Boatbuilding fever WTF is wrong with me?

[Griff]

Glatt, where did you get the design?

SN, time to turn the boat desire into crazy productivity on the house with boat building as the reward... says the guy who is typing not working.

[glatt]

For the kayak I built, you need:
a saber saw/jig saw (a cheap one from Harbor Freight Tools will do) $20
a random orbital sander and some sandpaper (You will use this a fair amount, so you'll want to spend the $90 for a good one.)
A drill (you probably have this already, but if not, a cheap one will do) $30
A block plane $30
a hammer (you probably have one already) $10
Some wire cutters $10
Bunch of disposable latex gloves to keep epoxy off your hands $5
A respirator is a good idea when sanding epoxy/fiberglass $20
Safety glasses $4
Ear muffs so the sander doesn't make you deaf. $5

A huge variety and number of clamps is helpful, but you can make your own from plastic pipes.

I had a $800 table saw that I used a few times, but you can get around it with just the jig saw.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Griff

Glatt, where did you get the design?

Griff, it's a Mill Creek 13, sold in both kit form where everything is pre-cut and included, or in plan form where you pretty much do it all youself, by Chesapeake Light Craft. The design was done by the founder of CLC, Chris Kulczycki, who later sold the company. Cool thing is that for this particular boat, Chris wrote an article on how to make it in an old issue of Wooden Boat magazine, so you can probably find the back issue at a library and copy the plans for free out of the magazine. Once you know how to do a stitch and glue boat, all you need is the table of offsets for the panel shapes.

Chris also wrote a book on kayak building that includes plans for three kayaks.

[casimendocina]

Cool re the tools one needs. Thanks

[BrianR]

This thread is reviving my old fantasy of building my own airplane in my garage.

My wife killed that one along with many others.

[Griff]

I'm slipping the boat thing into my 70th year cue.

[HungLikeJesus]

I'd really like to build a wind turbine. That's like a boat... kind of.

[glatt]

How big? Make magazine has an article on building a small one.

Actually, there's a better link here.

[HungLikeJesus]

Thanks glatt, I'll check those out.

[squirell nutkin]

Here's a plan for a Bermuda Sloop. I built a scale model of this a few years ago and I just dug it out from under the sawdust and mold in my basement. When it is presentable, I'll post a photo of the model. I have to find the sails.

I like the "excessive sail area."

I'm probably going to build something more like this, however:

[glatt]

Is there enough information on those plans to actually build a boat hull?

I'm familiar with tables of offsets to cut plywood panels into the proper shape for a stitch and glue, and tables to cut forms to the proper shape for a stripper, but I'm not sure how you would turn a plan like this into an actual boat. Do you somehow take measurements off the plans to make the bow and ribs of the boat? I assume once you have that, you can just fit planking to that skeleton without a plan.

How's it work?

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by glatt

Is there enough information on those plans to actually build a boat hull?

I'm familiar with tables of offsets to cut plywood panels into the proper shape for a stitch and glue, and tables to cut forms to the proper shape for a stripper, but I'm not sure how you would turn a plan like this into an actual boat. Do you somehow take measurements off the plans to make the bow and ribs of the boat? I assume once you have that, you can just fit planking to that skeleton without a plan.

How's it work?

Not without a lot of work, there is no table of offsets, so you'd have to get a teensy tape measure and measure out all the lines as drawn, then scale them up (loft them) and then you'd still probably need to fidget a lot to get things fair.

I read somewhere "A cabinet maker builds to the nearest 1/32nd, a carpenter to the nearest 1/8th, and a boat builder to the nearest boat." Indicating the inexactness of the whole process, in other words as long as it's fair.

Here's a table of offsets for one of my top 5. (When I have some more time, I'll make smaller jpegs of the lot and post them.

[squirell nutkin]

The guy in the photo has a gaff rig but in the drawing it is rigged with a spritsail. I'm not too sure what the performance difference is. I don't think I've sailed a spritsail.

[glatt]

So is each one of those 13 stations just a plane that describes the shape of the cross section of the inside of the hull planking, or is each one an actual rib* whose shape is being described?

*I don't know the proper terms. What's one of those ribs called, where the spine is the keel?

(In other words, can you take the numbers from a station and lay them out on some stock to make one of the ribs, or do you have to do something else with them?)

[squirell nutkin]

Each station is a vertical cross section at that point of the hull. The stations are perpendicular to the keel. The buttocks are vertical sections parallel to the keel,spaced at one foot intervals, then there are another set of sections parallel to the waterline called waterlines.

When you look at the end view or the plan view you will see each of those lines. The table of offsets gives you coordinate points that you layout on a sheet of plywood then connect the dots to get the shape of the station.

You cut out all the stations, assemble them to the keel temporarily, then bend thin battens called ribbands, along the stations to mimic planking. Then you can determine where your ribs will go and what shape they are. You steam and bend them to shape and clamp them in position to the ribbands. When they are all inplace (mortised to the keel and everything) you begin taking the ribbands off and replacing them with planking.

That may be confusing. I may have to scan some more pictures to show.