Christmass.

Hi Folks

sorry no photo's to day I haven't been on for a while mainly because I'm not getting much done this month with the run up to Christmass. I mixed up some filler to give the hull a quick skim to fill some areas of coarse grain but with the cold weather the resin isn't curing fully and my sand paper is just clogging up when I try to knock it back so Ive called it a day until the new year.

I will have to find a new workshop I can't stay in this one past February but at least I can move the hull now.

Job for the new year mot the car and build a cradle to support the boat so I can fit out the inside.

Well that's about it really
Have a good Christmass

Steve.

Gunnels.

Hi Guy's

sorry I've not posted in a while been a bit busy cracking on with the gunnel's. I bought the timber rough sawn so had to plane it up true before I could mark out the gunnel profile from the plans.

That's done now I tried clamping them to the mold but they were too thick they wouldn't bend round. So I have planed them down to 3/4" thick they bend round nicely now although I'm worried how the glue will hold when the clamps come off.

I have the first gunnel clamped on and the glue areas marked out, I'm going to leave it on a couple of days to allow the timber to take up the curve before I glue it.

Stem Cap Complete.

Hi Folks,

well the stem cap is finished well apart from a bit of sanding. It looks quite good seeing as most of it has been done by eye. Its a bit different from the one I saw on the jollyboat in the museum on the Isle of White but its profile is the same as that shown on the plans.

It was slightly asymmetrical so in the end I planed each side flush to the surrounding veneers using a straight edge as a guide, then I carefully planed a 3/8" flat for the keel band to screw to. Finally I used a piece of veneer bent to a nice curve to mark the stem and then block planed the curve to give a smooth transition from keel to stem.

I now have a sound hull skin that can be moved it necessary. Next job is to plane down the stock I bought for the gunnel's, I have already done one three to go.

Stem Cap Fitted.

Hi Guy's

I've glued the stem cap in place and rough faired it. I could only clamp it at the bottom I couldn't clamp it at the top so I wedged it down with a plank against the workshop wall. Best I could do but it worked quite well. I rough faired it with a block plane and a spoke shave it just needs fairing up with a sanding block.

Stem Cap Roughed Out

Hi Folk's

Roughed out the stem cap yesterday, just held the blank up against the hull and ran a pencil round the hull to transfer the outline to the blank then roughed the blank out with the power plane. Today I have to hand plane closer down to the line and do a few test fits. I'll do the final shaping after the blank has been glued to the hull. I'll leave this until my next day off as I need plenty of time to get this done without clock watching.

Mean while when I have the odd spare hour I'll start rough planing the timber for the gunnel's. I have four 10' lengths of untile which need planing down to 7/8" square before being scarfed jointed into two 20' lengths. I also need to mark the sheer line and trim the overlap off once the stem cap is glued on. I should have a sturdy hull skin that can then be removed from the mold.

Keel Cap Glued Inplace

Hi Guy's

Well I've done it now no going back the keel cap is glued in place. Sorry I haven't that many photo's I rushed off to do the job and forgot to take the camera, then the following day when I had to remove the the screws after the glue had cured I forgot the camera again. So unfortunately you have a big gap between the cap ready to go on and some final finishing and sanding.

I had to screw the cap down there seemed to be no other way of holding it. I also notice that it would not lie flush to the hull when the screws were tightened so I slotted the screw holes slightly to give some fore and aft movement to let the cap settle in place.

Next job will be to plane the keel cap and the slight overlap of veneer flush to stem. I will then mark this outline onto the blank for the stem cap. Once I glue the stem cap in place I have a complete hull skin and the pressure is off. I have been a bit worried that I would have to move out of my workshop before the hull was finnished.Now I can move if necessary should I loose my workshop.

Keel Cap Nearly Finished.

Ok Guys

I've been a bit busy the last few days. After roughing out the blank for the keel cap I marked out the keel centre line and the outline of the centre plate slot. I then marked out two lines 1/2" apart centred on the centre line for the stainless steel keel band to run between. I then marked lines along the sides of the keel cap 1/4" up from the bottom of the keel cap. These lines were marked out with a marking gauge and were used as a guide to plane a bevel on the keel cap.

On the 2 1/2" section of the keel cap that houses the centre plate slot a marking gauge was used to mark a line one both sides 1/8" in from the outer edge as a guide to bevel the keel cap. A piece of flexible batten was used to mark curved lines to give a smooth transition between bevel lines of the 2 1/2" centre plate section and the 2" keel cap section.

Holes were drilled every 12" along the cap to allow it to be screwed to the hull when being glued. Holes were spaced at 3" intervals at the bow end where the hull curve is greater. The keel cap was screwed to the hull. Where the cap has to narrow towards the bow this curve was marked using a pencil.

The keel cap was then removed and all the bevels where rough planed. The cap was refitted to the hull marked and adjusted a few times to get it right.

I will wait until the keel cap is glued to the hull before I sand it back to get a perfect flush finish.

Keel Cap Blank Roughed Out

Hi folks,

Been a bit busy the last few days not in wife's best books she's become a bit of a boat widow but I have to get on or the boat won't be finished before I have to move house.

I rough planed two 10' sawn planks straight and square and scarf joined they to make one 20' x 3" x 5/8" plank. I need to made a blank with a 2 1/2" wide section for the centre plate that tapers to 2"at either end. The blank must be 3/8" thick I know this will lead to a lot of wast but it gives me plenty of material to true it up.

First I marked out the plan profile on the blank then roughed it out with the power plane and finished it with a hand plane. That done I plane the blank down to a thickness of about 7/16" with the power plane.

That's about as far as I got yesterday I need to hand finish it down to 3/8" tonight test fit on boat and make adjustments. This done I will mark and rough plane the side profile before gluing the keel cap onto the boat.

Sorry I haven't got photo's of the scarf joint being made I forgot to bring the camera that day.

See what you think.

Preparing the Hull for the Keel Cap

Hi folk's

Well I've started to plane the flat I have to make to bond the keel cap onto. The keel cap will cover the end grain of the veneers. I started with my power plane to rough out the shape then finished up with hand planes.

Once I have finished planing the hull I need to prep the two planks I bought for the keel cap. They need planing up and scarf joining to make a 20' plank which will then be marked out with the keel cap profile.

Keel cap

Hi guy's,

the timber I ordered for the keel and the gunnel's has arrived also the micro spheres so I can give the rough spots a quick skim.

I have marked out the width of the keel cap on the hull 2 1/2" around the centre plate tapering to 2" at stern. Going forward to the stem from the plate case I have tapered down to 2" but this will get narrower. So I will plane down until I just touch the top of the keel and try to and keep an even gap between the marked lines. I keep checking the keel for a fair curve using a batten but mainly just check by eye.

I ordered the timber sawn to save on cost so I'll plane it up by hand, it will take a bit longer but saved me about £25 that will probably buy two deck beams.

Hull patched.

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the comment you left Andrew.

I have patched the hull but the finish is just not good enough for a bright finish. I have a couple of small low spots but I'm afraid I'll sand through if I go on sanding. So I have ordered some west system filler to give these areas a light skim. It only needs a light skim where the grain is a bit coarse.

I have also ordered the timber I need to cap the keel. I ordered it sawn not planed because I'm watching the costs credit crunch and that.

I'm just going to epoxy coat the the hull and paint it red well they say red cars are faster. I'll clear finish the decks and interior.

Getting close to removing the boat from the mould now, not sure what to do with the mould. I have to move with my job at end of the year would be a shame to break it up, maybe somebody could give it a good home learn from my mistakes and build another jollyboat.

End in Sight.

hi folks,

Haven't posted for a while. Mainly still sanding but now the hull is close to fair now. That took longer than I thought it would. Still got some sanding to do but only a couple of weeks worth at the most. Then I will patch the voids using scarf jointed patches.

I will post some photos when I can.

No Clear finish.

Hi Guy's,

Well I've blown it I have found two more voids one right on the transom. These are full of epoxy but the areas of coarse grain are still there so it must go right through the veneer. Overall this side of the hull is fair still a couple of low spots but they are quite small. So I am going to use West System Micro balloons as a filler to final fair the hull.

I am disappointed but I made compromises early on mainly due to cost, time and inexperience that I am paying for now. Well I'll know next time. The one good point is I won't have so much varnishing to do though I wood still like to have a clear finish on the decks and interior.

I'll know for the next one I build.

Still no luck finding a trailer.

Well onward.

Bargain.

Hi folks,

What can I say it’s a small world? I have been looking for a band saw for a while can’t really afford a new one want to spend most of my money on what goes into the boat. Anyway I have been checking the classifieds in the Cornish Guardian which are really good by the way, you can pick up some good bargains I picked up three Stanley wood planes last year No4, No5 and No6 all in their original packaging for £50. This time I saw a Dewalt band saw for £30 it turned out the guy selling it called Duncan lived in the next street was a member of the CVDRA and had been following my boat build on the net. The saw only needs a new blade and a couple of guide bearing which cost about £5 each, also a bit of rewiring the earth bonding had pulled out in the contactor box sorted now.

Still sanding the boat almost fair on the side I’m doing have broke through all three voids now but most of the coarse areas of grain are sanded down now. The areas I don’t think I can sand down without taking too much timber off I will fill using west system micro balloons as a stopper.

All this sanding is at lease doing me some good my shoulders are toning up quite nicely just like doing press-ups for a couple of hours.

Anyway that’s all I think, onward.

Voids.

Hi folks,

Well I have run into problems. I have found three areas which have voids where the epoxy has not bonded the two layers of veneer. To be honest I knew I was going to have a problem here they are on the midships area right on the turn of the bilge. The veneer is being asked to bend in three directions at once around some very tight curves and basically what happened was that once I had stapled down the veneer and had gone home the tension on it popped the staple out and it lifted up a 1/16" of an inch just in and area of 2 inches of the joint.

I had used more epoxy than I had needed so I thought that it had filled the void I was wrong. For the most part they are only and inch in diameter and the Gougeons brothers book said I shouldn't need to sand more that a 1/16" off to get the hull fair and apart from these three areas I haven't. Anyway I almost have this side of the hull fair but I have broke through one of these voids and I still have some sanding to do to get it fair.

I still want to clear finish the hull so this leaves me with a problem. Do I rout out the affected areas and fit a scarf jointed patch or fit a batten and rout out a 2" rebate along the full lenght of the veneer and bond in a 2" spline. Either way it'll show, this needs a bit of thought.

Still sanding.

Hi folks

well what can I say I'm still sanding and it still doesn't look any different but that's probably me because I'm here working on it all the time and don't see the the small changes I'm making. Sorry no photo's today they don't really show the changes in finish anyway. I'll take some when I've got some good to show off.

If I'm still sanding by the end of May I might have to fit the stem and keel capping's anyway because I want the boat to be in a state where I can move it if I have to. I'm a bit concerned about how long I can keep my workshop for.

Well that's all for now, onward.

Just sanding, more sanding and lots of it.

Hi guy's

No photo's today well one photo of a partly sanded boat is the same as another really. I made a 3' sanding block out of 1/2" plywood it works really well on the aft sections of the boat but doesn't bend well enough round the curved sections at the bow so I may need to made a 3/8" block. I've run out of sand paper and for some reason I can't find anywhere that sells the stuff I'm using locally. I bought the stuff at totem timber in Plymouth while I was up there so it would be reasonable to expect Totem timber in St.Austell to stock it as well, wrong. I ordered some on line with a three day delivery thinking it'll be here on Monday just as I run out, wrong. It's not in stock take five day's to get it. So I'm resigned to loosing a couple more days of work this month.

Why the hurry you might ask, well normally this wouldn't bother me and I would enjoy pottering on as circumstances dictate but I know I'm due to move with my work sometime at the end of this year. I don't know when and it could be earlier so I am anxious to get the boat to a stage where I can take it off the mold so if I do move earlier I can trailer it. To do this I need to finish final fairing, cap the keel and stem. Possibly fit the outer gunnel's well I call em gunnel's.

This may not be a problem and I'm just worrying about nothing but I like to look ahead so there are no surprises down the line.

Well we'll see.

Slow but sure.

Hi Chaps

Slow but sure progress on the boat hand sanding with the long board. I'm gradually flatting out he high spots mainly concentrating on one side of the boat for now so I can see more progress.

The orbital sander left a smooth surface with scratches in all directions. The 70 grit glass paper is leaving a smoother finish with scratches going inline with the grain so it's quite easy to see the low and high spots now. I'm moving randomly about the hull so as not to take off to much material in any one place.

Anyway thats all for now, Onward.

More and more sanding

Hello Folks

Bit of a depressing week. I made up a chalk stick and it revealed that the boat is not fair. Well I should of known really, the up side is that it doesn't have any big hollows or high spots just lots of little ones which can be sanded out. This will have to be done by hand with a long board so I made one up from a 2' length of 3/8" ply wood and made a start using 70 grit glass paper. I think I'll make up a 3' board as well for the long flat areas of the hull. The long board shows up the low spots quit well and they don't look too bad so far. I am a bit worried about the areas of coarse grain, I may have to fill here which would mean I couldn't clear finish the boat.

Well we'll see It could still sand out.

Both Sides Rough Sanded.

Hi Guy's

well got both sides rough sanded. I can see some areas of coarse grain and some low spots but I don't want to sand any further until I've used a chalk stick to check for fair. I have noticed that at the sheer between the clamps that the hull is springing out this could effect the final fairing. I am going to trim the excess veneer back flush with the bottom riband of the mold and use scrap battens to clamp the hull to the bottom riband. This should provide an even clamping pressure which should get rid of this ripple effect. The bottom riband is set two inches below the sheer riband to give a good overlap for final fairing.

Apart from this the hull is starting to look quite good now.

More sanding

Hi folks



Well I have one side of the boat rough sanded finished it yesterday, don't want to go to mad might take too much off. Didn't take any photos to intent on getting the job done. Got the the other side to do yet its alot easier with the sander but still took three days.

Started Rough Sanding.

Hi Guy's

As you can see I've started sanding the boat this started out by hand but it was taking too long and driving me round the bend so I am now using my sander. The gougon brothers book says you should only do this if your experienced with power sanders. So practiced with scrap pieces of veneer then cracked on with the boat. As you can see from the other photo its coming up quite well. I'm using 80 grit disks to rough finish and fair then probably 120 and 240 gite to finish sand I'm not sure yet.

Jollyboat website.

Hi Guys,

I found the new jollyboat forum the other day quite by accident. I was looking for a friends car blog in google and it wasn't coming up so I put my own blog in just to see if it wasn't finding any blogs or just his and the search results came up with my blog name. I clicked it thinking it would take me here and it took me to this new site by the CVRDA and they were taking about my boat cool!

I started this blog because I had had a bit of interest after I had sent some photo's to Tony Dixon just to show him what I was doing with his plans. I joined the CVRDA forum so I could get a bit of help when I'm not sure what the plans are getting at. Anyway after a while it went a bit quiet so it was a bit of a boost to find out there was some interest in by boat and people had been watching my blog while I had been beavering away on my boat.

Anyway great website lots of good photo's which were a great help to me.

Veneering is finally finished.

Hi folks

well I have finally finished fitting the last veneers over the last two days. I pulled the stapling strips of today and planed and sanded the transom rebate flush to the veneers.

Its only rough finished but it looks really good see what you think from the photo's.

Well the next job now will be to make a 6' chalk stick to find the high spots and then flat them down. Then fill the staple holes, final finish sand before fitting the keel and stem caps.

Stern Almost Finnished.

Well I have made a fair bit of progress this week I am almost at the transom. I'm into my last two sheets if I keep the wastage down I should be able to finish this layer with the veneer I have left. The next two veneers should show if the material I have left is enough.

So I might not have gone wrong just cut it a bit close

well we'll see....

Bow finished.

Hello guy's

well as you can see I have finished the bow. I think it looks quite good just needs a rough sand to tidy it up. I was running low on glue so didn't made much more progress until yesterday. However due to daftness on my part I only got one veneer on because I dashed out of the house to go work on the boat and only realised I had left the new glue at home when I go to the workshop. I tried to wing it with the glue I had left but only got one veneer on.

Still the plan today is the try and fit the other veneer on this lunch time. I doesn't take that long to fit the veneer it's all the fannying about preparing the kit you need to do it so you don't wast time while the glue's curing.

Also I'm getting a bit concerned that I'm going to run out of veneer I estimated to hull surface area to just over 10 square meters times three layers equals 30 so I ordered 32 and got 33 sheets 1 square meter buckshee.

So that would mean 11 sheets per layer right. On the first layer I used 13 1/2 sheets so I order another 7 sheets and after laying up the second layer I had 13 1/2 sheets left for the last layer so it should be enough.

Now I getting close to the stern I have two sheets left which should give me 8 veneers minimum but it doesn't look like it's enough. Where did I go wrong?

More veneers on the boat.

Hi Guy's

As I said last time I took a week off work as I had some time off due and got some work done. I started the week with 28 veneers on and now have 38. That's quite good going seeing as they're a pain to fit. There's such a tight bend on the one's going aft I had to use some weights from my barbell set to hold them while I'm spiling. I left them on because I was worried that the staples would loose their hold after I had left the workshop.

Hopefully I can get this layer cracked by the end of this month then I can do something different like sanding.

Back to work.

Hi folks

Well I lost two weeks of boat time due to work. I was putting some long days and nights and when I wasn't at work I was on call so I just put the boat on the back burner for a bit.
Anyway after all that mucking about I took three days off and put some more long days in this time on the boat. I had twenty veneers on last time and I managed to get another six on in the last three days. Don't sound like a lot but I am preparing, splining and planing the veneers by hand and they all fit well so it was good going for me. I was so set on getting as many veneers on that I forgot to take any photo's but I will take a few when I've made so more progress.

Third and final layer of veneer.

Hi guy's,

Not much progress achieved I'm sorry to say. I had no access at all to my workshop over most of November. This photo was taken in the middle of December when I only had eight veneers on the boat. I have had real problems spiling these veneers to get a good fit some of them have crept away by about a millimeter a small gap I know but I know it's there. With Christmass and new year I didn't achieve much I now have twenty veneers on the boat and the spiling process has improved the main problem being the top of the veneer was lifting slightly while I was spiling the bottom of the veneer. This caused the bottom of the veneer to move closer to the edge of the previous veneer increasing the overlap. This caused me to plane too much off the bottom of the veneer and would leave a gap when the veneer as properly glued in place. I solved this by using two four kilo weights to hold the veneers down while I was spiling. Due to work I will loose the rest of this month so all the progress I made in January will be wasted it's a bit frustrating at the moment I either have problems with access, materials or time. Still if was like this last year I had access problems and I couldn't source materials I needed locally which in the end set me back three months.

Well the end of the project is in sight every time I go and work on the boat I do make progress just not always as much as I hoped I would. Still twenty veneers on thirty six to go then I can do something different from fitting veneers.

Second layer of veneer.

Hi folks,

The work you see here was done between July and September 2007 last year. In the first photo you can see the first three veneers on the Starboard side two have been joined with scarf joints to cut down on wast by using off cuts. Not much else to say It's the same process as for the first layer of veneer but with the veneers at approximately 90 degrees to the first layer, bit like curved plywood really. Oh and yes it will go out the door the max depth of the hull from mast latch to keel is 29" the door is 34" so it should go throught and anyway I can allways knock the wall down nobody will notice.