More wee boats

Thought I'd just start out with a couple quick pix on how to accurately trace a side panel pattern onto your pile of side panel wood. The pattern, in this case, was made off the strongback we built back in February which looked like this:

So we recorded that pattern on a piece of shelf paper and rolled it up for future reference. Now that it's time to make a few more wee boats we roll the pattern out on the wood and poke an icepick in at each relevant point: the sheer and chine points of the bow post, transom, and each of the ten  ribs. Twenty-four points.

Then we remove icepicks a bit at a time, roll up the pattern, and re-insert the picks.

Next we batten the icepicks and draw the line.

Once the outline is reproduced, we draw in the rib intersections.

And we clamp a bunch of side panel blanks together, set the saw for square, and cut them out. I'm cutting six out here.

Then we transfer the rib markings to each panel and build some boats. Here's the first one about to depart for Page last week. Look for her in the new Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Visitors Center downtown.

Gunwales going on the second boat.

 Inner chines going into boat #4.

Whole lotta boats.

Gunwales, number four.

We also made a rough pattern for the floor. Cricket is drawing one out for #5.

Then we glue it on in the same manner we do a real boat--one end at a time, while the other end is held in proper position.

Clamp, weight, and wait.