardware and fabricating some of my own. I'm making my own hardware because some weren't available for purchase or were too expensive. I bought a 1 ft X 2 ft sheet of 16 gauge stainless steel for numerous pieces of hardware. I cut out the steel using an angle grinder with metal cutoff wheel. To bend the steel, I clamped the steel to a piece of wood or to the side of the workbench and gave it some wacks with a mallet. I didn't take any pics of this process, probably because I was in such a bad mood while doing it.

Below are some pics of some of the hardware installed. Later, when the boat is nearing completion, I'll describe how everything works in more detail. (Well, maybe after the sailing season is over). Until then, you'll have to figure it out based on my vague descriptions and close-up photos.

At the top of the mast is a sheave wheel (right above the mainsail slot) for the main halyard (the line that raises the main sail). I made this piece. This piece, like everything but the smallest of hardware, is through-bolted to secure it since the loads on it are large. The block on the side is for the topping lift line that holds the boom horizontal when the mainsail isn't raised.

Homemade masthead fitting for wood mast

Slightly below the top of the mast is the jibhead fitting. This is where all the shrouds (that keep the mast from falling over) are attached as well as the block for the jib halyard.

Homemade jibhead fitting for wood mast

I cut some aluminum pipe for the diamond stay spreaders. The diamond stays stiffen and straighten the mast and keep it from buckling under the compressive forces of the shrouds.

Diamond stay

Here is a pic of the end of the diamond stay. The stainless steel wire has swagged ends. I did this at home using an inexpensive swagging tool. The wire is attached to a turnbuckle that is used to adjust the tension of the wire.

Typical stainless steel wire attachment.

Hardware toward the bottom of the mast includes the gooseneck, which is a universal joint for the boom, as well as some cleats to tie the halyards off to.

I'm also working on the rudder hardware. I purchased the gudgeons and pintles to attach the rudder to the transom. I fabricated the u-shaped piece that secures the rudder out of some aluminum sheet I had laying around. This is just the top half of the rudder. A larger bottom half hinges on the bolt toward the bottom of the pic.

Rudder hardware dryfit.

I made the tiller out of multiple laminations of douglas fir sandwiching a piece of marine plywood. (This is how the plans showed to make it.) The tiller extension is attached near the handle. (It's for controlling the rudder when your arms are too short.)

Laminated tiller

I made a foredeck cleat out of a chuck of white oak. It serves a dual purpose of supporting the mast while trailering.

Foredeck wooden cleat

The shrouds attach on either side of the boat on a chain plate that is bolted through the hull. The hull is reinforced inside with small pads of plywood. I bought some shroud adjusters, which serve the same purpose as turnbuckles, only they are cheaper.


Chain plate and shroud adjuster

So I'm just slowly dry fitting hardware on the hull and spars. When I'm all done, I have to take all the hardware off, coat the insides of all the holes with epoxy, paint the hull and spars, THEN reinstall all of the hardware with sealant underneath each piece of hardware.

But before I do all that, I couldn't resist raising the sails in the driveway. Well, this was necessary to help me decide where to put some of the hardware and figure out how long the shrouds had to be. Unfortunately, there wasn't even enough wind to get the wrinkles out of the sails.

Coamings and Oarlocks

2011-06-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the inconsistent blogging ... yes, I'm still making progress on the boat. No, I haven't fallen off the (boat building) wagon. I'm dedicated to finishing this little boat this summer. Although, I've gotten a little distracted with gardening and also homebrewing beer, (because I figured I needed some homebrew to splash on the bow of my homebuilt boat on launch day!)

Here's my latest progress. The hollow coamings are painted inside first before putting on the last piece of plywood. Two coats of primer and two coats of topcoat.

Painting inside the coamings.

The plywood for the small backrest is cutout and prepared for gluing. Small cutouts are made in it for access to the hollow of the coaming. A good place to store peanuts or something maybe.

Preparing the coaming plywood for gluing.

After that piece of plywood is glued and nailed on, the top of it is trimmed flush with the belt sander, then a 1/2" thick oak capping is glued and nailed. If you look close, you can see some scarf joints, since the capping is made of multiple pieces of oak. I only had a few short pieces of oak left and I decided to use this instead of buying a new long piece.

The coaming plywood glued and nailed. Also the oak capping pieces and oarlocks installed.

The recess for the oarlock sockets are carefully drilled and chiseled out of the top of the coamings. (I'm pretty handy with a chisel since I had some practice with it when installing some hardware on some interior doors of the house a few years back).

Here is a closer pic of the oarlock socket installed in the coaming.

The oarlock sockets mortised into the top of the coamings.

The oarlocks are positioned toward the outboard edge of the coamings so that the oars move freely without rubbing. The oarlocks are positioned longitudinally (fore and aft) for a person sitting backwards on the centercase trunk to comfortably operate them. I sat in the boat for quite some time pretending to row until I found a comfortable position for the oarlocks. A person could also row facing forward sitting on the aft deck or standing up.

Here is a pic of the oars in the stowed position. For convenience, I'm going to try to leave the oars in the oarlocks and just flip them back into this position while sailing. Hopefully that will work, because I have no where else to stow these 8ft oars on this little boat! In this position, they hang about 1ft off the stern. I'll have to make some tie down straps or something to secure them.

The oars in their stowed positions.

In other news, the sheriff came by the house to inspect the boat last weekend and I just received my title and registration in the mail. So now there is nothing keeping me from launching the boat in local waters ... except that construction isn't quite done yet. I was toying with the idea of taking her out for a row soon, but decided that the first launch will also be her first sail too. I'm hoping to launch her in August, but we'll see.

The hull construction is now complete, besides some cosmetic sanding, filling and painting work. There's still a lot of work to be done, but this is quite a milestone.

Spar Making - Part 2

2011-05-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

I already cut out all the pieces necessary to glue up the mast. Next comes nailing and gluing all the pieces together. I pre-drilled all the nail holes to prevent wood splitting. To make sure that there was enough time to glue and nail the mast together before the glue cured, I tapped all the nails in to start them. Then I mixed the glue and nailed it all together. Not a very complicated process, but it was a lot of work and did take me the majority of a Saturday.

That's a lot of bronze nails that will hold the mast together.

Here is the mast after gluing, but before shaping and sanding. The slot running down the length of the mast is for the bolt rope of the sail to slide along.

The aft side of the mast with the bolt rope groove, (before shaping and sanding).

The base of the mast, before shaping and sanding.

And here is the mast shaped and sanded. Most of the work was done with a belt sander and hand sanding. The mast is 18 feet long. This is a good photo to give you an idea of how long it is. The boom, (shown in the last blog post) is 9 feet long and also pretty much finished. Both of them turned out pretty straight. Since they are held together with nails, I didn't need to clamp them to a workbench with dozens of clamps like I have seen pictures of some people doing. And the nails will prevent the glue seams from splitting like some people have complained about with this mast design.

Me and my mast.

Oar Making - Part 3, Finishing

2011-05-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

   The 8 foot oars are now finished. A 6" section of the oar is reinforced with 1/8" diameter rope which is wrapped around then epoxied in place. The size of the rope is selected so that the finished diameter fits nicely in the oarlock. And the position of the reinforced area is carefully selected to match the beam of the boat.
   Then the oar gets one coat of epoxy and 2 coats of spar varnish (including the epoxied rope), except for the handle, which only gets some lindseed oil. (The varnish would hurt hands when rowing). Some bungie cord is braided above the oarlock to make a "button".
   Also shown in the first photo is the 9 foot boom, which is also pretty much done.

Oar Making - Part 2, Shaping

2011-03-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Let’s see if I can shape an oar with my primitive wood working tools. Reading the online directions for making oars is a little intimidating, since they specify using woodworking tools that I don’t own or have a desire to own.

After the oars are laminated, all of the subsequent steps involve one concept: removing everything that isn’t an oar. First, I trim off excess material with a wood saw, then clean it up with a belt sander. When first shaping the oar, I'm keeping all the cross-sections square for now. I'll round it later.

Roughly trimming off excess from the blade.


The rough trimming is cleaned up with a belt sander

The handle is then cutout. The excess material is hacked off with a saw. The nice rounded transition area is done with the front roller of the belt sander.

The shape of the handle is drawn.

Excess material around the handle is carefully removed.

The handle with a square cross-section.

More material is removed from the handle to make it round. You may notice that the handle is slightly tapered toward the loom (or shaft). This is done on purpose and makes the handle more comfortable.

Next, a homemade spar gauge is used to mark out an octagonal shape. The cross-sections of the loom are made approximately octagonal using a plane.

Spar gauge.

The octagonal cross-sections are then sanded round with a belt sander and hand sanding. Excess material is also taken out of the blade using the belt sander.

Blade of oar part way though shaping.

Here's a good before and after shot after the first oar is shaped.

Oar after lamination (left) compared to finished oar (right)

Finished handle.

Finished oar

The oars are balanced the same and weigh approximately the same so they will feel the same while rowing. They won't win any beauty contests, but they will work!

Next up, I'm going to finish the coamings. I'm laminating multiple layers of 3/4" lumber to form a boxed coaming ... but more about that next time. Here are some pics of the first layer being glued on.

First layer of lamination for coaming.

Glued mast step and rub rail

2011-03-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

I glued the mast step to the top of the cabin. There are also screws securing it from underneath. It looks very strong.

The mast step glued to the cabin roof. Still needs some sanding.

I also installed the rub rail and a trim piece along the edge of the cabin roof. They are both made of white oak. Not much explanation necessary here. I just cut out the pieces roughly, glued and screwed them to the boat, then sanded smooth with a belt sander.

Rub rail and cabin side trim just after gluing.

Rub rail just after gluing.

Cabin side trim just after gluing.

Cabin side trim sanded flush.

Oar Making - Part 1, Lamination

2011-03-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I'm making some oars for axillary propulsion. Hopefully these will be adequate and I won't need an outboard motor. I'm going to install some oarlocks on the tops of the coamings ... details on that in a later blog post.

I've spent a lot of time pondering a number of issues regarding the oars:
- if oars for this boat even possible, since its so wide (6'6" beam) and has coamings,
- the length of the oars necessary,
-where the rower would sit ... there are no thwarts to sit on like on a row boat,
- whether to buy or make the oars
- and, most vexing, where to store the oars out of the way while sailing.

I've never made oars before, don't have the right tools probably and have no idea what I'm doing, but I decided to make some 8 foot long oars out of some rather cheap pine 1x8 boards from the local home improvement store. Total cost is about $40 for two oars and a weekend of work. 8 ft oars will not store anywhere on the boat. So while sailing, I'm just going to leave them in the oarlocks, rotate them so they are lengthwise with the boat and lash them down to the top of the coamings. They shouldn't be in the way. I was considering some 7 ft oars that could fit in the cabin, but that's too short and retrieving them from the cabin would be annoying.

There are some equations for calculating the length of the oar based on the beam of the boat, but they suggested that I make 9.5 foot oars, which are too long to lash to the coamings while sailing. 8 ft is the longest practical length for this sailboat I think. (I can also just barely fit 8 ft oars in my car, so that'll be convenient).

After doing some research online, I learned that store bought oars are not balanced correctly and too expensive. I found some oar plans online by a guy called Culler. His plans show oars with long narrow blades and are balanced for easy rowing. Here are some links to the free plans I'm using:
www.riverswest.org/Pete_Culler_Oars.pdf
www.cmdboats.com/pdfs/Good_Oars_E-Book.pdf

The oars are laminated with 3 layers of 3/4" pieces of pine (one of the recommended varieties, others include spruce and doug fir). I just cut the pattern from a 1x8.

An oar in pieces before lamination.

Then I roughed up the surfaces to be glued with 50 grit sand paper, wet the surfaces with unthickened epoxy, then glued (with thickened epoxy) the 3 layers together. I clamped the oar to the edge of the workbench, makings sure that the oar is straight while the glue cures. The cheap wood I'm using was a little warped, but the oar should come out straight. I'm of course being careful to not glue the oar to the table.

An oar being laminated together.

Next, I'm going to taper and shape the oars, removing any material that isn't an oar. Shouldn't take too long. That will be shown in "Oar Making - Part 2".

Spar Making - Part 1

2011-02-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

I've started making the mast and boom. They are going to be made of Douglas Fir wood. I debated between wood and the (infinitely more popular) purchased hollow aluminum extrusion. I decided on a wooden mast because it's slightly cheaper, has more character, and, most importantly, fits with the whole spirit of this do-it-yourself project.

The mast is going to be hollow box-section and the boom is going to be a solid rectangular section. Here is the cross-section of the mast from the plans.

The boom is about 9 feet long and the mast is about 18 feet long (just a few inches shorter than the garage). The lumber I purchased is only 12 feet long, so I need to scarf together pieces for the mast.

The pic below shows all the douglas fir pieces of the mast and boom cutout and ready to be glued together. The pieces on the right are for the boom. The longer pieces on the left are for the mast. An important detail to notice is that all of the scarf joints are staggered, so that they will not be all in one spot of the mast. This makes the mast stronger. (Also shown in the middle of the pic are some oak pieces that will be the rub rail along the shear line of the boat ... not related to the spars.)

This took me an entire Sunday, because all of the pieces had to be ripped (cut lengthwise) and then planed (shaved down to the correct thickness). Then the diagonal scarf joints had to be cut for all the mast pieces. A table saw and a bench planer are pretty much mandatory tools for these tasks.

I've also started making the mast step. The mast step is where the base of the mast rests on the boat. There can be large forces traveling through this joint, so it need to be built stout.

The mast step in the plans doesn't seem quite strong enough to me, so I've decided to beef it up a little. Here is a pic showing the side of my mast step (left) compared to the one shown in the plans (right). I'm also going to secure everything with big screws and lots of epoxy.

On this boat, the mast step performs another function, which is to support the mast while the boat is being trailered. So the spacer block of the mast step should be angled on top to match the angle of the mast in the trailered position, as shown in the pic below.

Here is a pic of the mast step during the initial dry fit, just before gluing.

Companionway Frame

2011-02-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

The excess plywood of the cabin deck is trimmed with a hand saw and then sanded flush with a belt sander.

The frame around the companionway opening is screwed and glued in place. The plywood is sandwiched between two pieces of frame, making a slot for the companionway drop board (or removable door) to secure in. The two holes on the lower horizontal frame piece are for drainage.

The companionway drop board (a piece of plywood cut to shape) is being trimmed to fit the opening. Since the sides of the opening are at an angle, the door only has to be lifted about 4 inches to remove from the opening. I plan to make a top hatch that fits over and around the drop board, so that it should be fairly water tight. I will probably put a little circular window in the drop board too.

I've also been sewing the large main sail together.

However, we had to move outside of the small spare room into the longest hallway of the house. I needed enough room to fit the rolled up sail on either side of the sewing machine when doing long seams.

Here is a homemade sail-making tool that I can't live without: a short length of plastic drain pipe cut down the middle. This makes a great clamp to keep the sail rolled up.

I'm almost done with the mainsail and I haven't gone into too much detail about it on this blog. Part of the problem is that the sail is always rolled up, so it would be difficult for you to tell what the pictures were trying to show. So I'll show more details about the sail when I can unroll it and run it up the mast. For now, it'll stay rolled up in the spare room.

Cabin Deck

2011-01-04T21:26:00.001-08:00

The cabin frames are now finished. The companionway opening to the small cabin is now starting to take shape. Like I discussed in a previous post, this opening has been modified from the original plans to make the boat more safe in my opinion.

The windscreen plywood has been installed and trimmed to shape. Sailboats were kinda funny looking to me at first, not having a see-through windshield.

And now the last large pieces of plywood are cutout ... the cabin deck. Since these are the last large pieces of plywood going on the boat, I'll go through the whole detailed process of installing them one more time.

First the boat is used as a pattern. The plywood is clamped in position and the shape of the cutout piece is traced onto the plywood.

The pieces are cutout a little larger than necessary, just to make sure they aren't too short after they are bent into position. Then each frame is traced onto the plywood pieces.

Using the traced outlines of the frames as guides, pilot holes for the nails are drilled. This almost guarantees there will be no misplaced nails that miss the frames.

All surfaces are coated with straight epoxy, followed by a generous smearing of thickened epoxy.

The cabin deck is fastened at the centerline with a row of temporary screws (to be removed after the epoxy cures.) The plywood is bent over the frames and nailed into position. The nail heads are countersunk slightly into the surface of the plywood, then covered up in thickened epoxy.

All of the epoxy oozing out underneath needs to be cleaned up and filleted before it cures.

After the epoxy cures, the excess plywood is trimmed flush with the frames and cabin sides. I don't have pics of that, because I haven't done that yet.

Next I'm going to frame the companionway opening with some pieces of white oak.

Cabin Frame

2010-12-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

The frame for the windscreen and cabin deck (or roof?) is under construction. The windscreen and cabin deck are both cambered or curved, so all of the frame pieces have to be sawed out from larger pieces of lumber in a curved shape. The windscreen base is glued and screwed directly to the fore deck.

The cabin deck frame members are glued and screwed to the cabin carlines. The front frame member is a bit tricky, because it has to match the curve of the cabin deck and the curve of the windscreen. To accomplish this, the front frame member is cut out with a slightly larger curve than the others and installed at an angle. All of the frame members were roughly cut, then installed on the boat. Then they are trimmed to shape. So the lumber cutting didn't require a lot of precision and isn't as complicated as it looks.

After the frame members are installed, the top-centers of them are notched and a king plank of 1/4 inch plywood is installed. The king plank stiffens up the structure considerably.

The shape of the cabin is starting to become apparent.

The windscreen plywood is ready to be installed. Then, I'll finish the back part of the cabin frame, which will include a cutout for the companionway hatch.

I have some extra time to work on the boat during the holidays, so I'm hoping to get a lot done in the next week or so. I'll keep you posted.

Foredeck and Cabin Sides

2010-11-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

The foredeck and side decks along the cabin have been installed. These are glued and nailed to the frame members.

The cabin sides have been made and installed. I modified the design to make the cabin sides and the cockpit coamings all one piece. I cut out a cardboard pattern first to avoid mistakes, then cut out the plywood. This helped me get the bottom curve right.

The pic below shows the cabin carlines being glued and nailed to the cabin sides. You can see some scrap pieces of 2x4 that have been cut to a curve and clamped to the assembly. This will make the curve of the top of the cabin side is the same as the bottom.

Here are the cabin sides all glued and nailed to the boat. I checked the angles to make sure everything looked right before the glue dried. One side was at a different angle than the other, so some ropes and clamps were added to hold everything in the right spot while the glue dried.

These window openings will later be sealed water-tight with acrylic windows.

Here's a better pic of the scrap 2x4 pieces that will later be removed. If you look close, you can also see a small slot in the side deck. This will be for a metal strap called a chainplate to pass through. The chainplate is where the standing rigging wire attaches to the hull. (more on that when I install the chainplates).

The next step is to install the frame members of the cabin roof and then install the cabin roof and cabin front. This will be a very similar process to the foredeck construction.

Side and Aft Decks Glued and Nailed

2010-09-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

The boat spent some time on the front lawn this weekend so I could pick up some plywood with the trailer. All the granny knots made when tying down the plywood reminds me that I need to learn how to tie knots before I go sailing for the first time. But I got the plywood home without it flying off and the trailer works great, besides being a bit bouncy without a boat on it.

The aft and side decks have been glued and nailed down. Before I glued the side decks on, I attached some pieces of Doug Fir to decks (nailing from underneath). These are the bases for the coamings. As you can see, the coamings are going to be curved nicely.

The holes in transom are also shown in the pic above. The top hole is a drainage hole for the motor well. The middle two are drainage holes for the cockpit. These holes may or may not be above the waterline, so I may need to plug them when sailing ... we'll see. The lower holes are drainage holes for the bilge, which will be plugged when the boat is in the water.

The boat is now safely in the garage again. In the photo below, you can see some notches in the coaming base pieces. This is for drainage, so water will not pool on the side decks along the coamings.

Here's a closer shot of the motor well. Just a watertight plywood box. The bottom is sloped toward the drainage hole. I still need to put a little oak cap along the back edge and round the edges a little.

I also glued and nailed the cockpit sole (floor). I cut some round holes in the floor for access to the back section of the bilge. These holes will be fitted with plastic watertight hatch covers.

Cabin Bunks and Cutting Out Plywood

2010-08-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

The frames for the cabin bunks have been made. Here is the fore-side of the bulkhead with some frame members added. I made the top piece out of white oak, since I figured I'd be kicking it a lot climbing in and out of the cabin.

All of the bunk frame pieces are screwed and/or glued into notches in the hull frames. They will strengthen up the structure of the hull as well as provide a flat surface to sleep on in the coffin-sized cabin. I still need to add a few more pieces around the centerplate trunk. I'm going to wait to do that until after the cabin framing is done and I'm ready to install the mast compression posts.

The bunk plywood is a strange shape that is impossible to measure without a pattern. This is my pattern made from scrap cardboard.

And here are the resulting bunk plywood pieces made using the cardboard pattern. The two plywood pieces are slightly different, since the boat isn't perfectly symmetrical. Good thing I checked that before I cut out both of them. This plywood is going to be removable (not glued down), since I want to be able to check the area underneath for debris or rot and also use that space for storage or flotation foam.

Also, there are some removable plywood floors inside the cabin on either side of the centerplate trunk.

I was curious if I had enough plywood, so I cut out a lot of the plywood pieces I will be needing later. Here are all the rudder pieces cutout and waiting to be glued together. The rudder is a hinging "kick-up" type.

Also I cut out the aft, side, and fore deck pieces as well as the cockpit sole (floor). All of these pieces will eventually be glued and nailed down, but they are not attached to the hull yet in these pictures. Yes, even the cockpit sole will be glued down, but with a few round waterproof access ports to inspect the bilge underneath. (Remember, I'm modifying the design to make a water-tight cockpit).

Finally I got a lucky break ... the side deck plywood pieces were JUST narrow enough to loft onto one sheet of plywood, creating very little waste. I didn't plan for that when modifying the design and widening them, but fortunately I didn't make them a half an inch wider.

Also, I faired the tops of all the deck frames to the proper camber, as you can kinda see in this pic.

I figure I need two more sheets of plywood to finish the deck and make the cabin. That purchase can wait a week or two though. Next I'm going to clean up, sand, and paint the bilge, since that will be easier to do before the decks are installed. This doesn't seem like the most fun task of boat building, but it's gotta be done.

Cockpit Framing

2010-07-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a year since I've started building the boat. A more ambitious or experienced builder may have been almost done by now. I'm working on the boat casually after work and on weekends. In the beginning, I often spent more time scratching my head looking at the plans than actually constructing something. And I took about two months off. Also, I'm trying to do everything myself, including rigging and sail assembly, which takes some extra time. Anyway, the boat is now over-budget and behind schedule ... not surprising for a project run by an engineer!

I made some good progress over the holiday weekend. The cockpit framing is almost done. There is nothing particularly difficult with this process ... just cut to length and make notches in the frames where necessary, then glue and screw.

All of this framing is going to be covered with a plywood deck. Well, everything except for the motor well, which is the small square opening (the far one with plywood sides, near the transom) in the picture below.

I had to modify the side deck frames to make the side decks (which are also where you are supposed to sit) wider, since I didn't notice how narrow the seats were until we flipped the boat over. These modifications weren't as difficult as I feared, but in hindsight I should have made this change in the beginning. I also installed a small stringer down the middle of the seats, so the side decks won't flex when I sit or stand on them.

I decided to cover the sides of the the foot well with plywood to make a water-tight cockpit, which isn't in the original plans. There are hatch openings in this plywood to access the storage areas under the side decks. I plan to make some water-tight plywood hatches to cover these openings. So any water flooding into the cockpit won't get into the bilge or cabin.

I also made some cutouts in the bulkhead to access the area under the side decks from inside the cabin ... and for better airflow inside the boat, which helps prevent wood rot.

I'm changing the design of the motor well too. I want some sort of motor well, since without one, an expensive bracket would be required to attach an outboard motor. (I can't afford a motor at the moment and I'm not sure if I will ever get one, but I'm building a motor well just in case.) Instead of the large motor well shown in the plans, I'm making a much smaller one off to the port side. Since I made the foot well so narrow, the motor well framing must be a little more complicated. I'm kinda just making it up as I go and it's all fitting together ok. (The following picture is looking down on the motor well framing. The plywood bottom of the motor well isn't installed yet.)

It all looks a little sloppily constructed, but the tops of all of these frames will later be planed fair and shaped so that the plywood decks will fit up nicely.

Bulkhead and nail strip

2010-06-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

The bulkhead has been installed. A pattern was made of scrap pieces using a hot glue gun. The pattern was then removed from the boat and traced onto plywood.

The shape of the cabin and the companionway are also drawn and then the bulkhead is cutout. The bulkhead is two pieces so that it fits around the centerplate trunk. The bulkhead plywood is simply glued and nailed to the back of frame #4. There is a seam in the middle that is reinforced with a short 3/4" x 2-3/4" piece of wood, epoxied and screwed. While the glue was setting, I braced the bulkhead with 2x4's so that the two sides of the bulkhead would align.

With the plywood in place, I can start drawing on it and attaching the frame to it. Here is the frame that attaches the cockpit sole and side decks to the bulkhead. It's also epoxied and nailed in place. Other frame members will fit into the notches in these pieces.

If you compare the above photo with the Hartley plans below, you can really see how I'm starting to diverge from the plans. The side decks in my boat are much wider and the companionway is going to be a traditional (albeit small) drop board style. I'm going to make a small hatch on the cabin roof too, so hopefully it will be possible to egress that small companionway.

A 3/4" thick nail strip (Doug Fir) is glued and screwed along the sheer of the boat. Keeping glue from running down the side of the boat was difficult, but a piece of masking tape really helped keep it clean. The strip of wood broke the first time, so I had to re-scarf it and try again.

The deck plywood will later be nailed to this nail strip. I chose Doug Fir since it's easy to nail into and doesn't split. After the deck is attached, I'll cap this piece with a 1/2" thick piece of white oak for protection.

I tapered the nail strip slightly toward the bow, since I think it would have looked kinda "clunky" if I didn't.

By the way, sorry for the LONG lapse in the blog postings. I was taking a break and doing some household projects. I realized that I'm not going to get the boat done in time for this summer, so I might as well slow down and enjoy the construction more. For example, here's a composter and a cedar planter box I made while taking a break from the boat.

Notice that I used the old boat trailer hubs and a galvanized pipe for the composter axel. :)

The boat building blog posts will now commence again, bi-monthly probably.

Foredeck Beams

2010-04-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

I'm starting the long process of framing the interior of the boat.

The curved foredeck beams have been cutout and installed. The pattern for each is given in the plans. The plans didn't say how to attach them exactly, so I just glued and screwed them to the side of the frames and the inside of the gunwale. I made a small notch in the gunwale for the deck beams in between the frames to make it easier to screw on. Also, a strip of 3/8"x3" plywood called a king plank is checked into the top center of the foredeck beams.

Then I carefully trimmed the gunwale shear line to align with the frames and deck beams. (I used a circular saw which is actually an accurate trimming tool that's faster than a hand plane if you have to cut off a lot of material.) The plywood deck will be attached to the frames and the gunwale. They all have to align with no gaps.

Two carlines are also installed aft of the foredeck beams. These match the curve of the gunwales, but are angled inboard, as you can see in the pics below. They are angled this way because the cabin sides are going to be secured to the side of these carlines and the cabin sides are angled.

Here's a good pic of the connection of the cabin beam, gunwale and carline. You can see the cabin beam slightly checked into the gunwale (not too much so to not weaken the gunwale). Some people prefer not to check into the gunwale at all, but I found it easier to assemble this way. Also you can see a funny shaped spacer block that the carline is secured to.

Bending these carlines into position was unexpectedly very difficult. It required a compound bend in two directions. After breaking the first one, I cut out a piece that was slightly curved downward (about 1/2") in the middle, eliminating the need for a compound bend. This doesn't sound like much of a difference, but it significantly decreased the force required to bend the carline into position.

On an unrelated topic, I made a new scarfing jig. If you recall from almost a year ago, I made a scarfing jig to use with a belt sander (which is almost comical to think about now). Here is the new one that works with my table saw. It just keeps the piece being cut at a 12:1 angle. It couldn't be simpler really. I've been using it instead of the belt sander jig and I thought I would show it on the blog just to be thorough. I'm going to need it again soon to make the shear capping pieces.

Jib Sail Finished

2010-04-18T18:17:00.001-07:00

I finished the jib sail. Here is a pic of it being folded up for storage. Notice all the jib snaps installed and the leather sewn on the corners. (Never mind the dog grazing on sewing scraps.)

I also made three duffel bags for the three sails following purchased plans. The duffel bags are made of nylon and pretty easy to sew. Making all three of them took me about 5 hours. The piece of fabric is folded in half and sewn together, then the bottom is cleverly folded to make a square and sewn down. The bag is then just turned right side out. There is also a draw string pocket along the top. The jib sail is in one of the bags in the pic, but the other two are empty waiting for me to make the other two sails.

But the "sail loft" is now cleaned up and mothballed for now. I just wanted to make sure that the sailmaking wasn't going to cause me any problems and it isn't. I'm going to get back to working on the hull now.

I apologize if the sail assembly portion of my blog isn't very detailed. If you want to learn more about the sail kit assembly, I figure you can just go to the sail maker's website and watch streaming videos. I just want to share my personal experiences like:
- yes, I can sew sails with a crappy home sewing machine.
- making a sail pattern before sail assembly for future use.
- details about my specific sails, etc.

Working jib sail almost complete

2010-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

I almost finished sewing the working jib sail.

My first stitches are ugly ... but they are slowly getting better. I spent about 4 hours learning how to use the sewing machine and adjusting it using some scrap fabric. After a lot of "bird nests", I got it under control. But then when I started sewing the sails, I had a whole new set of problems. The hardest part is feeding the large pieces of fabric through the machine and keeping the stitch straight and evenly spaced. Having an uneven stitch just looks a little funky and doesn't seem to affect the seam's strength too much, so I'm not too worried about it. (Luckily the sail maker sold me white thread that matches the white fabric, so sewing mistakes are not too conspicuous).

The sailmaker sold me a bunch of double-sided basting tape. Sewing the sails would be impossible without this stuff. Even the pros use it. I basically just tape everything together before sewing and then nothing moves when it goes through the sewing machine. The tape just stays hidden in the seam permanently after sewing.

My cheap little machine sews through very many layers of material surprisingly well. At one corner of the sail, I sewed through 8 layers of 4.4oz sail cloth and two layers of thick webbing.

So here's a little description of how this sail is constructed. The horizontal sail panels are sewn together with a 5/8" overlap seam with two rows of zig-zag stitches. The corners are reinforced with 4 layers of additional fabric patches. Here is a couple of pics after the panels and corner patches were sewn together, but before the edges and corner hardware are done.

At each corner there is an attachment point for halyards and sheets (ropes). One corner has a D-ring. The D-ring is attached to the sail with multiple pieces of webbing that are sewed onto the corner patches. The other two corners have wire thimbles. The thimbles are attached to a wire that sewn into the luff edge of the sail (kinda like pipping on upholstery). Each of these attachment points is heavily reinforced with thick twine that is hand sewn. The thimbles are further reinforced by a brass ring that's sewn into the sail next to it, then twine secures them together.

All the hand sewing is done with very heavy sailmaker twine. The hand sewing was pretty easy since I used an awl to pre-poke the holes and a coin to push the needle through. The corners are dressed with little pieces of leather, which is just there to prevent chafing. Here's some pics of the wire thimbles and wire sewn into the sail. (The leather is partially sewn on at the moment.)

Bronze jib snaps are attached behind the steel wire all along the luff edge to attach the sail to the fore-stay wire on the boat. You can see one of these snaps installed in one of the pics above. Without this wire in the sail, the grommets that the jib snaps attach to would just rip out of edge of the sail.

The other edges (the foot and leech) are just double-hemmed.

So I just have to finish stitching on the leather patches and then I'll have a perfectly functional jib sail (with some comically ugly stitches in a few spots ... but oh well).

Sail loft getting ready

2010-04-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a glimpse of the sail loft. A nice little yellow spare room.

I purchased three sail kits (main, jib and storm jib) from a sail maker. These kits have all the hardware and materials (fabric, thread, twine, rope, wire ... everything I need) and instructions to assemble them. I just need to sew the sails together (mostly machine sewing but some hand sewing at the corners) and attach the hardware. The sail fabric is already cut out. For those of you not familiar with sail design, the sail maker designed the sail panels with curved edges so that when they are sewn together they will form an airfoil shape. (Not something I can learn to design without sail design software.)

I'm going to try to sew tough sail fabric with a cheap little Singer sewing machine from Target. I'll let you know how it goes. The sail fabric is called Dacron, a surprisingly tightly stitched, plastic-like polyester fabric (kinda like Nylon, only much more stiff). I have to learn how to use the machine before I can sew the sails. The stitches of my first sail will probably look bad, but hopefully I'll get a hang of it. I'm going to make one sail (the jib) just to make sure that I can do it, then get back to building the boat. After the boat is closer to completion, I'll make the other two sails.

But first, I made a full-size pattern of the sails for the day when I want to make replacement sails. (Talk about thinking ahead, right?) The sail maker was kind enough to give me a computer print-out of the X,Y coordinates that he used to cut the sail panels out with a large automated plotter. I typed these coordinates into AutoCAD to draw the panels exactly to the correct shape. Then I just printed them out superimposed on each other on 30in x 112in paper. Here is a pic of the sail pattern with one of the sail panels lying on top of it to make sure that it matches. It matches perfectly of course.

Here are the coordinates of that sail panel and the resulting CAD drawing. Confused? If so, don't feel bad, it took me awhile to figure out what these coordinates meant.

I figure I paid the design fee so the design is mine. When I make some replacement sails in like 10 years, I'll just have to buy the materials.

You can't call me a sail maker since I'm clueless about sail design, but I guess you can call me a "sail assembler", kinda like the Chinese workers that most sail lofts outsource to nowadays.

Bow Eye and Trailer Adjustment

2010-04-07T08:32:00.001-07:00

I installed the bow eye into the stem of the boat. The bow eye is just a long stainless u-bolt that the trailer winch attaches to. I had to chisel out some of the stem because the u-bolt wasn't long enough (this is a common practice I hear). On the back side of the u-bolt there is a steel backing plate to prevent the stem from getting crushed when the nuts are tightened. I also installed a metal clip where a pulley will be attached that rotates (or raises and lowers) the centerplate. I fabricated the metal clip out of some stainless steel plate using an angle grinder.

The boat saw a brief glimpse of daylight as I opened the garage door to winch it up on the trailer. Ooo ... here is a glimpse of the future towing rig. I know I know, it's a beast.

Back in the garage she goes. The garage door is sealed up with plastic again since its still pretty cold outside.

After a few hours of adjusting the roller and bunk heights, the boat is now firmly seated on the trailer. I moved the bow stop (and thus the boat) aft a foot or so to reduce the tongue weight. The boat and trailer will weigh about 1000lbs and I'm shooting for a tongue weight of about 50-70 lbs. After I moved the boat aft, the tilting function of the trailer actually wants to tilt the boat back even when the boat is all the way forward against the bow stop. I thought this would be a problem, but its actually not, because the winch pulls the boat forward and down, which automatically levels the trailer when I'm winching it up onto the trailer. Also, the tilt joint is locked in place with a pin except when launching the boat.

There was a scary moment when I tried to board her from the rear (gigidy) and the whole trailer and boat violently tipped back. After that, I added jack stands under the rear of the trailer frame. The boat is now stable enough for me to climb around in.

Boat Flipping Party

2010-03-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, traditionally builders have a party of people to come over to flip their boat. But my boat is so small, that I only needed a few people. And I tried to video the whole process, but the camera didn't record. Oh well, here are some pics of the boat after it was flipped.

I laid down a bunch of old blankets and plastic sheet on one side of the boat. I put eye bolts high on the wall on the other side. Ropes were tied to the boat and through the eye bolts. Two people (Fransisco and I) lifted to roll the boat as two other people (Valerie and Kristy) held on to the ropes to keep the boat from rolling too fast. Without the ropes, I think the boat would have been difficult to control after a certain angle.

The boat is securely screwed to the strong-back frame, so it all rolled over together. Most of the lumber in the boat is temporary scrap wood and will be removed when necessary. There's lots of glue drips to scrape off, but overall the interior of the hull looks pretty good.

Everything went according to plan and the boat is now lying on it's keel. Next I'm going to install the bow eye and then winch it up on the trailer.

Paint Hull

2010-03-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

The hull got a rough sanding so that the paint will adhere. I didn't bother to fill in ALL the little blemishes and get her perfect. After all, I'm building a boat to go in the water, not a museum.

Two thin coats of primer are then applied with a roller. The paint is a high quality 100% acrylic latex primer.

Then two coats of top coat are applied. The paint is a high quality industrial DTM 100% acrylic latex semigloss. DTM stands for Direct To Metal, which basically means that the paint adheres well to almost any prepared surface, not just metal. Latex paint is not chosen to be cheap, (since good latex is actually pretty expensive). I feel like latex paint is the best choice for a trailer boat when considering durability, looks, expense, ease of application, and ease of reapplication. (And its not as much as a health or environmental hazard compared to "marine" paints). After doing a little research, I learned that quite a few people paint their boat with latex and results are generally positive.

Next a few coats of trim color.

And then the aluminum strips (fabricated earlier) are installed with stainless 1" wood screws and polysulfide caulk (nasty gooey stuff meant for under the waterline). I made a mess with the caulk and had to touch up the trim paint after.

The shiny paint reveals a lot of the little imperfections in the hull that I didn't notice before, but the wife is still impressed with how it looks and that's what counts.

That's it for the underside of the boat. Now I need to get some goons over here to flip 'er over.

Skeg and capping pieces glued

2010-03-01T10:32:00.001-08:00

Wow, no blog post for a whole month? Sorry about that. Let me catch you up.

It took a little longer than expected, but I've glued the skeg and capping pieces in place. After much deliberation, I decided to glue all these pieces in place instead of just screws and sealant. The glue will make them much stronger and sealed, though I won't be able to remove them as easily. After all the pieces were glued on the boat, I sanded the top flat and rounded the edges.

The bolts were used as clamps while gluing the skeg, then the bolts were removed after the glue hardened. (The bolts are easily removable if they are temporarily wrapped in clear packing tape). The inside of the bolt holes were then coated with epoxy (which helps keep the wood from getting "sick" from the metal). The bolts will be reinstalled later with sealant. (So the bolts will be removable for inspection or replacement.)

The stem capping is two layers of 1/2" thick oak that must bend about 90 degrees.

I broke the first piece trying to bend it into position. Oak generally bends well, but this is a very tight bend and my pieces are very dry (probably kiln dried). So I made a wood torturing jig in the shape of the front of the boat.

It's just a piece of plywood with carefully shaped blocks screwed to it. I slowly poured a gallon of boiling water over the oak pieces as I bent and clamped them onto the jig. The heat from the boiling water relaxes the fibers of the wood and prevents it from breaking. A metal strip covers the outside of the wood piece so that the clamping force is more distributed. After the pieces were bent onto the jig, I poured another gallon of hot water on them, then let them dry for a week and removed them from the jig. (I didn't take pics of this process, sorry). They sprung back a little when I removed them, but they were easily installed on the front of the boat without breaking. (This boiling water technique is similar to steam bending, but I didn't want to make a steam box since I only needed to bend these two pieces. Steam bending probably works slightly better and the wood doesn't take as long to dry).

I drilled two 1" drain holes in the bottom of the transom for draining the bilge when the boat is out of the water. These holes are lined with a brass tube permanently glued in. They will be corked with drain plugs when the boat is sailing, since the boat would flood otherwise.

I also drilled some holes through the stem for a bow eye (in which to hook the trailer winch). This was scary, because I couldn't remember if there were any screws in the way. Luckily I didn't hit any. These holes are also coated with epoxy and the bow eye will also be installed with sealant.

Metal strips were made out of aluminum flat bar. I'm hoping they will add some extra protection for the bottom of the boat. We'll see if they do any good. Brass half-oval strips are commonly used, but I couldn't find that for a decent price. Aluminum should work just as well on a trailer boat, though it may not be quite as pretty. I used an angle grinder to cut them to length and round the edges a little. A belt sander with fine paper polished them up nicely. They were test fit on the hull (which is the cause of all the small screw holes in the previous pics), but then removed and will later be attached to the skeg and capping pieces using sealant and countersunk stainless screws.

The hull is shiny because I coated it with another thin coat of epoxy. The next step is to give the hull a final sanding. The final coat of epoxy has some ripples in it and I need to rough up the epoxy anyway, since paint won't stick to this super shiny, slick surface.

Then I'm going to paint the hull! I'm currently painting a scrap of plywood to test the adhesion of the epoxy, primer and topcoat that I'm using. I'll let it dry and then see if there are any adhesion problems.

The boat flipping will be two weekends from now hopefully. (But there is still a lot of work to be done after that.)

Over budget!

2010-02-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

The original $5000 budget has been exceeded. Don't get too worried though ... I already purchased almost everything I need to complete the hull. But I still need to buy sails, rope, some of the hardware and outfitting (life jackets, etc). I'm increasing the budget to $6500 to cover the costs of these items.

Remember, this budget includes EVERYTHING I need to get out on the water, not just an empty hull. I estimate that this boat design could be build anywhere from $2000-8000, depending on the quality of materials chosen. However, I think a more reasonable price range would be more like $4000-$7000 for the boat, trailer, and everything except an outboard motor.

I've chosen fairly high quality materials. I figure that I'm investing so much time building, that spending money on quality materials makes sense. The quality materials make a boat that lasts longer, performs better and is easier and cheaper to maintain. This boat will easily outlive me with just minimal maintenance (painting, minor repairs, etc). However, a $2000 "home depot special" boat would be in poor shape after just a few years. It's not even worth the time to build this cheaply in my opinion. If my budget was $2000, I would have just bought a used fiberglass boat and fixed it up. (If you are not interested in the boat building hobby and just interested in getting the best sailboat for your money, this is the way to go).

The main budget buster for me so far was the trailer ... I thought I could get something decent for $200 or so. Nope, it cost me more like $700+ to make a nice trailer that will safely transport my boat. Money well spent I suppose. Sometimes you forget that the boat travels more on land than on water ... a good trailer is important.

When I get closer to completion, I'll post a pie chart or something showing how much I spent on each category ... (wood, glue, fasteners, paint, sails, hardware, trailer, outfitting etc). Right now it's difficult to list all the things that I have or haven't bought yet.

Skeg and Capping Peices Fabricated

2010-01-31T21:47:00.000-08:00

The lumber (1 1/4" thick white oak) is placed on the boat and a block and pencil is used to draw the shape of the boat onto the lumber.

The lumber is cut using a circular saw and the edge is cleaned up using a belt sander with 50 grit sand paper ... (which makes a great power planer for this task). I made sure there were no gaps underneath the skeg and that it was not leaning to one side.

The top of the skeg is perfectly horizontal ... (yay a straight line finally!) So I used a tight string (leveled with a string level) to mark the top edge. Then it's cut with a circular saw.

The front of the skeg is checked out to accept the next capping piece. This was done with a table saw set at a low blade height. This worked well, except the bottom edge got chipped a little.

Next the holes are drilled and countersunk for the through bolts. These bolts are hot dipped galvanized steel. It's normally not a good idea to mix metals like these galvanized steel bolts and bronze screws and nails. However, since this is a trailer boat, this won't cause any corrosion problems most likely. Also, bronze is higher on the galvanic series than galvanized steel, so the steel will corrode first if there is a problem. I may have to replace the bolts once every 20 years, but at least the permanent bronze screws will last forever. (For those of you still concerned, just pretend the bolts are sacrificial zincs).

The two capping pieces on either side of the centercase slot are made the same way as the skeg. (Except these pieces are going to be installed using large screws instead of through bolts).

They are also faired slightly on the sides where they meet the skeg using a belt sander. (I'm kinda embarrassed that I use the belt sander so much, but it works so well!)

Next week I'm going to make some more capping pieces for the front of the boat, then take it apart and install all of them with glue.

Fiberglass Hull

2010-01-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

After the hull is shaped about right, the fiberglass goes on. Here's how I did it ... I hope it lasts.

I spread a coat of epoxy on the hull, so the dry spots could soak it up. I let it cure for a half a day, then while the epoxy was still slightly tacky, I stuck the fiberglass fabric onto the hull. The fabric is overlapped at the seams.

Then the epoxy is wet out. The epoxy is poured onto the hull, then squeegeed off using a reasonable amount of pressure. Just enough epoxy is used to glue the fabric to the hull, but not to fill the weave. It was pretty easy, except little wet fiberglass hairballs and frayed edges made it a tedious and messy process.

The fabric becomes transparent when wet out, but the weave is still raised and visible.

Each coat of epoxy is applied before the one before it completely cures. (If I didn't do it this way, I would have to sand between each coat to get good cohesion).

The next coat fills the weave partially. The bumps in the hull caused by the fiberglass overlaps, etc. are sanded off and some thickened epoxy is also used to fair these areas a little. Then another coat is applied to fully fill the weave.

After these coats, I noticed quite a few bumps in my once smooth hull, so I decided to completely sand the hull down again (being careful to not dig into the fiberglass cloth). I'm glad I did this extra work because now the hull is much smoother. I'll later apply another coat of epoxy before painting to make up for this extra sanding. But first I'm going to install the skeg and capping pieces.

Bottom Planking Installed

2010-01-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

The bottom planking was successfully installed ... with a little help from the missus. We used some screws to help bend the front part down and nails everywhere else. Valerie held the ply in position while I screwed the front few screws. Then I climbed up on top of it to bend it down and screw the rest of the screws.

We then hammered all the nails in.

And while Valerie was covering the nail heads with glue, I was crawling underneath trying to clean up and fillet the glue around the stringers and chines inside the boat.

The process wasn't too difficult and we were able to do everything before the glue set. Having a helper sure is nice ... even if it is a rare occurrence.

Here are some pictures of the boat now with both bottom plywood pieces installed and it all sanded smooth. The epoxy is really difficult to sand, but it didn't take too long. I mainly used a belt sander believe it or not. A flat spot all along the centerline was planed using a belt sander. (Capping pieces are later going to be installed there). There were some spots on the hull that weren't fair and some nail heads still uncovered, and I applied some thickened epoxy to these areas. So that's what the wet spots are in the pictures below.

After I sand again, I'll start applying fiberglass, probably next weekend.

Bottom Planking

2010-01-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

So far I have installed 4 planks of plywood on the sides of the boat. Next are the two large pieces on the bottom. Here are some pics of one of them being scarfed together. I have to make another one for the other side. Yeah, it'd be nice if I could teach my dog to stay off the plywood while it's being glued. I used a 4x4 post (and other heavy stuff) as a weight on this long scarf joint. The 4x4 is too rigid to give even pressure on the joint, so I put some cardboard under it to distribute the weight more evenly.

I decided to scarf the plywood pieces together instead of using butt blocks like shown in the plans. Scarfing is actually pretty easy. However, what I'm doing is more difficult, because the scarf joint has to be glued on the floor, (unlike the butt block joint that can be glued after the first section is on the boat). This means that I have to install the entire plank all at once instead of one section at a time. Nailing down this large piece of plywood before the glue sets is going to be quite a challenge. Wrapping it onto the hull requires a good twist and bend, adding to the difficulty.

I should have installed the bottom plywood first, since it's the most difficult. I don't have many spots to clamp it down, because the side planks are in the way. I think I may use a few screws toward the bow, like mini-clamps to hold it down while I bend it.

I'll let you know how it goes. Right now I'm not quite sure how its going to work, but I think I can do it.

Planking started

2009-12-29T20:38:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to put the plywood planking on the frame. First I have to scarf pieces of plywood together to make longer pieces. I'm not sure how you are supposed to do this, but this is how I am doing it. I clamp the plywood sheet over the boat, mark the outline where I want to cutout, then cut it out.

To make the scarf joint, I clamp four plywood pieces on top of each other on a table, with the edges stepped 3 inches apart. I use a hand plane and belt sander to make the 3 inch steps into a smooth ramp (with a 12:1 slope). Here is what it looks like finished. Not bad for my first plywood scarf.

I then test fit the pieces onto the boat and mark a straight line across the scarf joint, so that I can line them up about right when I glue them. I cut the pieces slightly wider than necessary, in case I don't scarf the pieces perfectly straight. Then I trim them more accurately with a hand plane after they are scarfed together.

Here is a pic of one plank already on the boat and another set being glued together. I just wrap the glue joint in plastic and put textbooks and an old axle on top to press it all together. I like textbooks, because I have them laying around and they are flexible, so they create even pressure on the glue joint. Sandbags or something would also probably work.

After the scarf joint is glued and the plank is trimmed to fit, it's glued and nailed to the frame. The nails went into the wood frame without splitting it, but I had quite a hard time sinking the nail heads below the surface of the hard plywood when installing the first plank. (Imagine me quickly hammering on a nail punch trying to finish before the glue cures, cursing while I keep smashing my hand with the hammer). So I modified a cheap wood drill bit to make a counterbore. The bit makes a nice flat counterbore with a shallow dimple to help start the nail (but not an entire pilot hole). This makes nailing the planks much easier. I make the counterbores very shallow, since this is very thin 1/4 inch plywood.

So I clamp the plywood to the boat (again), countersink all the nail locations, remove the plywood, apply the glue, and quickly nail it all back together before the glue cures. I punch the nail heads slightly beneath the surface of the plywood and cover them with thickened epoxy.

And here is a picture outside my garage workspace ... cold and snowy, but I'm still building in comfort.

Hmmm let's see, do I have any good animal pics ... here's a good one.

Centercase installation

2009-12-20T19:42:00.001-08:00

Building a boat takes a toll on your relationships with your loved ones. Here is Chloe barking at me telling me to stop working and pay attention to her. I listened and took a break.

This week, the sides of the centercase were glued together. I also added vertical strips of lumber on the side of the case for attaching the bulkhead. I attached those at this stage, since I wanted to nail it from the inside before putting it together. I also drilled the hole in the case logs for the centerplate pivot bolt, since this would be almost impossible to do after it's in the boat.

The centercase was then installed in the boat. The case was wiggled into position and pilot holes were drilled for the 3" bronze nails. The oak is really hard to screw into, so I had to put it all together (to make sure the screws went in without a problem), take it apart, then put it back together again with glue. Quite time consuming with 20 large screws, but the epoxy cures too fast to try to do it all at once.

Here is a pic after its installed with thickened epoxy. After it was screwed in, I poured unthickened epoxy in all the cracks on the top to fill in all the joints. The unthickened epoxy would normally leak out of a joint, but the thickened epoxy underneath kept it from leaking out. Temporary wedges were jammed into the slot to close the vertical glue joints nice and tight. It went together without a problem, except its sitting SLIGHTLY crooked, but I don't think anyone will notice except for me. The top of the case is about 3/16" off vertical. Not a problem.

The next day when the glue is dry, the wedges are removed and the sides are trimmed flush with a saw.

This is a top view of the front of the centercase. If you look close, you can see a thin white layer of fiberglass on the inside of the case. You can also see that the inside of the case has some epoxy fillets that I made when I was gluing the case together.

The keelson (large backbone member) is then shaped (with a hand plane) into a wide v-shape, so that the curved plywood bottom can fit up to it. So I guess that's it ... here's a skeleton of a boat! Next week I'll start the plywood planking.

Transom Installed

2009-12-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

The inside of the centercase is being fiberglassed. The process involves multiple coats of epoxy and one layer of fiberglass fabric. The fiberglass is transparent after it soaks up the epoxy. (Thanks to my heated garage I can epoxy all winter long).

Also, the transom has been cut out and installed. The transom was glued and nailed with bronze ring shank nails. At first I was more comfortable using screws, beacuse I was worried that the nails would split the frames or something. However, so far the nails have worked great with Douglas Fir, but I have to predrill little holes when nailing into the white oak. I've been punching them a little below the surface of the plywood, which hides the head and also helps close any gaps on the other side and gets good glue squeeze out.

Here are pics of the plywood being marked for cutting and then the transom after its glued and nailed. The plywood was roughly cut and the edges will be cleaned up after the glue dries. It's 3/8" plywood, thicker than the 1/4" used for most of the hull.

Modified centercase slot details

2009-12-09T11:00:00.001-08:00

Here is a section view showing how I modified the centercase connection to the keelson, in case I lost you on one of those previous posts. As I said in a previous post, I widened the slot from 3/4" to 1-1/4" and extended the 1/4" plys through the keelson. This makes the connection much more rigid and makes nice continuous plywood sides on the inside of the case, instead of having the keelson exposed for rot to start. I'm going to epoxy the centercase in place instead of using mastic.

This modification isn't a novel idea. I read in forums that some Hartley builders have done this and its actually listed as an alternative on the TS16 plans. They say they are happy with it and it makes a nice watertight connection. I'll let you know in a few years if I still think it is a good idea.

A brief lesson on centerplates

2009-12-09T09:06:00.001-08:00

For those of you not familiar with trailer sailboats, let me explain what the centerplate is and how it works.

As shown in the diagram below, the centerplate rotates on a bolt or pin. It's completely lowered during sailing and raised for trailering and beaching the boat. It's raised and lowered using a pulley system (also shown in the diagram) or winch. The centercase has an open slot through the bottom of the boat. Since this slot is basically a large hole in the bottom of the boat, the centercase will fill partially with water. It has to be well sealed and the sides have to be high above the waterline so the boat doesn't take on water. (Or on some boats, the top of the case is sealed somehow).

So why does my boat even have a centerplate? Well, I won't get too into all the physics, but it's because sailboats need a large underwater area to provide lateral resistance. This lateral resistance allows the sailboat to sail upwind. When sailing upwind, the force created by the airfoil of the sail on the boat is diagonal, trying to pull the boat forward, but also trying to push it sideways. The centerplate keeps the boat from slipping sideways across the water.

Smaller sailboats use daggerboards, which are the same as centerplates, except they are simply pulled out of the top when not in use, instead of rotating into a centercase. If the boat runs aground in shallow water, the centerplate rotates up and the boat is usually undamaged. The more rigid daggerboard can cause more damage to the hull when running aground.

Small sailing dingies without a centerplate or daggerboard cannot sail upwind! Well, actually, it's difficult to sail in any direction other than that of the wind. Most larger sailboats don't need a centerplate to sail upwind, because they have large fixed keels that provide the necessary lateral resistance. The Hartley plans actually show two large fixed keels on either side of the bottom of the hull as an alternative to the centerplate, but this would make trailering difficult. I've never seen a Hartley TS14 or TS16 with fixed keels.

The centerplate on my boat is made of heavy steel, thus serving another purpose: ballast to keep the boat from heeling too much and make it more stable. So if the centerplate is not lowered before raising sails, the boat is unstable, difficult to control and may capsize.

But here is safety issue to think about ... what if the boat does somehow tip over on its side during sailing? Then gravity may cause the centerplate to flip into the centercase, thus raising the center of gravity of the boat, making it more likely that the boat will flip completely upside down (or "turtle") and making it very difficult to right. To solve this problem, a lot of sailboat owners have a locking mechanism to keep the centerplate down at all times, except when in shallow water. This locking mechanism makes the boat much more "self-righting". If a small boat gets on its side and does not self-right, the wet sailors simply stand on the side of the protruding centerplate and pull the boat back upright. And if the boat turtles even with the centerplate extended, the centerplate can still be used as a lever arm to try to right it.

Cutting slot in the keelson

2009-12-08T21:47:00.000-08:00

Before I take the centercase apart, I'm cutting the slot in the keelson (the main backbone) and checking to make sure the centercase fits into it. A lot of sailboats have the problem of water leaking in around the centercase, including Hartley sailboats. I decided to modify the centercase design, like a few other Hartley builders have done. The standard centercase sits on top of the keelson (with a 3/4" wide slot through the keelson). I widened the slot to 1-1/4" and extended the centercase sides through the keelson. (Well, actually only one layer of 1/4" plywood extends through the keelson on each side, so the slot in the keelson doesn't have to be 1-3/4", which would leave too little of the 3-1/4" wide keelson.) And I'm going to permanently epoxy and screw the centercase into the keelson, instead of just using mastic and screws. This should keep the centercase from wiggling back and forth and leaking, however I won't be able to remove the centercase. (The original centercase design seems very difficult to remove also ... and why would I ever want to do that anyway?)

Here are some pics after I cut the slot. I used a circular saw and then a file to get it just right. The centercase is dry fit in place just to see how it looks. If you notice, I also had to cut one of the frames in half to make room for the centercase. The plans don't say anything about that. Luckily, I figured this out a long time ago and didn't screw the keelson to that frame.

Constructing the centercase

2009-12-08T21:34:00.000-08:00

The centercase is going to be the new home for my centerplate. The sides are made out of 1/2" marine plywood. (I laminated two layers of 1/4" plywood with epoxy.) The lumber is white oak, glued and screwed from the inside to the plywood. The slot in the centercase is 3/4" wide, plenty of room for the 5/16" thick centerplate.

The pic shows the centerplate and centercase side-by-side. In this pic, the centercase sides are glued up, but the sides are just temporarily screwed together. I'm going to take it apart and fiberglass the inside of it for more abrasion resistance, then put it back together with glue and install it in the boat.

Shaping the frame

2009-12-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of shaping the chines, keelson, and stem so that the plywood planking will fit up nicely. I'm using a hand plane and belt sander. Also, I'm grinding off a lot of unwanted glue blobs with a dremel.

I'm also getting ready to put on the transom ply.

Chines and Stringers

2009-11-23T21:31:00.001-08:00

The second layer of chines and gunwales and the smaller stringers have been installed. All of these are attached with bronze screws and thickened epoxy.

The boat may look like this for awhile. Next I have to shape the frame so that the pieces of plywood planking will fit up nicely. But before the planking, I'm going to make the centercase (or centerplate trunk) and maybe install it. And I have to sand all the unwanted epoxy lumps off.

Garage Sealed and Heated

2009-11-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

The garage has been getting too cold to epoxy. The temperature needs to be at least 55F for a few days at a time for my epoxy to set properly. So I either have to wait until spring or come up with a way to heat the garage. I was thinking about buying a heater and garage door insulation, but all of that costs a lot of money. I found a way to satisfactorily heat the garage without spending any money at all.

The most important thing was to stop all the cold air from coming in. Stopping all the drafts must be done before insulation is added. I temporarily decommissioned my garage door and covered it with a large plastic sheet and 2x4s that I had laying around, being careful to seal it as best as possible around the edges and bottom. I patched up some holes in the drywall and taped the cracks around the attic hatches. By leaving the door to the house open, the garage becomes part of the heated space of the house. I didn't need to install a duct feeding the garage, because the furnace naturally sucks warm air from the house into the garage when its running. It's not the most efficient or safe setup ... but it's definitely the most cost effective solution for one or two winter seasons. It's not efficient because the garage space isn't completely insulated and also the furnace is now sucking warm air out of the house and releasing it out the roof vent. Nonetheless, I now have a heated garage and only marginally more expensive heating bills.

The garage is at a cozy 62F when its in the 40's outside and 68F inside the house. It could be warmer if I added insulation but that costs money. The coldest surface inside the garage is probably the concrete floor ... and I'm never going to try to insulate that.

One problem is that my garage isn't long enough to plane long pieces of lumber with the garage door closed ... so I stick the ends of the lumber through the open living room door to feed them into the planer! (I have a very understanding wife ... as long as I have a curtain up to keep the sawdust out of the house).

The garage door probably won't be opened until the flipping.

Chines being installed

2009-11-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

The first layer of the chines and gunwales has been installed. When I was installing them, none broke and only one sprung back and hit me in the head! Success. I started by cutting a bevel in the front to fit up to the stem. I attached each of them to the stem, then glued and screwed to the frames. A pretty simple process as long as the pieces of wood don't break.

I decided not to screw them into the foremost frame (frame #1), because I was worried that the screw hole could cause the piece to crack in this high stress area. This worked fine, except the force of the bent gunwale pushed this frame aft slightly. Some temporary wedges and clamps are used to hold everything in position until the glue sets.

I'm back

2009-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

OK I'm done with that silly test and now I can work on the boat more. I actually have been working on it a little, but I haven't had time to update the blog.

I've installed (epoxied and screwed) the keelson and the stem (the main backbone members). The keelson is two layers of lumber, since one layer would be difficult to bend into position. The image below shows the second layer being dry fitted before gluing. I learned quickly that I need to screw everything together, take it apart, then glue and screw it together.

Here is a pic of the stem and keelson after the glue set. All that excess glue will be sanded off.

This step took awhile, because I had to make sure all the frames were square and just right before permanently gluing everything together. Measure 100 times, epoxy once ... that's been my strategy so far.

I decided to buy a cheap ($200) bench planer. Unless the boat design uses all standard lumber sizes, I don't see how it would be possible to build a boat without one. My boat requires a lot of 5/8" thick lumber. I was considering going to my friendly boat shop and using their planer, but transporting the lumber back and forth wouldn't be practical. I've been making the chines, gunwales and stringers using a table saw and planer. I also scarfed pieces together with epoxy, since I only have 12ft long lumber and the boat is 14ft long. They are almost ready to be bent onto the frames. I'm just waiting a few days for the scarf joints to cure completely so they don't break when I try to bend them.

Minor delay

2009-09-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have to use my free time to study for a test. My next blog will be at the end of October, after the test. Then I'll make some significant progress on the boat.

Trailer ALMOST done

2009-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

The trailer is almost put back together. I installed the LED lights and wiring.

I also put the axle, hubs and wheels together. It was my first time packing bearings, so I made a big greasy mess.

I just need to install the fenders and touch up the paint, then I'll be done with the trailer for now. After I finish the boat, I will have to adjust the roller and bunk positions ... but that's going to be in awhile.

I didn't get a chance to work on the boat at all this week. Next week for sure.

Trailer painted and being reassembled

2009-08-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

I've just been working on the trailer over the last few weeks. I bought more wood for the boat, but I decided to just finish the trailer so I can get all these trailer parts and grease out of my garage. I primed and painted all the parts of the trailer, using a roller and brush. Like all my paint jobs, it's a 50 foot paint job, (it looks good from 50 feet away.) The color of the trailer is also the trim color for the boat, so they will match.

Now I'm slowly assembling the trailer ... if I can remember where all the parts go. (I took pics of everything before disassembly for reference.)

I painted the trailer frame instead of galvanizing it, because galvanizing was too expensive. I did however buy all galvanized replacement parts (which are not on the trailer yet), so the trailer will have galvanized wheels, hubs, and axle.

Next week, I'll show the completed trailer and perhaps some progress on the boat!

Still working on trailer

2009-08-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

The lumber store said it will be a few weeks before they get more of the wood I want (1X6 CVG Doug-Fir), so I'm just working on the trailer for now.

I ordered some parts online. I'm getting new tires and wheels, a new axle, new lights, and a few other accessories. I may also get some new hubs, because I just noticed that one of them is cracking. So basically, almost every component of the undercarriage was damaged.

I also stripped a lot of the paint off of the frame. I decided to take the old paint off, because there were some flaky rusty spots, which is no good to paint over. I used chemical paint stripper and then naval jelly (which has phosphoric acid to dissolve the rust ... interestingly, an ingredient in Coca Cola). Maybe hiring someone to sandblast the frame would have made more sense, because this is a lot of work with nasty chemicals. I couldn't get all the paint off, but most of it. I'm almost ready to prime and paint.

(Note that the brown spots still on the frame are mostly brown paint, not rust).

There are a lot of other small parts to paint. This is going to take a little while.

Frames complete. Trailer dismantled.

2009-08-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

The frames have been finished and attached to the strongback. You can start to see the shape of a boat forming in my garage. Some temporary braces are placed across each frame at certain heights specified in the plans. These braces rest on the strongback at specified spacing, ensuring that the frames are at the proper location as the boat is being built. I'm waiting for some more wood from the lumber store. When I get it, I'm going to continue construction of the skeletion of the boat.

In the meantime, I'm dismantling the trailer and stripping the old paint off the frame. It's not nearly as fun as building the boat and hard work, but necessary.

One major problem I found with the trailer is that the axle needs to be replaced. As shown below, one of the spindle surfaces was seriously damaged. The trailer showed obvious signs of overloading and neglect when I bought it, so I guess I should have expected to find something like this. If I would have used the trailer as it was, the bearings would failed in no time for sure. I'm glad I decided to completely overhaul the trailer. It'll be much more reliable and not a worry.

Boat Trailer Aquired

2009-08-01T22:49:00.001-07:00

I bought a used boat trailer on Craigslist. $240. It needs a little work, but it's the perfect length and has all the features I want. I couldn't pass it up. This steel trailer is a 1972 Gator Trailer made in Florida. (The company is no longer in business). The only info I could find online about the company is here:
http://www.feathercraftboats.com/Gator%20Trailers.htm
It seems the 1950's and 1960's trailer frames were round tubular construction, but this one is open c-channel ... which I think is better, because it won't rust from the inside out as long as I keep it painted. (A steel tubular trailer should really be galvanized, especially if its going to be in salt water.)

I can't figure out how much weight this particular trailer can haul. I'm sure my boat won't be too heavy for it, but it could be too light (then the springs would be too stiff and my boat would have a rough ride). I jumped up and down on it (I do that with any large purchase) and the springs seem about right. I also lifted one side ... I would guess it weighs about 350 lbs.

This trailer has a row of keel rollers down the middle that support the majority of the weight of the boat, as well as bunks on the side that keep it stable. This is an ideal trailer setup for a wooden hull, in my opinion. The trailer is also tilting, which means I will be able to beach launch the boat without a boat ramp ... very cool. That longitudinal board down one side is a metal platform for walking on so you don't get your feet wet ... I like it.

Ok, actually, there's lots of work to be done on it, which I will be doing concurrently with the boat construction. The tires and wheel bearings need to be replaced. The lights and wiring need to be replaced too. I also plan to paint it to match the boat and maybe get new fenders to make it look better. The carpet on the bunks seems to be shag from some granny's bathroom, so that should be replaced. I also need to get a spare tire and wheel. Then I need to adjust the trailer to fit my boat, including the axle and bunk positions. I will probably have to spend a few hundred bucks and a few months fixing it up. But I can't find a new trailer like this anywhere ... and if I could, it would be pricey.

So ... now maybe my blog should be titled "Hartley TS14 Construction and Trailer Restoration", because I plan to include the details of the trailer restoration in my posts.

Frame construction still in progress

2009-07-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the frames. After a lot of sawing, measuring, hammering, and one big sticky epoxy mess, the frames are starting to come together. The plywood gussets have been cut out and all of the frames have been glued and nailed together. I'm quickly learning how to use epoxy. Using straight epoxy doesn't work well for bonding pieces of wood together. It's too thin, so the wood soaks it up or it drips out of the joint, resulting in a glue starved joint. So I'm learning the correct ratios of wood flour (fine saw dust) and silica additives to give it a nice consistency that won't drip or sag. Instructions say to get the epoxy the consistency of mayonnaise or peanut butter for glue. A good rule of thumb that I learned: if the epoxy can't keep its shape in the pot, then it won't keep its shape later and won't stay in the joint.

So far, I'm reasonably satisfied with the frames. No matter how many times I measure and check symmetry before I put them together ... the frames keep turning out not nearly as perfect as I would like. How frustrating. Maybe I should just stop measuring things that are already glued together. Oh well, we'll see if my frames result in something usable. Everyone talks about how nothing on a boat is square or symmetric ... I can see why. But how far off can it be before it starts looking fugly?

Stay tuned folks. I'll have something vaguely in the shape of an upside-down boat soon.

Centerboard Plate Obtained

2009-07-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

So I got a centerboard plate for the boat this week. The centerboard is a large fin at the center of the boat that acts as a ballast and also keeps the boat tracking straight. It can be pivoted up into the hull (into the center case/trunk) for trailering or beaching the boat. The centerboard on this boat is 5/16" steel plate that weighs about 80 lbs. No other ballast is used on the TS14. Raising the center plate requires a small pulley tackle or winch.

The people in the shop at my job actually made the center plate for me. They only charged me scrap metal prices and time to use the plasma burning table ... VERY cheap compared to buying the steel retail and trying to cut it myself.

The only problem ... when I got home, I noticed that the steel was bowed slightly (about 5/8"). They must have ran it over with a fork lift or something. When I put a straight board on it, you can see the slight bend in it. The steel plate has to be straightened so it will fit in the trunk and pivot without jamming in the slot.

I tried jumping on it ... that didn't work. I drove over it with my small car ... that didn't bend it either. A professional would probably heat it with a torch, but I don't have one and don't want to pay someone to do something seemingly so simple. So I devised a silly (and potentially unsafe) way to bend the plate involving a large scissor jack, some chain and some 4X4's. Now that's some crappy engineering.

I straightened the plate, but it was more work than I planned. I did rough calculations and I figure that it took well over 2000 lbs to bend the plate. I had to bend the plate about 2" past flat to get it to permanently deform and spring back to a flat position. The plate is still kinked by about 1/8", but its much straighter now and should work.

I like the idea of a strong steel centerboard, but I have to find a way to keep it from rusting. Galvanizing it is one option, but the galvanizers in my area have a $200 minimum charge. I'll worry about it after I get the hull built.

Wood Purchased and Frame Construction Started

2009-07-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

I bought some wood this week ... about 70% of what I need. I got mostly clear vertical grain Doug-Fir (CVG DF) for the frames and almost everything inside the boat. Marine grade plywood is going to be used for the hull. I got Aquatek and Hydrotek brand name meranti (mahongony-like) plywood. It looks like pretty nice stuff. No voids in the plys. Hydrotek looks a little nicer and has a BS 1088 stamp on it. (Although I hear this specification isn't regulated, so the stamp is pretty meaningless.) I also got white oak for some pieces that will take more of a beating.

I cut out the frames from 1X4, 1X6 and 1X8 CVG DF. It was pretty easy ... just tracing the patterns and lots of cutting with a jig saw. Although, cutting with a jig saw requires some practice to make a clean cut. (Reading the instruction manual and holding it with two hands helps a lot.) The frame pieces will be glued and nailed together with plywood gussets.

I also cut out the pieces for the stem, which will be three layers of wood glued and screwed.

Setting Up Shop

2009-07-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my garage today. I got it all cleaned out and organized. I built the strongback during the July 4th weekend. The strongback is basically a flat and level frame on which to build the hull. The hull will be built upside-down and then later flipped over. I built the strongback out of scrap 2X3 that I got from the free scrapwood pile at my job.

I aquired a free (though cheap) table saw from my coworker/friend. (Thanks Mike!) So far I have spent about $150 on saw blades, small tools and other supplies from a discount tool store. One item most homeowners don't have enough of for boat building is CLAMPS ... I bought lots of them!

For the last few weeks I've been reading online forums and a few books about building small boats. I've learned of a few necessary jigs I need to make. I made a scarfing jig today.

It's basically just an angled aluminum plate attached to wedges on a piece of plywood. This allows me to use my belt sander to scarf lumber. The photo shows the jig with short test scrap pieces. Scarfing is used to make a long piece of lumber out of two shorter pieces. I roughly angle cut both pieces on the table saw (8:1 slope), precisely finish them using the jig and belt sander, then glue them together with epoxy. If done correctly the joint produced is much stronger than the wood itself. I hear this is done quite often in boat building. I already know I need to scarf pieces together to make the mast, since I can't find lumber that long! Books I've read say to use a large hand plane or some other tool that is either expensive or time consuming. Since I already have a cheap belt sander, I'm going to try to scarf with it. The photo below shows my two pieces ready for gluing. Looks like my jig works good enough.

Also, a few weeks ago, I made a cross-cut sled for my little table saw, based on some plans online I found. The sled has oak strips on the bottom that fit into the guides on the saw. It'll increase my chances of finishing the boat with all my digits intact! I've already used this handy little jig lots of times.

So the next step is to buy wood, epoxy, and fasteners. I'm going to do that next week, except I'm still trying to figure out what kind of wood and how much to buy. Then I can start building!

The Selected Design

2009-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

After weeks of thinking, I chose to build a Hartley Trailer Sailer (TS) 14. It's a 14 feet long wooden sailboat with a cuddy (or small cabin). (Supposedly two adults can sleep in the cuddy ... we'll see). It has a main sail and a jib sail (the small sail in the front). It can also be rigged with a spinnaker, which I understand to be a parachute-like sail only for sailing with the wind.

This design was selected because the finished boat and trailer should fit in my small garage and be under 1000 lbs, so I can haul it with my compact car. And it should be an ideal micro-cruiser for two for trips along the Columbia river and the occasional trips to Puget Sound or the Oregon coast.

There are many different sizes of the Hartley TS. The most popular is the Hartley TS 16, but there are also the 12, 18 ... and larger. The boat was designed in New Zealand and is a very popular boat in Australia. The design dates back to the 1950's, claiming to be the first "trailer sailer" and starting the movement toward trailerable small boats.

I ordered the plans on the internet and they took over a month to arrive from New Zealand. The plans simply show different views of the boat, but don't have any step-by-step instructions. They do have full size patterns for the frames, so that's nice. The plans are fairly detailed, but still seemingly lacking for the first-time boat builder like myself. Umm ... where do I start? I decided to just stare at the plans for a few days and maybe figure it out.

Introduction

2009-07-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. In this blog, I'm going to describe the construction of a small sailboat in my small two car garage. This blog will allow family and friends to keep up-to-date on my progress (construction progress and money spent are shown to the right). The boat will take me a year or two to build, (actually, I have no idea.)

I also hope this blog will help others dreaming of building a boat. Going into this project, I have no knowledge of sailing or building a sailboat. I have limited woodworking and building experience of just a few projects around the house (a patio roof, patio furniture, a tool bench, etc.) I am going to attempt to build this boat using hand and power tools that most homeowners probably have, primary to keep costs down, but also to prove to others that you don't need to be a woodworker with a shop full of tools to make a boat!