Centerboard trial and error

something learned about epoxy...

Hole with 2 diameters to provide additional support. The idea was to fill it up with Epoxy and have a water-tight seat for the bearing

This is what happened after trying to drill a hole into pure epoxy. Some swearing involved, especially as this could have been foreseen

So everything removed with a chisel, followed by second attempt, this time thickened with micro-balloons and reinforced with fibreglass-cloth. Another - round-shaped - piece of fiberglass was laminated inside. 

Much better - the idea is to avoid water penetrating the plywood under any circumstances. There are 3 bronze bearings, one in each side of the centerboard case and one in the centerboard itself

Halves of the CB prepared for final glue-up

Starting the deck structure

Now I am really excited to get started with the deck structure, This will, going forward, provide more and more stability and strength for the boat as a whole. It is really interesting to observe how the hull gains stability with every step - sheerstringers, frames etc. Next are the deck beams.

First the sheer stringers need to be planed to exactly fit the future deck curve

Really enjoyable to work with the handplane. The electrical one would probably do a quicker job, but it is just more fun that way. Plus, you have much more control on how much material you actually remove, also following the changing angle is easier with a handplane.

checking the right angle continuously simply using one of the deckbeams...

instead of frames #1 I decided to install a bulkhead 

it is made out of 15 mm Okume marine plywood and serves 2 purposes: give additional buoyancy and add to the static structure of the bow which is critical, as in the melonseed, all the forces from the mast attack at this area of the boat

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

A lot of fun is cutting the notches for the deck beams. The Japanese pull-saw is the tool of choice, the block visible in the left of the picture helps keeping the right angle. After cutting all the way to the middle of the sheer stringer, the notch was given it final shape with a chisel.

the combination angle on the deck beams was transferred with a bevel gauge and then just sawn.

A nice snug fit provides a lot of satisfaction (and hopefully stability :-)

Beams at the aft-end

and bow...

getting there...

Frames

After about a week of drying in position, the steam-bent frames were ready to be glued in. First they were given a nice round over on the router.

Rounding-over on the router. I do not have a router table, the small router in the vise works as well..

Round over edges close-up

Frames just before gluing. Cutting them to exactly the correct length to fit snug between the notches in the chine stringers and the cheers stringers turned out to be a bit tricky. I would do that before mounting the sheer stringers next time (as advised Barto's instructions!)

Tape prevents thickened epoxy from messing up the surface.

Gaining stability: the sheerstringers

One of the amazing experiences is how the hull structure gains stability with all the structure that is being built in the hull over time - frames, sheer stringers, deck beams etc.

So removing the dried out frames was the next step (I forgot to mention in previous posts - before steaming they were actually thrown into my fathers garden-pond for 48 hrs - strange smell in the workshop while steaming, but fishermen like that.)

All frames bent and clamped in place to dry (roughly a week). After that, I removed the frames before mounting the sheer

Next were the sheerclamps / stringers. They are made of 2 layers of 14x37 mm spruce. First stringer clamped in place on both sides, glued in with thickened epoxy. Nothing really difficult here.

By the way, I followed Barry Longs approach with the "double stern", i.e. an inner stern (multiplex in my case) and a Mahogany outer stern which will be added later. I hope this may add stability and also create a nicer view from aft as the planks are not visible from behind.

both sheer clamps in place - lots of clamps help...

where sheer meets the stern - needed to saw & chisel out a slot for the sheer between the planking and the inner stern. 

Sheer meets inner stem...

same saw & chisel procedure again for second sheer stringer....

Fitting the second sheer stringer

Tape everywhere to avoid epoxy on sanded inner surface