Mouse Pram

2.15.08 Friday.  Starboard Garboard, Skeg, and 2nd strake (port side) now installed.

2.10.08 Sunday.  The bottom and the port garboard are now installed. 

16' Prospector

8.3.07 Friday.  Turned over the hull and rough-shaped the fore and aft ends. The exterior still needs one final thin coat of epoxy, but I'll take care of that just prior to varnishing.

8.2.07 Thursday.  First filler coat complete.  I should be turning over the hull tomorrow.

7.29.07 Sunday.  I glassed the hull from 1030 pm until 1230.  Now I need to do 1 or 2 filler coats.

7.28.07 Saturday.  Now that my sister's wedding is over, I've accomplished quite a bit.  I just finished applying the sealer coat to the outside.  I will probably 'glass the hull this evening and then turn it over in the morning to start sanding the inside.  Sand sand sand.

6.21.07 Thursday.  What a pleasure it is to work in a spacious, clean, organized area.  I installed 12 strips (6 on each side) in 3 hours.  So I'm averaging 1 per 15 minutes.

6.20.07 Wednesday.  Today I took the entire day off and completely re-organized the shop.  No boat work.

6.19.07 Tuesday.  Family Day.

6.18.07 Monday.  Not a productive boat-building day.  I went sailing with my brother and didn't get home until 10:30.  However, I did get the first 2 strips on. 

6.17.07 Sunday. Today I carved rolling bevels on the inner stems with my angle grinder.  It is a little known fact to the woodworking world that an angle grinder can be an accurate carving instrument.  I also taped the molds so that the strips would not stick.

6.16.07  Saturday.  Today I went to work on my new project.  Thanks to my mom e-mailing the entire Spring Lake Public School staff, I've been commissioned to build another canoe.  It is a kit that has been with my client for 14 years.  I  picked up the strongback, forms, strips, gunwales, seats, thwart, epoxy and fiberglass yesterday after work.  I strapped all 16+ feet of it on my truck and drove it home.  Today I rearranged the shop a bit, set up the strongback and forms, drilled 11 clamping holes in each of the stem molds and laminated the inner stems.  There weren't enough strips to laminate both inner stems, so I ripped some ash left over from the Wee Lassie and made a striped aft inner stem.  Pretty productive first day.

Wee Lassie Canoe.

6.8.07 And now the boat is done.  Actually, she needs 2 more coats of varnish inside and out, but she's ready for th Spring Lake Heritage Festival Wooden Boat Show.  Overall I'm satisfied with how it turned out.  My apologies for the 5-week lag in this blog, but I did keep up in regards to the photo gallery. 

4.30.07 Closing in on a finished hull.  Takes about 30 minutes to fit one strip.  There are about 50 strips, so that translates into about 25 hours of work.  I began laminating the walnut outer stem a few days ago.  Boy does that look sharp.  The keel strip is cherry and comes to an arrow point fore and aft, so it's a nice little detail for the transition into walnut.  I expect it will take 3-5 strips.  I've also started filling in the few holes that were necessary to hold things in place.  I expect to have the hull completed before the end of the week, including stems.  Then I'll be on vacation so I can dig into sanding and filling, sealing and glassing.  I plan to show this boat and the Jonboat at the June 9 Spring Lake Heritage Festival Wooden Boat Show.

4.25.07 Started using shock cord to hold those strips in place.  Works like a charm.  I use a little insert so I don't damage the routed cove.

4.21.07 Making a good deal of progress.  The strips are not cooperating with the turn of the bilge, as expected.  However, necessity is the mother of invention so I devised a system of using the pinch clamps to make the strips conform.  I expect to complete the planking by the 28th, and then begin the fairing process.  And then...fiberglass. 

4.14.07  First 4 strips installed!  I can install 1 strip on each side every 4 hours using the clamping/no staple technique.  Definitely more time-consuming, but leaves zero nail holes to fill in later.  The next strips will be the port and starboard feature strips.  They were very labor intensive to make, given their many individual parts.

Jonboat

4.16.07

Finished fiberglassing the chines.