Centerboard shaping, and real life intrudes.

So after a bit of time I was able to cut and shape the centerboard. I found the lamination of the two different woods and the alternation of the grain a bit of a chore to plane smoothly. But a belt snader made short work of it. A 80 grit belt sander belt wrapped tight around a piece of plywood kept the final shaping nice and uniform. All in all I believe I match the NACA profile extremely well. And the rudder will be even better.

After the shaping I smoothed it all with a random orbital sander with 100 grit then 220. Nice flat and even. A small nick or two left over from the planing remained here and there but they were hardly noticeable as I ran my hand over the smooth wood. I love freshly sanded wood...cool and soft.

I began the glassing of the tip and 2/3's of the trailing edge with biaxial cut 6oz cloth. The sanding and trimming is done and I'm ready to glass the balance of the centerboard. Fiberglass is definitely a fickle thing, so hopefully all will go well. I find the frustration levels are much lower when I take the time to slow down, clean up and get the whole area prepared. I always want to jump in and fiberglass, but that usually leads to cussing and a mess.

Unfortunately, I've begun the design and bid process on a side job...here's a tiny preview of my google sketchup skills. They are improving alot.


If I get the job, construction will be delayed, but the bank account will be bolstered. Such is life.

Centerboard blank lamination

I decided to start with the lamination of the foils before the hull, while I wait to amass all the money to purchase all the materials. I found a good source for some hardwoods, but western red cedar is a bit elusive or expensive. To be honest I found some nice african mahogany pretty cheap, and may use that in many spots. It will result in a heavier boat, in fact the designer would probably wince upon hearing it. I'm still looking and hopefully when I head into Sacramento next week I'll have a few places to shop for it.

WARNING:All these thumbs link to giant photo's, dial up users beware...I wanted to keep the details. And I'm a bit lazy.

Here is a picture of my staves all lined up and ready for gluing. Each stick is 25mm x 20mm x 1300mm. The dark ones are African Mahogany and the light ones are Basswood. Notice I doubled up (actually tripled) the front and rear (the leading and trailing edges) of the daggerboard. Since the mahogany is the harder denser wood, this serves to take the beating that will inevitably come out of my lack of sailing knowledge. For the glue-up you'll notice I've made six cleats that will screw to the sides of my workbench, those will hold 2x4's that I will wedge downward in order to hold the blank flat. While a set of bar clamps will squeeze the whole mess together. I used some slipsheet under the blank to keep from gluing it to my workbench and I wrapped all the 2x4's in plastic wrap.




Here's a picture after the glue-up is complete, I used TapPlastic's marine grade medium epoxy, mixed 4 to 1. I added about 5 tablespoons of microsphere's and two of some cab-o-sil. It was a buttery consistency and spread well. I rolled all the staves squared the ends and layed the 2x4's down. I clamped it together fairly loosely and tapped the wedges to exert downward pressure. I then used a straight length of scrap to tap the staves all flat and flush with eachother. Then a little more clamping, some taps on the wedges and so on. I found that the pressure of the 2x4's kept everything together without much need for clamps actually. I didn't want too starve the lamination of glue either. So I tapped the wedges firm, tapped the staves together and cleaned up the excess epoxy. All in all, being my first lamination. I was impressed enough with myself to have a beer...(it was waay past noon anyway).


Here is the finished blank, scrapped of epoxy, planed fairly flat, and quickly sanded. You can see one thin joint that looks as if it is missing a bit of glue, but I figure that will be filled when fiberglassed. So tomorrow will see planing and sanding, then I believe I will have it thicknessed to 22mm by a local cabinet shop. Then the leading and trailing edges will be shaped, the final shape will be cut, and fiberglass applied. After that, varnish.

Next week some time I should have the balance of the hull materials in the shop and ready for lofting...

The Boat Begins...

Today I started building a Goat Island Skiff. A small sail boat designed by Michael Storer. Its a simple boat, a light boat, and something I feel is within my means as a carpenter/wannabe boatwright. This Blog is a bit of a build diary I felt would be cool to create for posterity, and a place to bare my mistakes. Enjoy.