Third Board...

Now that I had the hull 3-D.  I could work on finishing the out side.  On to the epoxy and fiberglass... First I had to fair the bottom chines by rounding them over.  I used a belt sander and my eye.  I worked at this until I had what I thought was a fair rounding of the chines.  I then sanded the bottom clean and fair.  When that was done I had to wait a couple of days for the Duckworks supplied epoxy and fiberglass to arrive.  When it did I then had to wait for good weather.  In the mean time I worked on the rudder and lee board.  The rudder is an encased  kick up rudder with a weighted blade that will self tend in the case of shallows.  When beaching it can be pulled up with a lanyard and secured with  a jamb cleat.  I made all of the fitting myself, except the jamb cleat which I got from Duckworks Boat Builder Supply.  I got much of the hardware that I have needed from them.  The lee board is a Michalak style foil.  I really like how this style of lee board works.  No centerboard case.  It can be removed easily and replaced easily...  How cool.

The Second Board

 Now that I had the sides and frame 3D it was time to attach the chines and the gunnels.  I cut the pieces that I needed from a 16' 2x6.  Installing them was not easy.  I attached the chines first as at the time I had the boat upside down.  I started at the stern with both sides, screwing the chine piece on with 2" ss screws and Titebond 3 glue.  Working my way forward I discovered that I was going to need help so I recruited my beautiful assistant (re. wife) to help hold the chines on while I glued, clamped and screwed them on.  This took a little effort as they bend in two directions.  I should mention that when I cut these I cut what would be the bottom of the chine at the angle of 15 degrees so that I would not have to plane them down as much when it was time to attach the bottom.  I should also mention that one should have many clamps for this.  I now have about 30 clamps and I could have used more.  I found that putting on the chines lent a surprising amount of rigidity to the structure.  My wife ( from now on I will say April) and I then flipped the boat over which included us dropping it on the floor with out damage( my fault).  April and I repeated the process with the gunnels.  All in all it was not difficult.  I scewed in approximately 140 screws spaced more or less at 6" intervals.  Those combined with the glue made a very strong structure.  We then disassembled the table the I had made with the ply that would become the bottom and inverted the boat putting it back on saw horses.  The next day I went to check on the drying process and check for misalignment again.  I found that it was out of alignment by 3/4" at the bow.  It bothered me but it could have been worse and I have seen worse.  I then took the bottom ply and laid it on top.  I should reiterate that the bottom ply is not per the plans as it is 1/2".  I was a little concerned that it would not take the bottom curvature, I was right.  I clamped the ply on at the middle and screwed down the corners at the stern and midships.  Then screwed down the forward piece midships.  I used hot water to soften the outer plys of the forward piece to persuade it it bend.  It worked wonderfully to do that as the ply was much easier to bend and screw down at the bow.  Using a pencil I traced the bottom of the boat at the chines to the bottom ply.  I then removed it and cut the bottom shape with my Skil saw.  I had to make many small cuts to bring the bottom to the traced lines.  I then scribed a line along the outer edge of the bottom ply to locate where the screws would go.  Removing the boat from the garage, putting it outside so that I would have more room to work, I glued(PL Premium) and screwed( 1 1/4" ss screws) the bottom on.  Now some who have built boats of  this sort are wondering about the scarf, read on.  I know that it was unorthodox but...I did it after the bottom was on by turning the boat upright and using the weight of the boat to keep the joint flat and square I glued  and screwed a butt plate over the joint using 1" ss screws and PL Premium again.  This worked very well as I ended up with a very smooth bottom and yes I made sure that the ends of the ply were  covered with glue to seal the ends.  I then sat in the boat to dream and get a feel for the dimensions of the boat...and have a beer.

The First Board

  For those that are wondering why this post is call "The First Board", a board in this sense is a length of a course taken to windward, either a port or starboard tack for a set distance.  I also mean it as a pun.  I consider the start of my adventure in building my sailboat an upwind battle as it will take a lot of time and patience.  So I have the plans and I have built a model, now for buying the materials for the real boat.
   I am fortune enough to have a Menards and a Fastenal in the town that I live in so I went both places to scope out what was available.  Menards had all of the wood that I needed and Fastenal had the fasteners.  I bought the wood and fasteners and brought them home to my 12x20 garage.  I look the two sheets of plywood that would be used for the bottom and a few of the 16' 2x6's used for the mast, chines and gunnels and made a lay out table.  I then laid the other two pieces of plywood on the table and tacked them to the table, end to end, so that I could measure out the sides.  After measuring, I cut the sides out with my Skil saw set to a depth the would just penetrate the plywood.  I then set these aside and started on the frames.  Now I am building the boat with fore and aft watertight compartments to be used as storage ala the Mayfly 14 plans, so I cut the frames to accommodate this.  The webbing is 1/4" plywood.  I glued the ply to the frames along with a deck beam at the top.  I made the top deck beam with enough material above the frame measurement so that I could cut a crown into them.  I glued all of the frames with PL Premium construction adhesive.  ( I have since found out that PL Premium is water resistant not water proof.  I hope that I do not have future problems).  Next was to make the hull 3D.  With the assistance of my beautiful wife and a lot of clamps( one can never have enough of these), I assembled the frames and the sides.  Now it was time for a beer and to admire/scrutinize the look of the 3D shape that now resembled a boat.  After a few more beers and a few tweaks to the assembly I glued and screwed (stainless steel 3/4") the sides to the frames.  And there I left it till I could work on it some more. This post makes it sound like it took a small amount of time, not the case.  It took two weekends.  Approximately 20 hours, working when I had time.  Sorry no pictures as I did not have a digital camera at the time.

The Model 2

Here are the before mentioned photos of the model that I built.  It is not exactly as I am going to build it.  I am going to have a Michalak style rudder, leeboard, and partner.

  Jim Michalak has a very good book( Boatbuilding for Beginners(and beyond).  I highly recommend this book to the novice builder.  It has plans for his Mayfly 14 sailboat in it as well as some other boats.  His website is http://www.jimsboats.com/.  He has many of his other plans on the Duckworks website. This can be found in my Favorite Links section.  I am going to use the sail rig that Bolger prescribed in his plan drawings with the exeption of making it into a Solent lug/ gunter rig so that I can stow all of the spars within the length of the boat for trailering.  I am also going to use the balanced club jib but will change it if it is not to my liking.






Good pic of leeboard on a Mayfly 14

 

The Model

In much of the information that I have read pertaining to building a boat I have read that it is a good idea to make a model of the boat to get a good idea of how to do it and what it will look like when it is three dimensional.    I looked around on the internet and found a couple of really nice examples of the boat that others have built.  Using those examples I made a model of the Featherwind.  It is 1/6 scale (30 inches).  All rigging is to scale also.  I made it from 1/8 inch door skin and a hot glue gun.  I painted it to the color scheme that I am going to paint the boat.  It was easy and it helped to see how it would be put together.  I did leave out the chines a gunnels for simplicity sake.  I liked what I came up with and I went on with the build.  I have found that many other builders do the same.  Some of the models are very elaborate with all of the rigging including the blocks.  Here are a few of the examples that I drew inspiration from.  Pictures of my model coming soon.

Sea-Angel from  http://www.angelfire.com/ex/ti/FWmain.html



unknown builder

http://www.simplicityboats.com/

The Name...

Some may wonder why name a boat Charlie's Pride.  Other than the obviousness of my name being Charles( I actually go by the name Chuck).  My lovely wife came up with the name.  You see,  I love country music.  Charley Pride is one of my favorite singers of country music.  As he was a little out of the norm in singing country music in his day, being black an all; I too am out of the norm being a person who dreams of living on the ocean and lives in the mid west.  I also know that there are very few people who build their own boats.  I have been called crazy by some of by friends.  One often says to me that I should buy a Sunfish and be done with it.  So... Charlie's Pride it is.  It fits.

The Start of my Adventure

I have wanted a sailboat for a very long time.  Looking around at small sail boats for sale, I found ones that I could afford, but they didn't appeal to me.  Most of the boats looked all the same.  Yes,  I am sure that is because its what works.  I would say that I am a bit different from most people.  As most others who build their own boats would tell you,  we are all a little out of the norm.  At any rate,  I started looking around in the ads in magazines and in those I found a couple of mentionings of the Duckworks site.  I was intrigued so I checked it out....eureka!   I have been a avid follower of  the Duckworks site since that time.   I did not buy any of the plans there ; like most DIY boat builders, I am frugal.    I was looking for a boat that I felt that I could build and would suit my needs. Doing more research on the Internet I found out about Phil Bolger.  I found that he had written a "few" books.  I found the books at the library and read, and read.  I looked at the Otter design very seriously but it was too long for the space that I have.  I looked at the Elegant Punt but it was not large enough for all of the family.  I really liked the Zephyr and the Surf but they seemed a bit lite.  Then I read up on the Feathwind...another eureka moment.  I loved its design and the lines and well, all of it.  Hence forthe to the start of my boat building....