Hull is sanded

George is a sailing buddy and he came over for a work day.  We cut up some wood and he made a boom for one of his vintage boats and he helped me put a luff grove in a mast.  I used the rest of his time for sanding!  We got the Coot outside and proceeded to sand the boat fair.  She is ready for glass.  I'll do some light hand sanding with a long board but basiclly we are ready for glass.

Hull stripping is done.

The stripping for this boat went very fast.   Straight fwd stripping.  Next is to get the 1000+ staples out.

 The strip right at where the hard chine would be were the hardest to fit.  I was only 1/4 inch off between sides.  Not bad.
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Half way there, with update.

I got as many strips down from the shear that would fit.  As you go down the bend becomes more severe so at some point it won't make the bend or the twist.  From this point I'll come up from the bottom. There is a fix to make the strips fit on a severe bend but I'm not going to do that.  The fix is to cut the strip in half and butt join it at a form. That cut takes the tension out of the stick.

Christmas update. 

 It's December 25.  Presents  got opened, lots of food...

I cut up two more boards and got the bow closed in.  I need to cut one more board to finish.

 

 

 

Dec 26 update

 

 

 

First strips

I quickly abandoned the stapless option.  It just wasn't going to work with this setup.  I've dealt with staples before so this won't hurt.

Got a few more strips on.  Running out of glue and staples.  I cut 40 more strips this morning and if the weather holds I'll do another 40 tomorrow.  That should give me enough strips to finish.

More on the building forms

I finally got the building forms faired. This is is my first time using this system.  On other boats I use a hard strongback made from 1x boards made into a box. The designer of this boat specified a ladder like strongback where the forms interlock.  The interlock makes it hard to fine tune the forms.  However, I got them mostly straight and we can now start with strips.  I'll put duct tape over the form ends because I'm going to use hot glue to hold the strips while the yellow glue dries.  That way we'll get a boat with no  staple holes.

Bow and transom

I got the bow and transom cut out and rough fit.  The handhold cutouts were a little bit harder that I had figured.  They still need a little more work but that can wait until fit and finish.  I also got some strips cut.  I got 18- 3/16 inch  strips cut from one board.

Building forms

I used MDF for the building forms this time.  The reason being the MDF cost 8 bucks a sheet and 1/2 inch ply was $25.   It took three sheets to get the forms done.  They are cut out but they need more work.  I'll fair them sometime this coming week.  This is the bow shot.

 

 

Transom

 

 

Winter project

It's November so it must be time for another boat.  Something different this year.  Two years ago around this time my son suggested we get a big boat.   Well we found one and it turned out to be a proper yacht.  It's a classic Alberg 30.  We have worked on that boat for two years and it finally looks good.  What we don't have is a tender for the boat.   That's what we will create and use this blog to document the progress.

The Coot is an 8 foot pram built using cedar strips. It is a blunt nose boat designed to carry a heavy payload in a short boat.  It will be functional and look good.

The first step is to draw the boat lines so they can be transferred to building jigs.  I've done that and have started the process of making the forms.  This is a little different that previous builds with a strongback.  This strongback  is comprised of two stringers that are locked together with the forms.  I have the stringers made and two of the forms  #1 and #7.  There are 8 forms plus the bow transom and the stern transom.

Bow and stern transom