July 21, 2003

Don't concern yourself too much about the neighbor building a boat in his yard-unless you hear him muttering about cubits and the space requirements for a pair of elephants.

July 22, 2003

Got some more of the little fiddly bits of sheer stringer installed. Also tested an idea I had for a mast hoop lamination form made from polyethylene.

July 23, 2003

The completed mast hoop form. Plans available in the Technical Notes section

The mast hoop form test version worked pretty well. A couple of small refinements to the design and the finished version built tonight-along with still more sheer stringers attached. I'm going to have to get more clamps or this whole project is going to take forever.

July 24, 2003

More stringer and keelson lamination . . . .

Ripped some thin oak stock for mast hoops, soaked it, and did a preliminary bending.

July 25, 2003

I've been giving the centerboard and centerboard trunk some thought. The plans show a pivot-basically a rod through two pipes sealed with pipe caps-below the water line. It's the below the water line part that bothers me. I'd like to be able to pull the board from above without filling the boat with water. With an extended bracket, the pivot assembly can be dropped in from above. In the course of building the mast hoop form, it occurred to me that HD Polyethylene might make a good centerboard. It slides well, is easily shaped, and is rot-proof. A bit pricey in 1-1/2" thickness, but you can't have everything.

July 26, 2003

Worked on buoyancy calculation. I'd like to have a 1500 pound fully swamped positive buoyancy. That works out to concealing about 24 cubic feet of foam between the hull and lining-predicated on the notion that the hull is neutrally buoyant. A quick test floating a block of laminated plywood give a density of about 0.8 for the wood, so even accounting for the ballast and loading to the design water level, the fully swamped density should be about 0.9 to 0.95.

July 27, 2003

Keelson lamination completed today. The sheer stringers are completed and mostly faired at the bow and stern. Started the chine stringers by notching the stem end of the keelson for the lamination.

A guy from the local Coast Guard Auxiliary stopped by today to invite me to join up. Chatted about boats while epoxy cured.