Leaderboard

Hi all, might want to consult the web site “the ultimate hang”. As some may know, I motorcycle camp quite a bit with a homemade hammock. There is a calculator on that site that give the angle and the weight exerted on the tree (or mast). I think I would consult our favorite marine designer before I subjected my masts to a point load. It is more of a load than I thought!

I been working on a double. Its not a Kudzu design but I am using all the techniques I learnt building curlew and supplies from Jeff. Here are some FROG pics.

Finished

Here is a FROG photo of my Curlew frame taken yesterday and a photo of its partially completed oak coaming. I was able to put the first coat of tung oil on my completed Curlew frame, ten years after purchasing the plans and many years after assembling the frame with zip ties. Thanks to my friend Steve Rouse for his help and his woodworking shop. We built the form for the coaming from the offsets in the book and just have to glue on the lip. We used 1/8th inch green white oak strips which we sanded with 80 grit paper, then wiped with alcohol before gluing with gorilla glue. The wood was incredibly flexible, no need for steam bending, but the glue seems to be holding very well in spite of the wood's 20% moisture content. We considered using G-flex epoxy but the gorilla glue set up in a couple of hours and I was able to plane off and sand off the excess that evening. We should have made the openings in our coaming form closer to the edge of the form to facilitate using spring clamps and we should have spent more time before the glue up planning to make sure our strips overlapped on the sides of the form rather than at the ends.

On with the urethane goop. Much nicer to work with than the varnish I used last time. I tried some on a piece of scrap first and it looks like it is compatible with the skin.

I was a bit worried about some wrinkles in the skin but they came out easily with a light iron.

I'm installing a rudder. I put the control lines through while skinning.

I stapled the bow and then welded the seam using the side of the hot knife attachment on my soldering iron.

Here is a skinned boat

I used a stitch I found in a building journal by George Dyson. It is very similar to the doubble corded stitch but without the chords. I had to place the stitches much closer together and they mirror on each side. It took about 3 times as long as the doubble corded stitch I used on Curlew.

Made coamings from the remaing wrc. The plans call for a ply coaming that slopes with the deckline. I'm still deciding what to use.

Bow and stern added. Split the end of the last stringer I was lashing to the stern. Stuck in back together with some epoxy and lashing. Hope its ok.

Cut frames and positioned on strong back. I only used 2 fixed stations.

Scarfing stringers.