Steamed

Finding ways of handling the 3+ meter stringers took a little work, but by the third one I had it down. I did have to switch ends of the poly tubing during the steaming since the most pronounced curves were at the bow and stern.

I am now looking forward to finding other pieces of wood to bend.

I have a sufficient planing and smoothing to do for awhile, before planking.

Once the weather warms and drys I also have a lot of precoating to do.

Steaming away

After a vacation hiatus and waiting for the Rockler steamer to arrive I was able to get back to work. Perfect timing as it looks like I will have little else to do while "sheltering at home" for perhaps a month or more...gulp.

First off was gluing down the bottom which went without a hitch.

Then came the stringer which I had originally tried to do without steaming which did not work.

So after picking up a steamer and poly tubing as advised be Bob Wessel I put my first stringer up this afternoon.

This is a little fitting I fabricated to make the connection with the tubing

The stringer is in place with the poly still on, tomorrow I will pull it off and then make sure it is dry before gluing. The three more I have to do should go a little quicker than the first.

Setback

I guess the curve was too much for the VG Fir stringers.
Though I had them worked around to the very stern.

Where I was slowly trying to pull them in.

But.......Apparently sometime in the last two days while I was away they decided to split on both sides.

I have yet try the gunnel stringers, but if it looks like they will do the same I will have to rethink, as this wood is much too expensive to waste. The problem is it is the only thing available to me here in the proper length and to my mind appropriate material.

Some progress;

Frames are going up, dagger board case and mast step in place. A little bit of adjusting and planing here and there should allow bottom panel to be placed soon.

Starting to look like a boat.

Bits and pieces

Progress has been made, even starting to take some form

Pre-finishing

Mostly the tedious and slow work of pre-finishing during the days I have to work on it.

Did stop and throw together a router table to speed up the process.

So now planks and frame pieces are at least initially coated, and the assembly will begin.

Building of frame pieces beginning

Let the gluing begin

Finally getting started on actually putting the kit together. Had to clear out 1/3 of the barn to create the build space.

Build frame first;

The one piece that was not shipped with the kit form J.O. Woodworks was the bottom. This was because the 8' piece would have added on considerably to the shipping cost.
So I went out and picked up a 9mm sheet. John did send the puzzle joint jig that I need and even sent the router bit to do the job as well as the pattern for the bottom.

I first put the pattern on a couple of door skins in order to feel comfortable with placement on 9mm sheet.

The routing then went off without a hitch;

I now have a lot of gluing to do for the planks and need to use the space to do that so will not be able to start the frames until after. I will post more then.