A scarf and a harf

The stems get laminated over the aprons. Before we could do this it was necessary to ‘true up’ the aprons to make sure that the boat ended up the right length (and right shape). The fact that the hog was under considerable pressure when glued up to the aprons - resulted in enough pressure on the aprons to distort the forefoot by about 10mm. Anyway - once the aprons are properly located Rod and I screw them firmly to the building ladder and laminate the stems over the top (after covering them in tape).

One stem gets done over the weekend and the other gets done on Monday. By the time that we allow 36 hours for cure (The workshop temperature is at about the minimum for resorcinol) the week is disappearing fast. Once the stems are cleaned up and trued we fair off the aprons and stem rabbet to match the lofting (leaving a bit of spare of course - is it enough?) and address the problem of scarfing the keel to the laminated stems. The keel is being built in two strips - to allow it to take the required bend. At first it seems unlikely that the two keel strips will bend - but once a rough cut scarf is made enough stock has been removed from the ends to allow the wood to follow the hog.

I think that this scarf probably the hardest piece of joinery that I have had to do so far. The hard bit is that fact that I needed to join two pieces of wood under tension (the two layers of the keel) to another that is not in tension (the stem). I could clamp up the keel to the hog in order to mark up the face of the scarf (a straight line) but had to cut the scarf in the form of a gentle flat curve when the wood was flat on the bench.

Given that I am using resorcinol to glue up the backbone the joint really needs to fit! It ended up being just over a day’s work to cut and fit the scarfs for both ends of the keel - but the result was quite pleasingly tight.

Once the dry fit worked it was time (and we have reached Friday afternoon by this stage) to glue up the whole thing - backbone complete by 4pm.

I spend the rest of the day working on the Gig - timbering (I was part of the ‘late shift’). The work went well with the whole first fit timbers getting finished in a day (some of the timbers have to wait as they go underneath the molds. While bending and fixing the timbers for the gig took a day - ‘joggling’ the timbers will take the next two or three weeks. Joggling in this context is the practice - standard for a pilot gig - of notching all the timbers to fit closely against every plank. The lightness of the construction makes this more or less essential - but very time consuming.

I manage to squeeze a sample timber for Seapod in the steam box and manage (with help from Steve and Gail) to bend it round the midships station (just before we glue up the backbone). This is kiln dried American white oak that has been steamed for just over an hour. It goes on without any problems. Only forty five more to go (next week).

Meantime - all the other builds are making progress - but I haven’t got time to write about all the dramas that happened to them this week - there are timbers waiting to be prepared, meals to be cooked, beaches to walk on…..

Here are a few snaps.

Ian’s boat is currently covered in a quilt and nursing a cold so could not be seen very clearly.