CurlyShavings

Phil Bolger (1927-2009) designed the "Tortoise", a sandbox-looking sailboat with a lot of room for passengers and a fairly-decent sailing ability.

So far

Ben and I took the lines off an existing Tortoise this past week and transferred the hull side shapes to a piece of ¼" BC exterior plywood. Then we took a long, straight piece of pine and turned it into gunwales. Two more long, straight pieces of clear pine made chine logs and the remaining plywood became bow and stern transoms.*

So far, we've probably spent 90 minutes on the project, cutting and gluing. That doesn't take into account waiting for the glue to dry; that's what beer (root and GLBC) is for.

What's next

Next we'll need to bevel the framing on the bow and stern transoms—should be quick work with a circular saw. Then we'll need some 3'-long stringers to keep the hull square while we install the bottom. It would be nice to get some of that started today, perhaps after dinner.

Why not start now? Well, I've got scones and breakfast to make for six, then church, then sailing KrazyKat at LaDue, then cleanup and dinner. I'll be lucky if there's any energy for beveling framing at 7pm!

Oh, and the children are insisting on a bike ride. Since summer started four hours ago (1:45 am EDT), we'll have more sunlight, just perhaps not more energy.

*Update 20090622: Payson calls both the forward end of this boat a "transom" as well as the aft end. Wikipedia says only the stern is a transom. Hmmmm.

Well, Sunday saw no activity on the Tortoise (although we did get KrazyKat out on LaDue Reservoir).

Since last time

Monday saw us build another transom and add some framing to both. We also traced out the hull bottom but didn't cut it yet.

Tuesday saw some action. We gang-clamped the two side panels together and got out the belt sander which made short work of the inconsistencies between the two panels. The table saw made short work of the two bevels we needed for the fore and aft transoms. (Bolger calls both transoms.)

We set up the saw horses in the back yard and extended them with 2x4s to be wider than the three feet beam of this boat. The longest Bessey K-body clamps in the shop had to be called upon for the clamping action. Got some Titebond III and some 1¼" stainless deck screws helped coax the side panels to stay attached to the bow stern transom.

We ran out of time before bedtime had to be respected. There are now three panels attached and it is starting to look like its predecessor.

What's next

We'll next add the stern bow transom to the mix and then add the bottom. We've decided to fiberglass the joints, partly to add to the waterproofing but also to add some wear resistance (this boat sees a lot of abuse). When that's done we'll flip her over (she's turtle now) and add an afterdeck (per plans) and a foredeck (per my heart's desire), both with coamings. Oh and a mast step, possible from the original Box.

No work on Wednesday (swim meet) and none likely on Thursday (Microsoft taking us to see Up). Perhaps more on Friday. We had planned a hull test at Shadow Lake on Saturday. I doubt she'll have paint by then.

Since last time

First thing this afternoon was to add the bow panel. The bottom edge of this panel had been beveled during our last work session and now the whole piece was to be added to the side panels and transom.

Since we took the side panel measurements off of the old Box, I knew that these side panels were at least ¼" too tall, maybe more. Cutting the bow and transom panels to size meant that they were at least ¼" too short, so those gunwales will need to be trimmed when this is over.

A couple of long Bessey K-body clamps, a handful of short, abused Bessey LM clamps, some Titebond III and some stainless deck screws took care of getting this panel in and keeping it in.

We next tackled the bottom panel to complete the hull. What was frustrating about this was that the panel we chose a few weeks ago had warped. That's usually fine since the hull shape is effectively a warped rocker, but this time it warped backwards to what I wanted. In this case, the convex side was the "C" side of this BC plywood (with lots of cracks) while the concave side (inside the boat) was smooth. That's why we have a backup sheet of plywood. This one seemed to have two "B" sides (smooth, no cracks) so we oriented the bulge on the right side of the hull, marked it up and used the circular saw to cut it out.

Here's where it got tricky. We got out all the clamps: big ones, small ones, good ones and decrepit ones. We dry fit the hull panel, got things aligned, slathered glue on the transom, sides and bow and got going.

Well we made it. I wish I had used a glue with a longer open time since the Titebond III only has a 20 minute open assembly time. Oh, well, too late now!

We removed the clamps as we added the stainless deck screws. I'm not sure how many are there, but we used quite a few to keep the curve fair.

A block plane cleaned up the side edges and the fore and aft parts will take something a bit stronger.

What's next

Tomorrow we hope to get those overlapping parts of the hull trimmed off. Then there's some epoxy on the chine logs (where the hull and sides meet) followed by some fiberglass tape. We'll check the basement for some primer and if we can't find anything external, we'll probably end up at Home Despot looking for some Kilz Exterior. I wonder what mis-mixed porch paint they have there today?

Not much to update except that last night we got the hull primed, inside and out. Ben has identified the color and we're off to purchase a gallon of Behr Porch Paint soon, probably tomorrow.

What's next

Once that's painted, we'll add the foredeck and the afterdeck and the mast step and the rudder hardware. Sounds like a lot, but not really.

Current plan is to launch on Monday, July 7th.