Crazer

Thanks for the quick and definitive answer, Alan. That's where I was leaning but the reassurance is good. It's also never too early to think about finishes, and tonight I was trying to parse the difference between one and two part finishes and the benefits of each. I've searched the forum and found some information but I'd love to hear some first hand recommendations and experiences from people who've had their boats for a while. I'm leaning towards a two-part because I expect to use my boat hard as a tender but it's a little intimidating and, of course, more expensive.

Looking really good and man you're moving fast! Nice job on the boat and on the comprehensive updates-I'm enjoying them.

My lumber has arrived, along with mast tubes, sail kit and boxes of screws and other hardware so I've finally begun to make real headway. Annoyingly, I'm still being slowed by an early decision to buy slow epoxy hardener, which is taking 48 hours to cure fully in our unseasonably cool basement. Oh well, I'm continuing on and I have a bottle of fast curing hardener on the way. I think the slow stuff will be great for fiberglass layup and probably even the final overall coats of epoxy but in the small quantities needed for gluing up parts it just takes way too long to set up enough to handle. The boat went 3D today, a dry run with one of two nesting bulkheads and some zip ties before committing to the final thing but I think it went well and everything fit so I'll press on tomorrow with the bottom and gluing up some more sub-assemblies. One question for the group. I made a mistake earlier, laying out the rudder the wrong way on the plywood so the grain runs horizontally instead of vertically. Not my finest moment. My question is, since I was planning on putting a layer of glass over it for abrasion resistance will that make up the difference in strength or is the grain direction so fundamental I should just recut it? It would be a no brainer except I'm squeezing to get all the parts out of the plywood I have on hand so I'm trying to avoid wastage as much as possible.

Still waiting on parts, but I've finished cutting out as many of the plywood components as I can right now. I have the sail kit from Sailrite on the way, along with most of the rigging hardware from Viadana and Duckworks and the lumber from CLC. Hopefully she'll start to look like a boat soon.

Well after a week with my jigsaw I've replaced my two sheets of plywood with a stack of vaguely boat shaped plywood parts. Thanks to Alan, I should have updated plans tomorrow and hopefully some lumber shortly thereafter. In the meantime, I'm ordering fasteners and hardware in abundance. I'll be getting some epoxy supplies on Saturday so I'll be gluing up the transoms and doublers shortly. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be going 3D, assuming the lumber gets here. I'm really bad about stopping to document the build (and I'm self conscious about my dungeon/workshop...) but I promise I'll have some photos soon!

Hi Alan, many thanks for the information. I think I would like the updated plans sheets, mostly to save me some head scratching along the way. I'm think I'm just smart enough to figure it out, but not quickly.

Thanks for the advice on lumber yards, Brad. I did make it to Exotic Lumber in Annapolis-that's where I got my plywood before this all started. I talked to them about lumber for the rest of the project as well but they seemed reluctant to ship and I'm trying to be a good citizen and avoid going out as much as possible. Plus, I really wanted cypress because I've liked working with it in the past and CLC, being a big advocate of cypress as a boat building wood, has it in stock. Don, your boat is beautiful, as are the poplar gunwales and seat. Your build has been really helpful for me, clarifying some questions I had about the finished boat. I started cutting parts this weekend, so far i have the hull panels and transoms cut and I'm laying out the nesting bulkheads, doublers, dagger board trunk and foils now. I'm eager to start stitching the boat together but I still have to do transom framing and assembling the nesting bulkheads. I've got quite a bit of momentum now that there are boat shaped parts lying around. I'm also going to go ahead and order the kit for the sail from Sailrite so I can get some sewing in. I miss my job! I do have one question about the construction of the boat. One the plans sheets shows three seats with the mast stepped through the forward seat. Some of the other drawings, and most of the completed boats I've seen, have a built in plywood tank instead. I think that's my preferred option, but I don't see any detailed information about it on the plans and it's mentioned only in passing in the instruction booklet. I think I can figure it out but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Thanks for the advice and information. Years of lurking on certain forums and reading certain magazines (coincidentally of the same name) has gone to my head and I'm fairly determined to use the finest materials I can afford. That said, we have a stack of very dry pressure treated 2x8s in our garage so if I can't get or can't afford hardwoods I'll go down that route. I do appreciate the egalitarian philosophy of using readily available materials. I am lucky enough to have recently acquired a fairly powerful Jet contractor's saw at a good price so I have the capability to rip my own lumber. CLC has quoted me on some Cypress and while it's several times the cost of pressure treated pine I think I'll go for it provided I can get it here for a relatively reasonable cost. This is the only boat I'll be building for a while and I'm lucky enough to be able to afford it in the middle of this crisis. And it'll make me happy which counts for a lot I think. New blades for my jigsaw arrived today and the weather is supposed to be unpleasant for a couple days starting tomorrow so I hope to start making sawdust soon.

With everyone sheltering in place, it seemed like a good time to get some uninterrupted work done on a new tender for my beloved Cape Dory 28. I chose the design because when it's nested, it will fit between my dodger and the boom vang on the cabin top, avoiding the need to awkwardly tow the boat or store it on the foredeck. Since I intend to take the boat to Bermuda and across the Atlantic this was important to me. This will be my first boat build since I was a teenager and I've found a lot of inspiration and ideas in the other Catspaw builds documented on the forum. I've spent a lot of time working on boats, first doing systems (which I loved but found I was not suited for professionally) and then marine canvas (which I was) so I'm pretty good at planning projects and working with tools. That said I've never had anything but ten thumbs when it comes to woodworking so this will be a major learning experience for me. I've started out lofting the hull sides and bulkheads, trying to be thoughtful about the use of materials. I'm currently waiting on additional lumber, Chesapeake Light Craft is supposed to be quoting me on lumber for the gunwales and framing but I haven't heard back from them yet so I'm just puttering along in the meantime. Not much to show yet, especially in my dimly lit basement but I'll share some photos once she starts to take shape. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there.

I'm finding it impossible to correct the slight twist in the strongback. One board is slightly curved relative to the other and there's no way to wrestle them into alignment without throwing everything else off. So I think what I'll do is just level the brackets relative to one another and just scrap the strongback if I intend to build another boat. ::sigh:: I hate imperfection, even imperfection that can be overcome.

Thanks, good to know! You'll get an order for sinew etc. from me very soon. The world would be very boring if we were all perfect. I got my marine ply home today so there should be more to see soon. Still too cold to work on the sailboat so I should make good progress for a while...

I came to that conclusion too after a "duh!" moment while staring at the thing. I generally prefer bolts over most other fasteners, when they make sense. There's also a slight, very slight bit of twist that I need to work out. Overall it's much better than I had anticipated, I do like this design.

I have started on building Vardo after flirting with the idea of SOF kayak for much longer than I should have! I built the strongback last night, using the clamshell method described in the manual. Despite the fact that the original evidently warped, I decided to use this method as it will be easier to manage in my limited space. If I find I really want to build more boats this way I can invest in a proper plywood strongback. The strongback I built is pulling apart at one end. I guess the screws didn't have enough bite to withstand the force of the sides being pulled apart. My strongback uses two 8 ft 1x6 pieces for a total length of 15 ft (no greater than two feet less than the boat's loa per the manual) and I believe that is a contributing factor. My thought is to disassemble that side, put in new screws and glue the end to solve the issue. Any thoughts? It's great that there is such an active forum here as a resource for builders of this style of boat.