Steve's boat blog

More Sanding

2011-11-14T15:06:00.000Z

Hi Folks,

I finaly got a chance to do some work to the boat today. It was only some sanding on the keel to remove the epoxy that pool arround the molds. Its a bit of an endless job but cost nothing apart from sandpaper. I would post a photo but it doesn't look any different.

Still I am back doing something, a small step at a time and I'll be finished in no time I hope.

KBO.

Yes I'm still here

2011-10-29T17:30:00.004+01:00

Hi Guy's,

well not much going on with the boat still working away but I am looking for jobs locally so I can come home. I should have more time to finish the boat. The cottage is taking up a lot of my time at the moment.

I found a couple of photo's from last year from when I moved the boat. My work mates were winding me up about moving the boat and that I couldn't get it out of the building I build it in. It was an old AR1 airfield radar building with a single door. They were away working so I sent the photo's as proof that I managed it. It was a shame they were away they could have helped it was a bit heavy moving it on my own. Putting it on top of the car wasn't my idea Uffa Fox used to move his boat the same way on top of his Austin Cambridge.

That's all Guy's

KBO

More Sanding

2011-04-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

Hi Guys

Now the tapes off I have to get back to sanding of all the excess glue from the keel and the interior veneers. I used a mouse sander and a long board to fair up.

As promised here are a couple of photos.

KBO

I had a look round a bigger boat probably the last time I'll ever see it.

Finally Got Rid of That Tape

2011-04-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Sorry I haven't posted for a long time this working away and commuting home ate the weekend makes it hard to get anything done. I have had a week of for easier and have got a couple of days work o the boat. This entailed using a scraper and a Palm sander to finally remove the tape that has been so hard to remove. Now I need to sand down the inside of the boat with a long board just as I did on the outside. I will take and post some photos tomorrow.

KBO

Disaster

2011-02-20T16:38:00.000Z

Hi Guy's

Bit of a disaster this week the roof on the garage has been leaking. I knew this but what i didn't know was that the tarpaulin on the boat was leaking so the boat got full of water. I need to keep the moisture content of the timber below 15% to epoxy coat the boat.

Hopefully it will dry out I have tarpaulined the roof of the garage and rerigged the tarpaulin over the boat like a tent flysheet so it will shed the water.

KBO

Springing Leaks

2011-02-09T15:54:00.000Z

Hi Guy's

No the boat isn't leaking but my garage is. The roof is made of wiggly tin with polycarbinate roof lights. The tin is rusting and the plastic is UV damaged so it's leaking everywhere. Two tarpaulins some battens and rope later the worst of the leaks are stopped. So no work on the boat, there's always something that gets in the way of finishing at the moment. Its a shame as I don't really have much left to do to finish it.

Still its MOT time for my car which is always a bit of a pain as it always needs work.

Hopefully I can get some work don in March.

KBO

Some New Photos

2010-11-08T12:12:00.000Z

Hi Folks,

I have been doing a bit of work to the boat, mainly scraping and sanding off the tape I put onto the veneers to stop to much glue getting on them. This was a mistake the tape is harder to get of than the glue and it doesn't sand off as well as the glue.

I have also taken a couple of photo's of the support cradle to show how it conforms to the shape of the boat. This was achieved by transferring the contour to the cradle frame using a 3mm thick marking and removing the waste with a spokeshave.

Then marking again and removing more waste until the final contour is achieved.

The sanding is just to remove the tape and excess glue, I will use a long board to final fair the interior after a bit of final fettling of the cradle frames.

That's about it guys.

KBO.

More painting.

2010-10-07T16:26:00.000+01:00

Well I finished painting the walls in the garage which has really cut down the dust, so hopefully I can get on with the boat this week.

I have some final shaping to do to the cradle to make sure the boat sits right and is fully supported by all the frames. At the moment the inner of the two rear frames is not touching the bottom of the boat.

The gap is only 2 to 3 mm but to get it to sit down I have mark of the front frames with a marking block and a pencil and take of a small amount of timber at a time with a spoke shave until all the frames make contact. This should cut down the flex went I'm sanding down the inside of the boat.

I'll try to put some photo's on this weekend.

KBO.

Painting

2010-09-07T16:28:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

I'm gradually sorting out the garage to get a bit more space to work. It has bare breeze block walls and a bare concrete floor that makes a bit of dust. To stop this I'm painting the walls with the cheapest emulsion paint I can find which is magnolia. After living in MQs for years I said I would never paint any building, I owned, this colour but it is cheap. The blocks are soaking up the paint like a sponge but it is cutting down the dust and making the place lighter.

The roofs leaking so I'm keeping the boat under the tarpaulin for now. I really have to get down to sanding out the inside of the hull then fit the deck beams . This should hold the hull in shape.

I'm mainly only working at weekends now because I work away from home during the week. There seems to be a mountain of jobs that stack up in the week which wait until I get home.

My work home life balance is all wrong at the moment , my goal is to sort this out this year one way or another. There is no point earning a good living and providing a good home for your family if your never there to share it with them.

Anyway KBO

Steve.

Cradle

2010-08-06T12:22:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks

Haven't done a lot have new job now work away from home during week and only home at weekends. Its a bit pants but had no choice I was posted on promotion. Still I can't complain to much I still have a job.

I drafted a drawing of a support cradle from the main profile plan for the boat in CAD.

It has support frames at mold stations 3; 4; 7 and 8. I built it this week.

I have designed it so that I can remove some boards from my inspection pit and slot the frame into the gaps. This will allow me to work under the boat just like I do with my car. Also I plan to fit casters to the bottom of the frame the idea being the frame will sit firmly in the pit with the casters hanging free and if I need to move the boat I can lift it out onto the casters and just roll it out of the garage.

Stripping

2010-06-03T14:48:00.000+01:00

Hi Guy's sorry I haven't posted for a while I have been sorting the work shop out. I have just started stripping the tape I put on the inner veneers.

I put this on to stop the glue spreading over the veneer to make it easier to sand down the interior of the boat, however the tape is a bit persistent its harder to remove than the epoxy.

I think the solution will be a heat gun on a low setting and a very sharp scraper.

Somewhat Distracted.

2010-03-01T09:52:00.000Z

What can I say I'm not making much progress with the boat just now.
I did have just the one project the boat but now we have bought the house that's turned into a project too. Its a hundred year old miners cottage with a large garage workshop, ideal for the boat. The roof on the garage leaks so I'll have to fix that so that when I turn the boat over it doesn't turn into a giant bath tub.

Incidentally I recon I'd love to have a bath tub made of this material or a hot tub maybe that will be my next project?????? No I don't need another project got distracted see what I mean?

Back from overseas

2010-02-21T16:39:00.000Z

Well I'm back from working overseas so it's time to get on with the boat.

The next tasks I have to do are:

1. Build a support cradle to hold the boat in shape while I fit out the inside.
2. Strip all the tape off and rough sand the inside of the boat.
3. Fit the three deck beams.
4. Make and fit the plate case.
5. Made the framework for the buoyancy tanks.
6. Fit the deck.
7. Apply final coats of epoxy.
8. Source and fit hardware.
9. Source spar, boom and sails.

Not a long list then.
Better get started.

PS. Hello to the Byron Boys days to do.

That's about guys bye.

All Safely stowed Away

2009-10-18T13:09:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks

As you can see it was a bit of a project to stow the boat and get the car in so that they are both tucked away for the winter but all done now.

See you all in the spring.

Don't try this at home.

2009-10-15T20:07:00.000+01:00

Hi Guy's

Sorry I haven't posted for a while this house buying game is long winded and expensive especially in Cornwall. Any way I have sorted out my new garage to accept the boat. I had problems with access to my old workshop but finally moved my boat today.

I had to build a special frame to fit my roof bars to hold the boat even so there was quite an overhang at either end of the car which made the 15 mile trip to my new place interesting I know Vauxhall Astras are a bit run of the mill but if you can carry what I have on top of one today then it must be a good car.

Unfortunately I had to destroy the mold to get the boat off as it was stuck to it. This is as far as it goes for now my job is taking me abroad for a few months but I will be back home in March and then I' ll see if I can finish and be on the water for the summer.

All Change.

2009-09-11T11:03:00.000+01:00

Hi Folk's

Sorry I haven't posted for a long long time mainly because I haven't done anything to the boat. My new Job has been very busy and we have also bought a house and moved in the last month. This has basically taken up all my free time recently. There is a good out come thought my new place a a large garage and workshop which will mean the boat will be at the bottom of the garden not seven miles away. Much easier to nip down and do some work when I have to odd spare hour here and there. Hopely I'll have some photo's soon.

Still Not Getting Much Done.

2009-05-18T12:55:00.000+01:00

Hi Guy's

Apologies for not posting in a while but not much to write, the new job is pretty full on with lots of time away. I have started to make templates to make a support cradle to sit the boat in while I fit out the inside. Money has been tight as both my cars failed their MOTs and cost a bundle to fix I did all the work myself as I am to tight to pay somebody else to do work I can do myself.

Also I am in the process of buying a house not a cheap undertaking when you live in Cornwall but the place has a large garage/workshop which may possibly be larger than the house. This is good as I will probable spend most of my time in there.

Anyway I should be able to make some progress with the boat being at the bottom of the garden instead of ten miles away even if I do have a morgage the size of the debt of a small 3rd world country.

Well thats all folks.

Not getting much done.

2009-01-17T17:00:00.000Z

Hi Folk's

not really getting much done this month. I have just started a new job not not working shifts anymore so have less spare time now. I managed to get a sheet of 8' by 4' by 3/4'' ply to use as one part of a cradle. I will probably need two more sheets.

Just been giving some thought as to how I can make a template to get the hull profile so I can lay it off on the cradle.

Anyway my car needs a fair bit of work for the MOT so my cash is going in that direction at the moment so I probably won't make too much progess this month.

Christmass.

2008-12-15T17:43:00.000Z

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.

2008-10-26T10:27:00.000Z

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.

2008-09-27T16:17:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-09-26T17:55:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-22T06:44:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-20T11:21:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-09-14T16:28:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-05T11:33:00.000+01:00

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

2008-08-27T06:25:00.000+01:00

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

2008-08-22T16:30:00.001+01:00

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.

2008-08-18T07:23:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-06-19T07:10:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-06-04T13:16:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-05-19T11:09:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-05-10T17:06:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-04-28T09:43:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-04-13T15:45:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-04-06T12:26:00.000+01:00

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

2008-04-01T20:46:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-03-30T15:57:00.000+01:00

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

2008-03-21T09:17:00.000Z

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.

2008-03-17T18:47:00.000Z

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.

2008-03-14T07:28:00.000Z

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.

2008-03-11T15:45:00.000Z

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.

2008-03-06T19:40:00.000Z

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.

2008-02-25T20:36:00.000Z

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.

2008-02-16T20:56:00.000Z

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.

2008-02-03T16:53:00.000Z

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.

2008-01-11T12:21:00.000Z

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.

2008-01-07T11:24:00.000Z

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.

More veneers.

2008-01-05T17:25:00.000Z

Hi guys

these photo's show part finished stage and completed first layer of veneer. This work took six weeks and was completed by the middle of July 2007. The boat was now starting to look good but I still had two more layers of veneer to fit.

First veneers going on.

2008-01-04T15:50:00.000Z

Hello guy's happy new year.
The work shown in these photo's was done during April and May 2007. The remaining ribands had been fitted to the mold by the middle of April and it was now time to check the mold was fair. I did this starting at the keel by running my steel rule held flush to the keel along the length of the keel.

I was checking for any high and low spots in the first three ribands. High spots were planed down low spots were dealt with using filler strips which were then planed down. This done the process was again repeated for the next set of ribands using the steel rule. Where the surface was curved the gap between straight edge and riband was checked by eye with the other side of the boat. This was a time consuming process involving lots of walking round the boat.

Fairing of the mold was completed by the beginning of May, now it was time to start fitting the veneer. I'm using 1/8" thick African mahogany veneer called Khaya it's a bit lighter than the Utili I used for the keel but it matches the surface veneer colour of the transom. I estimated that I would need 31 square meters of it which was of course not enough so I had to order another seven. Forgot to add in the overlap.

The veneers came in 10' by 18" lengths that were tapered, well trees are tapered aren't they, so I ripped them down length ways marked them out and trued them up with a no6 plane as I needed them. Bit time consuming but I quite like doing them that way.

First job was to fit the master veneer at a rough 45 degree angle to the keel at the half way point and bend it round the mold ensuring that the veneers lays flat to the surface of the mold. I say roughly 45 degrees and flat because the mold isn't flat and it takes a bit of joggling to get a good fit. This done its position was marked and the veneer was marked where it crossed the keel. I masked the veneer at this point with tape to stop the glue marking the wood as it runs out of the joint. Both areas of the joint were then given two coats of epoxy and the veneer was stapled in place.

With both master veneers fitted the spiling process of the next veneers can begin. I made the spiling jig you see in the photo it's cut to the master veneer angle and has a notch cut in it to hold you pencil. The veneer to be spiled is fitted to the mold with temporary staples ensuring a flat fit with the gaps between it and the master veneer at the top and bottom being the same. Placing the jig against the master veneer with the pencil in the notch, I run the jig and pencil from top to bottom of the master veneers so the shape is marked onto the other veneer. This done the point where the line is closest to the edge is marked and the veneer is planed down to this line. The veneer is then tried against the master at the marked point and its overlap marked. The veneers is again planed to this point and the veneer tried again. This continues until the veneer is fitted.

Once the veneer is planed to the right shape its position on the mold and keel overlap is again marked. The keel crossing point and the edges to the veneer are masked with tape. This done two coats of epoxy applied to the bonding area for the keel and the edges of both veneers and it is stapled in place.

Keel runners and more battens going on.

2007-12-28T10:29:00.000Z

Hi folks

The process of fitting battens to the boat goes on but I am getting quite close to the keel at the bow end so it's time to fit the keel runners.

These are battens well I've been calling them battens but I should really be calling them ribands, any way these ribands run parallel with the keel at a 1 1/2" spacing and provide a surface for the other ribands to butt to so they don't have to be joined to the keel. This is because the other ribands are set at 2" spacings and follow the curve of the sheer line.
The keel runners are slightly wider than to other ribands to make them strong enough for the other ribands to butt to. This caused a bit of a problem as they didn't bend in the same way as the other ribands which caused a low spot between the keel runners and the keel over the first three molds. I solved this problem by gluing strips of timber to this area and using the same batten I used to mark the keel curve to mark both sides of the runner. I then planed down to this line while using a steel rule held against the keel to check fair on the batten.

This done I continued fitting ribands to the mold this was a time consuming process that was not finished until the end of March 2007. The mold looks great it's a shame its not going to be part of the finished boat but its got to be right so it's worth taking the time.

First battens going on the mold.

2007-12-27T12:34:00.000Z

Hello guy's

This work was started in mid September 2006, I had sourced some straight grained timber locally in 3m lengths 22mm by 100mm. I ripped this down to 22mm square battens which I scarf joined using PVA wood glue to make battens of 20' approx as shown in this photo.
As you can see from this photo I have marked the sheer line at each mold and have offered up the first batten at these marks using c clamps. The line was checked for fairness and any obvious high spots adjusted. These adjustments were transferred to the other side.

The positions and depth at each batten was marked using a purpose made marking gauge made from an off of batten. The slots were cut out with a coping saw. The batten was then clamped into position and adjusted for fairness using shavings that were produced when planing the scarf joints as shims. The batten was then screwed into place. The last picture shows five battens on the mold I was starting to run out of material now and was having trouble finding good quality timber that was straight without knots to made good battens. I got round this to start with by scarf jointing all the usable offcuts from the battens I had already made. This produced surprisingly good battens that produced quite fair curves but as the offcuts got shorter and the number of joints per batten increased until it took longer to make a good batten. This went on until mid December until I had to find timber from further afield at a much higher cost so no further progress was made until the new year.

Bonding and shaping the Gripe.

2007-12-25T17:26:00.000Z

Hi guy's hope you had a good Christmass. This work was done in September 2006. I used the offcuts from the keel to laminate a blank for the gripe 12" long 1" thick. I marked a line across one end at 3/4" and planed one side down to it to give the gripe a taper. Using a bevel gauge I took the bevel between the stem and the keel and I transferred to the 1" thick end of the gripe and cut it with a pull saw. I offered this up to one side of the keel and marked the keel curve at this point onto the blank. I planed down to this line using a no4 smoothing plane. Finally I marked of a 45 degree bevel on the 3/4" end of the grip which I rough cut and tidied up with a block plane. The gripe was bonded with epoxy as shown in the photo.

A batten was used to mark the line the gripe would be planed down to. This was done first with a block plane then a spokeshave and final at the tip of the bow with a 1" chisel.

This came out quite well I was a bit relieved as I had struggled to see what it would look like in the lofting and had then decided to leave it to now and work it out. Phew!

Finally the blank I had left in the centre board slot could be cut out. I had already cut the side cuts but had left the blank in place to make shaping the keel easier. I made to end cuts with a coping saw and straightened up the edges using a block plane and chisel.

Job done.

Shaping the keel

2007-12-24T13:37:00.000Z

This jumble of photo's shows the process followed to first rough fair then final fair the keel.
A batten was bent around the molds next to the side of the keel and the curve marked with a pencil to give a line to plane down to.
Then a power plane was used to rough fair the keel. Final fairing was done by hand starting with a no6 plane when a no5, no4, block plane and spokeshave as the twist of the keel got tighter as I got close to the bow.

Lofting the stem was a pain as in the final 6" of the stem and the keel I just couldn't see it shape in two dimensions. This was made worse by the stem and keel joining with a very tight curve, radius roughly2" at the forward end of the water line. So I left plenty of spare material there so I could fair it by eye.

I started by fairing one side by eye using battens as a guide to check fair with the molds. Then I used a profile gauge to transfer the shape to the other side.

Its not perfect but it is as close as I could get it and if you put the profile gauge anywhere on it and transfer it to the other side its a good fit.

That's about it next job is to fit and fair the gripe and cut out the centre board slot.

Shaping the Keel.

2007-12-21T17:22:00.000Z

Sorry folks got my photo's out of order again.

Lines were marked at every mold using a rule, then a pull saw was used to cut along the lines following the angle of the mold. A chisel was then used to cut out the material between the saw cuts to give a series of angled notches showing the profile of the keel at each mold.

These notches would be used as a guide along with a flexible batten to shape the keel.

With the keel laminate cured It's time to cut the centre board slot. It's best to do this now using the the flat surface of the plank to mark out. I am going to use a wooden centre board 1 1/8" wide I need to cut a 1 7/8" slot to account for the 1/4" ply sides of the centre board case. I used a jigsaw to cut just inside both line but left the blank in place to make it easier to shape the keel.

2007-12-19T13:04:00.000Z

Hi Guy's

I have just looked at my last post the spellings terrible probably made worse by bad typing but never mind. Anyway the work shown in these pictures was done around September 2006 the transom and stem had been fitted now the keel was next. The plans show that the keel is 6" by 1" by 18' long. When I had been researching the project I had read in the Gougeon brothers book that you should laminate the keel with some 1/8" marine ply in it to give it some cross grain strength. I had to source this material in metric measurements 25mm to1" so I ordered four 3m by 160mm by 11mm lengths of utile and one 2.5m by 1.2m by 3mm sheet of marine ply. these were to be scarf jointed into three keel planks to be laminated into one 25mm keel 11mm + 3mm + 11mm=25mm.

I used a string line to mark the centre line of the utile planks, I had ordered them planed but they weren't straight. I marked the width of the keel 6" from this centre line and planed the planks to size using the bench as a shooting board. I used the same method to cut the material from the 3mm ply sheet.

The planks and marine ply sheets were joined with scarf joins, I ensured all of the joins were offset to avoid weak points in the keel. I used some shuttering ply and a batten to make a template of the keel for the first three molds where the keel tapers. This showed that the curve was not fair at mold 2 and the tip of the stem. I adjusted this by planing an 1/8" off the top of mold two which gave an extra 1/4" width to the keel there and by using a spokeshave to reduce the with of the stem at the tip by an 1/8" to give a fair line. I took the chance to check the fairness of the first three molds with the stem using a batten and found mold one was 3/16" to wide on both sides so I used a straight edge held to the face of the stem to project a straight line onto mold one which was marked. A flexible batten was used to mark a fair curve through these marks and the mold planed down to this line. This was checked with a batten.

I test fitted an marked each keel plank in place and used the template to rough mark the outline of the keel at the bow. The first plank was then fitted to the mold and bonded at the stem and transom and left to cure. The two remaining planks were bonded in the same way. I again used a batten to check the marked curve on the keel for fairness and block planed the keel to this line.

2007-12-17T16:53:00.000Z

Hi guy's

the next step in the build was to build the transom and the stem and mount them on the mold.

the transom was made from a piece of 3/4" marine ply the inside profile of the transom and it's inside bevels were transfered onto the material. This profile was routed out to a depth of 1/2" to form a rabate and the bevels were cut with a chisel using templates from the drawings. This left a 1/4" overlap to cover the endgrain of the veneers when fitted. Cheek pieces were made from 1/2" by 2" lenghts of utile hardwood to increase the glue area for the skin veneers the bevels were transfered onto these using a block plane. The transom was then mounted onto the frame in the same maner as the molds.

The stem was laminated out of two 1 1/8" by 4" by 24" utile planks. Templates of the stem profile were taken from the drawings and marked onto the blank and the stem bevel cut uing a block plane and a spoke shave. It was hard to loft the exact profile at the tip of the stem due to the angles to the skin veneers thickness being quite shape so extra material was left here to be faired up later.

First boat photo's

2007-12-16T16:09:00.000Z

Hi guys these are some of the photo's of the work done that I described in the last post but I was still working out how to post photo's. As you can see I still haven't got the hang of it because they arn't in order.

As you can see I set up the frame first and marked the centre line with a plumb line made out of mig welding wire.

The main center mold was set up first using a spiritlevel and wedges with a 1" by 2" framework to hold it. The rest of the molds were then setup a 21" spacings.

Mold one is at an 18 5/8" spacing with the

mold stem attached to it at the top with a spacing

of 7 3/16" at the bottom.

Starting to look like somthing now this work was started

in June 2006 and completed by the end of August.

I had never built a boat before but had read number of books

and was learning as I went along. I generally solved each problem

as they came along proving my old boss right when he said there's

always a way.

Steve's boat

2007-12-12T17:10:00.001Z

Hi

I'm Steve and this is my new boat blog. I have been working on this boat for 18 months now
Its being built to plans of a 1955 Jollyboat designed by Uffa Fox. I sent off some pictures to tony Dixon who is Uffa Fox's nephew who put them on his wedsite, this generated some interest so I have started this blog to show how I'm going on.

There arn't to many jollyboats left in the UK now so I thought it would be a worthwhile project to build one. I had just finished an HNC in Engineering and wanted a project to keep me ticking over. I transfered the plans onto CAD and carried out the lofting process on my PC which was alot easier on my knee's. This worked out quite well I only had a 1/4" error on one mold which turned out to be my marking out when I made the mold not the lofting.

In Cad I made offsets at 2" spacings vertically and horizontally for each mold. I transfered these onto 3mm shuttering ply and cut these templates out suing a jigsaw and finished them with a block plane. To these I glued and screwed 6" wide lenghts of 18mm MDF to form the frame work of the mold. I cut these to size using a router with a straight cutting bit with a bearing to follow the plywood template.

I then build a 20' x 4' frame to mount the molds on using 2"x4" pine then mounted the molds, transom and stem.