1st Chine Lamination Done

This weekend I laid the first chine lamination. It was a pain to figure out and to attach to the frames but the guys on the Glen-l forum gave me good advice and that helped. I still have the second lamination to glue/screw to the first but the hard part is done.

Next I will work on the 1st sheer lamination around the bottom of the frames (top when the boat is right side up) Hopefully I can get the first sheers done before next weekend.

Chine fitting.

Fitting the first lamination of the Chines is a pain in the neck. I hope this is the worst part of the build because its not any fun. I've spent two days staring at this and scratching my head then going back to the literature and checking and rechecking the process to see if I am missing something that will make it easier.

I think the front of my chines are ending up too low at the stem junction but if I raise them up higher they bend outward and then they dont fit snugly into the slots in frame 5-1/2 (the first frame aft of the stem)

The cut at the chine/stem junction is pretty complex and ive made the cut, and it fits decently well to the stem I just dont know if they are hitting too low on the stem. I can always re-cut them if need be, I have plenty of chine material hanging off the back end of the boat. Im going to link this post to the Glen-L builder forum online and see if some other builders think its ok as is or if I need to get the chines to attach higher on the stem.

Keel 2

After a week off from building the boat due to work I am back at it.

Today I drilled the two holes where the keel attaches to the stem at the front of the boat. Both holes came out perfectly straight.

I also epoxied the Keel/Knee/Transom joint at the aft end of the boat. That also came out quite well. If the aft end cures enough before dark tonight then I will epoxy up the keel/stem joint at the front end as well as each frame bottom/keel joint before bed tonight.

June 22nd, longest daylight of the year so I should have time to get to it before dark.

Keel

This week I have been working on the Keel of the boat. The keel is the backbone of the boat. It is the central lengthwise member along the entire length of the bottm of the boat connecting the stem to the transom. So great care must be used to lay the keel flat and straight.

I spent basically 2 mornings measuring adjusting, measuring, adjusting some more, rinse and repeat. I used the transom as the starting point and measured/adjusted every frame forward off the transom. Then I glued the breasthook to the stem monday morning. Monday night once the breasthook epoxy had cured I glued the stem/breasthook assembly to the slot in frame 5-1/2, the bow frame. For now I just clamped that assembly to the building jig. I'll measure/align that before bolting the front of the keel to it as seen below.

I then layed the keel in place and clamped the knee in position at the transom so I could drill the hot dipped galvenized lag bolt holes. Two lag bolts go in the keel at the bottom of the aft section of the boat and through the knee. Two bolts also go through the transom, through the knee. All these bolts are counter-sunk and will be epoxied over so they cannot be seen in the finished product. The bolts will not be seen from inside the boat either once the motor well and decking are in place. Good thing too because one of them did not come out the knee straight, its a long hole and I must not have had the drill straight. I had to purchase a new set of longer drill bits to drill the holes since regular bits were not long enough. So i got a set of spade type bits at Lowes for 10$, a nice deal. I only have the rear of the keel bolted thus far, I still need to do the front where it will connect with two lag bolts to the stem but thats going to have to wait until the weekend when I'll have time to get it all aligned properly and drill the holes. Getting everything straight has been quite a lot of work, if this stuff is not straight, nothing on the boat will be straight and it will not ride in the water properly or look correct when viewed from the front.

Knee, Keel, Transom joint. Need to trim bolts

Keel, battens, chine, sheer lumber arrived.

Yesterday I glued the doubler to frame 5 1/2 and began to brace and align the other frames. Also nailed and screwed frame 5 1/2 and the transom frame.

Today I picked up my order of wood from Northwest Lumber. They dont carry 16ft mahogany so they recommended PurpleHeart which really is purple and comes from Mexico, they say its more dense and stronger than the mahogany. I dont like that its purple but you wont see much of it anyway once the interior is installed.

Thats all I did today, I spent the rest of the day sailing my Precision 13' on Eagle Creek Res.

Building form 2

I finished cutting the rest of the parts for the building form today. I actually had to cut some parts twice because I screwed up the first ones. I burnt them in my fire-pit in the backyard and I feel better now. Shoulda roasted a hot dog on it though.

Here is the completed building form with the frames, stem, breasthook and transom in place. Nothing is screwed in place yet, its all just clamped together for now. The building form is leveled in all directions though so it could be screwed in place now but I want to check over the plans carefully before I start screwing things in place. Seeing everything in place makes me feel like I am making some headway though. I saw a few neighbors taking long looks into the garage as they pass by, maybe a few are starting to realize what I am building and why I make so much noise with power tools everyday.

Building Form

Now that the frames are just about complete. I needed to build the building form which holds the frames in slots cut out of two 2x6 joists. The boat is built on this form upside down then the boat is flipped right side up after the boat hull and plywood hull planking is completed. At that point the building form is unscrewed from inside the boat and discarded. (I'll have a heck of backyard fire when this is done to burn all the scrap wood)
















Here is the beginning of the building form. The two 2x6's clamped together left of the form will attach to the top of the 1x6 uprights and be leveled. Then slots are cut in the 2x6 to accept the frames and hold them in place while the rest of the parts are attached to the frames. The plans call for anchoring the form to the floor with expansion bolts but I am trying to come up with another way so its more mobile. Maybe locking castor wheels?