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.

More veneers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.