Sunday, January 27, 2013

Back to the drawing board


The heavy pig iron sure squashes a nice scarf joint. The side panel scarfs are now done and I've dragged one of the finished sides over onto the strongback. Now it's just a matter of clamping it on, right?


Not so fast, sailor. Now it is time to see if all your beautiful massaged and lofted lines are actually something that a sheet of plywood will agree to. So I clamp the entire uncut sheet into place and, ummm... hmm. Turns out is isn't. The angles where the straight part of the boat begin to turn into the bow and stern need to be reduced a bit. Either that or add a foot to the height of the transom, which might look a little odd. Or have the oarlocks under water.


So I adjust the angles on a few of the mold stations and by and by, with the use of about forty clamps, the plywood succumbs to my will. So now I will take the adjusted stations back to the lofting table, transfer the new points, re-fair the lines, make the forms symmetrical to the new lines and... I think... I'll be ready to assemble the boat. And I will have a full set of accurate lines on the lofting boards with which, should I ever decide to build another of these boats, will save me a whole lot of time and effort.




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