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Keel Pre Stitching

Keel Glueup

As many other builders have done, I took this in several stages and did a lot of dry fitting in between. A previous post discussed a couple of areas I wanted to be particularly cognizant of. I’m happy to say that all went well and the keel is as it should be. Blocking & Trial […]

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Keel Pre Stitching

Keel Hand-Wringing

With the rudder, centerboard, and centerboard trunk built and my spars well on the way to being finished and ready to put away, I finally get to start working on the keel. Also complete are initial coats of epoxy on a lot of large pieces like bulkheads and then multiple smaller pieces like floors. All […]

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Pre Stitching Spars Standalone Chunks

Spar Rotisserie

This weekend I rigged up all my spars in a ’rotisserie’ style setup so that I can apply a single coat to all sides of a spar at once. This should really speed up the finishing of these pieces. With these long angle irons that I’ve been using, it was easy to clamp up some […]

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Pre Stitching Standalone Chunks

Rudder & Update

Last weekend I finally got back to working on the boat. All my spars are now sanded down to 220 and almost ready for epoxy and varnish. I still need to trim the ends of the mast and bowsprit. At that point I will try to set up a rotisserie rig for application of epoxy […]

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On Break

On Break

After carpel tunnel release surgery I am supposed to take a 6 week break from vibrating tools and any other activities that might overly stress my hand. For quite a while now I have wanted to organize my ‘small parts organizers’. “Please allow myself to introduce…myself.” – A. Powers I have about 4 more weeks […]

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Pre Stitching Spars Standalone Chunks

Mast Glueup

Glued up the mast on Saturday. I had two helpers and it took us about three hours, though we were not in a rush at all. Here are some pictures of everything clamped up. Below, I’ll talk about the process. Before glue, we clamped everything up dry and studied it for a while. I was […]

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Pre Stitching Spars Standalone Chunks

Mast Rabbets & Dry Fit

I have cut the tapers in all four mast staves. Now to cut the rabbets in the two side pieces. The manual suggests for each rabbet making two cuts with a table saw. My side pieces have a noticeable bow in the last several feet, so I worried about being able to keep a long, […]

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Pre Stitching Spars Standalone Chunks

Spars I

Completing all my spars is another thing I am doing prior to stitching up the hull. Only reason is to not have to work in a cramped area once the hull comes together. Once all the spars are varnished, I’ll hang them from the ceiling where they are out of the way. For reference…I’m working […]

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Pre Stitching Spars Standalone Chunks

Cutting Scarf Joints

I ordered the timber kit but I still have to cut some of my own scarf joints. I’ve not done this before. I tried three different ways and the third is what I will use from here on. The scarfs I’ve done so far are for the four mast staves. Block Plane This is the […]

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Pre Stitching Standalone Chunks

Centerboard Lead

Having never worked with molten lead, I wanted to do this job before pouring lead for the keel. If you follow the manual you’ll do the big keel pour before the small centerboard. The manual points out that everything doesn’t have to be necessarily done in the exact order as it reads. Working with lead […]

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