Sunday, January 9, 2011

Building and assembling backbones and bulkheads





Wow!
Assembling the backbones, building bulkheads and putting the first hull together was amazingly painless and fast.

The backbone was lofted directly onto the floor
of the shop, and built directly onto its lofting lines -- twice, since it made the most sense to build both backbones at the same time.

The bulkheads were cut out at the same time -- both sets, including their sticks and panels. We laid them flat on the floor, and glued up as many as we had floor space for at a time.

The whole process, for both hulls, took approximately seven working days of varying lengths. There were the usual first-days-of-project confusions and whatnot to fix in that time, too, plus building the epoxy station and various other tasks for the ongoing good of the project.

Total time for the two sets -- approximately 60 hours, plus another twenty hours or so building the beam troughs on to the bulkheads.



Below, one of the butt blocks holding the backbone together.




Thursday, January 6, 2011

About the boat shop

We live in a wet place -- Gabriola Island, between Vancouver and Vancouver Island on Canada's west coast. Building a boat outside is perhaps possible, but certainly damp and frustrating. Before we began building the boat, we built a boat shop.
The boat shop is 44 feet long by 16 feet wide, and the design is copied from Peter Grøn, who is just finishing building his Arctic Tern project in his somewhat smaller shop. (His project is well-documented here, and so is the shop-building description. Peter's boat is a beauty.)

Frame and floor -- plastic rolled on the ridgepole ready to roll down into place.
Tarp rolled on the ground -- beginning the process of pulling it over.
The basic structure of the shop is a series of arches, built on a plywood floor supported by 2x6 framing. The arches are shaped like a Gothic window. Each side of the arch is made of two 1x4s, separated by 2x4 blocks, glued and screwed together. Robbie and Trevor shaped the sides in a jig so they were fairly quick to manufacture. At the top, they are screwed to a ridge beam. Below the ridge beam, there is bracing: 1x4 horizontally below the peak, and 2x4 for the diagonals.

It is covered in poly, and topped with a huge tarp.

Since the peak is high, it gives room for some storage (bulkheads and backbone for the second hull once the first was underway, mostly). It's a pleasantly airy space -- though rather too airy to work in when the outside temperature is low.

Trevor and Robbie built the shop. It took them approximately 144 hours total, not counting a minor amount of site prep.
The finished shop has opening endwalls, with hatches
for ventilation