Friday, March 19, 2010

Week 6

Last weekend I took advantage of an empty shop to make my new carlin and sheer clamp. I got out my 2x9 piece of Fir and laid it ontop of the old carlin and clamp. I traced the curve of the carlin onto the Fir and cut it out with a jigsaw. After fairing it to the eye, I traced over and inch and 3/8" to give me the width of the sheer clamp. After this was cut out with the jig saw and faired smooth and square, the shape left over in the Fir stock was perfect for cutting out my carlin, after once again fairing, and transferring this time to an inch and 7/8 for thickness. I went back to the boat to take some measurements for the scarph joint where the new clamp will meet the old one, and I slipped putting my foot down on the floor timbers and almost had a bad accident. Thats when I decided nothing else can happen without a solid floor to stand on.

So I got busy making new cabin sole beams from Herreshoff's pen out of 1" thick white oak. There were 7 new beams that were needed, each at a different length with different angles where they tie into the frames. This was an easy cut, though, since they sit ontop of the frames, I could leave them 1/2" long then lie them against the frames and cut them to exact length with the exact angles and get perfect fits every time. At the end of one day, I had all beams in place, level, fastened to the frames with 1 3/4" bronze fasteners, with bungs gluing. The next day I laid down some temporary plywood where teak will eventually go.

With the new floor down, I feel pretty limber in the boat. I removed the support braces on the transom as well as the butt block and began fairing the transom with a power planer, block plane, and belt sander in that order. It still needs some more work however. I made a new butt block and support braces with a little flare (see pictures) and sealed them up with the elixir mix. Then I brought the new clamp into the boat and laid out my scarph line, and cut it out with my japanese saw and chisels. The old clamp was cut away from the boat with a hack saw, the old rivets removed and the new clamp put in place. First I attached it at the stern with a fastener coming in from the outside to hold it aft, then at the scarph joing with g-flex and 4 stainless bolts. Then, after some words of advice from Brad Pease, I began the careful yet straining process of riveting. All the hammering from the rivets seemed to expose some loose fasteners and some even more loose frames. I got all but 3 rivets in before I needed to cut in some dutchmens to the top plank where the wood had ripped away when I removed the old deck. I had two new dutchmens with a very tight fit, and the three rivets the next day.

Then I was able to fit the new carlin, making little let-in holes with a 3/4" forsner bit where it touches with rivets. This ensures a flush fit. The carlin is attached to the clamp with six 1/4" stainless bolts every other frame space and two at the scarph joint. The stern knee was put in place with g-flex and fastened from the stern outside and from the top through the carlin. And by the end of the day, I began the same process of removed the old carlin and clamp to replace it with new on the STBD side. I hope to have this finished by sunday.