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CS 17


Paul356

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I've been gone a bit.  I thought I would be retiring.  Well, I retired today, but I start my retirement job next Thursday.  That offer arrived on about the same day as my kit.   Life can be funny some times.  I'd held off starting the sides and bottom and hull knowing that this might unfold with me working a couple more years rather than working a lot on my CS17 .  So, a couple of observations:

--I think I'll put the garage back together and hold off on the hull until I see what's what and the weather is warm enough for epoxy, or next spring.

--I can work on some of the smaller components, because it's at least "building a boat" and it is great therapy.

 

In that vein, I spent a very rewarding hour or two recently with the block plane putting the initial shape into the rudder.  It's amazing how it now feels like a "blade," with the tapered leading edge, and not like just a hunk of laminated plywood.

 

I'll keep you posted on what's what.  I'm glad folks like Lennie G are able to move ahead.  I think you'll beat me into the water! Here's a picture of the rudder, the plane, and the shavings.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, this is kind of fun.  I ripped the 16' stringers in my 24' garage attic.  So, in one window, into the saw, and out the other window. 

 

As I mentioned before, I thought I'd be retiring, but ended up with a "retirement job" that's interesting and rewarding. But my boat building is moving at a considerably slower pace than I had expected.   It's too cold to use epoxy outside now, but I can work on components like the stringers and glue up some of the smaller pieces inside, and the odd hours here and there working on the boat are welcome recreation.  Working name for this craft:  ColumBine.

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  • 5 months later...

I was not entirely idle this winter.  These are some of the parts I made for the 17 in the basement, since it was far too cold to do any epoxy work on the boat itself outside.  You can see (from right), the rudder blade, the rudder head with tiller attached, the centerboard and, hiding in the back, one of the centerboard sides with it's layer of cloth and cleat.  in the front are three of the clever little seat hatches and frames. All still need some final finishing and trimming.

 

 I left the tiller head long because I want the tiller to swing up if I stand, or to fold back up out of the way.  Although it doesn't quite show, the tiller is non-standard.  I modified the tiller from my last boat to be a little stronger for the 15.  It will be fun to have that familiar old stick with me again 25 years or so after I first made it.  Not shown but also part of this winter's labors are a half dozen or more 16-foot strips I ripped to use for gunnels, stringers, etc.  That was a chore on my old, tiny table saw.  Just about the time I was done, I bought a new table saw.  Once the weather offers to be reliably above 60 degrees during the days, the garage will become the boat shop and the hull will start to take shape.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Big day.  It's finally warm enough to start gluing up panels in the garage attic.  This is the first.  And, yes, it will go out the window at the far end.  I checked the fit earlier.  I can't believe it either.

 

 It's really great to start this.  Going 2-D, I guess.  The garage itself is still fairly chilly, but the sun heats the attic. 

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Back at it.  Just over a year since the kit arrived from B&B.  But I got some time away from the office and work resumes in earnest.  Oh, I also have a hull number, 381.  Yesterday I got the cradle ready.  Today my wife and I slid the panels out the garage attic shop window and down to driveway.  I did the final cleanup, and now the butterflies are curing in the garage.  With any luck, the big unfolding comes tomorrow.  That will be a fun day.  Some fotos from today (slight confession, it's a bottom panel in the first couple pix but a topside in the last one) :

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Hi Paul, My son and I are about to embark on a CS 17 here in Wisconsin.  It will be fun to watch your progress as we embark.  We are going to do the kit as well, but are still sorting it all out.  Hope to get it here in time to get some assembly done before cold sets in.  We might be able to move to a heated shop, but the home shop is much more convenient.  We are south of LaCrosse.  We'd love to see your boat one day! 

My son is 13 and this is his expanded 8th grade project--and my mid-life crisis--all rolled into one!

-Matt

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The big day arrives.  This is such an amazing and fun event in the life of a CS build. 

 

We needed to do the assembly outside since the garage ceiling is not tall enough to handle the vertical butterflies.  Weather and social schedule coincided about 230 Sunday afternoon, and we wheeled the cradle out into the drive.  I had already tied the keels together.  I used nylon wire ties, and they worked well for me.  These are the 4" ties, which fit through the 1/8" holes.  (I was a little worried about whether they would hold up, or pull tight enough, but they did and, it seemed to me, pulled just as tight and more easily than wire.  They were certainly easier for me to use than wire, and I have less worries about leaving them in place if that happens.  A few failed when I pulled too tight, but I either replaced them or used wire as a backup.  Get 2 packs of 100.)

 

I laid the book flat on the cradle and clamped some sticks to each pair of wings.  We slowly opened... And there it was.  Just amazing.  It took some adjusting to get the gear teeth to fit, and the wings to fall comfortably, but with the two of us working around the boat, it went fine, and never did I feel we were in danger of cracking anything.  You'll see I had the safety blocks up front, inside and out.  After that we started working the ties from front to back along the chine, and then went back a couple more times to pull them tighter each time.  I did some pulling and tugging to get the bow pieces to line up properly (in a V), rather than overlapped.  I adopted Graham's suggestion and drilled a pair of holes for a long screw at the most recalcitrant part of the curve, then tightened it up to close the final gap. 

 

I had to trim about 1/8" or 3/16" from 4 teeth on one side and six on the other, since they weren't quite lined up and didn't want to slip together.  (Used a sharp utility-type knife).  I have some gaps of 1/4" or more between the pieces in the vertical areas just behind the bow, and not sure yet what to do with those.  By 530 everything was pretty tight, the bulkheads were in place one way or another, and I had a stick across the stern to sub in for the transom.  I put the boat away for the night that way.  I want everything to settle in and I'll pull it out again and line it up and see how it looks before I start to tack things in place. 

 

What a fun day.

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Matt & Tru, I think you'll enjoy it.  Be sure to let me know if you get to Milwaukee.  I was able to do a lot of work in the basement last winter, and cutting in the garage even tho it was cold.  So the centerboard, rudder, seats, trunk are more or less ready to be installed when the time comes.  

 

If you haven't found them already, these Graham-approved videos by Adam are invaluable:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPjfXCXAxwE&index=2&list=PLCCJRycps-_mbO-Lfdr0s8OZX-4QOZCzL or google Core Sound 15 Hull Assembly Part 1

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Hi Paul,  So great to see your hull take shape.  I think we would have jumped in the car and come over to watch/assist had we known you were doing that!  Not to worry, plenty of that ahead.  But it is inspiring to see your pictures.  Truman and I have watched almost the entire series of those videos and they are excellent.  I'm not sure we would have committed to this without seeing them and how, one step at a time, the thing will go together.  We will make a plan to come see your progressing boat this fall if that is ok? 

Best of luck on it. 

-Matt and Tru. 

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Friday I tack-welded the chines, bow and a bit of the bottom in place.  Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time backtracking near the transom.  The stern bottom angle wasn't right.  I'm not ready to put the real transom in yet, so I made a pattern that I could push into place, along with the rear bulkhead and force the bottom panels into the right angle.  A lot of fussing but of course I wanted to get it right.  It took a few hours.  Way it goes.  I'm ready to fillet and tape the chines now, tho.

 

The taping recommended in the plans is quite a bit more robust than the fillets in Alan's videos, with two layers of tape and a much broader fillet, and I plan to do it that way.   Then I'm going to fillet and tape the fore-and-aft cockpit sides and the rear bulkhead, which are already in place, then slide the inner keel in, and only then put the transom on.  (The CS 15 videos show putting the transom on first, then the rear bulkhead, but it's a different setup on the 15, with the cockpit sides running all the way to the transom instead of just to the rear bulkhead.)  Many thanks to my wife, who noticed that if both the transom and the rear bulkhead are glassed in, fitting the inner keel mght be very difficult if not impossible.  I decided I'd rather have the cockpit sides first, then the transom.  I think you need to pick one way or the other.

 

It all takes a lot of time. It's frustrating when a couple of pieces don't quite line up ("that's what epoxy is for,"  I grudingly tell myself).  I feel like I needed another quarter inche of spread in the bow, but couldn't get it.  How big a flaw will that be? But it's very gratifying when there's such a sweet shaped boat sitting in the garage despite a few gaps here and there. 

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Paul-

Good luck with next steps.....you are making progress. Good pick up on transom going in after keel batten! I believe that when the following happens the boat will take the right shape at the bow as it has no choice: the forward bulkhead is cut right and in place; the center line and Chines are tight with stitches; and the inwales are in and set. I don't see your inwales in on your picture but they really force the boat into shape.i would have an extra set of hands available during that process and use mahogany if possible. There have been incidents of fir cracking.

I hear you about this process taking time.....I've been readying cockpit for paint for three weeks....getting old frankly. On my third coat of epoxy today but getting bubbles....damn....sand sand sand. I guess the rule about decreasing temps applies to me too. Thought is just applied to others  :)

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