Leo De Bruyn Posted September 18, 2018 Report Share Posted September 18, 2018 Here is the Short Shot I am building out in Friday Harbor, WA. It has taken a while. When I started, I had no woodworking tools at all and almost no experience. Now, I have the beginnings of a respectable collection. Acquiring tools and learning to use them has obviously added to my cost and time, but learning to do this stuff is a major reason I decided to do this in the first place, so I am content. Here on the island, what I could get my hands on was MDO for the frames (ugly, but seems to work fine), and Western Red Cedar for stringers. I was lucky enough to find some full length clear fascia boards for the gunwales and keel, and there are only a couple scarfs I had to do for a couple of the stringers. If I had wanted I could have ordered clear finished 1"x8"x18' boards at the local yard, but I didn't want to spend the money, so I picked through the fascia pile and hit the jackpot. Good cedar is one of the few things that it is easy to get out here. The boat is a little more heavily built than plans-- initially because I didn't have an easy way to plane the boards from 3/4" to 5/8", but after some thought, I realized I don't mind it being a bit sturdier in the sometimes rough conditions I can encounter on the ocean. I will only be using it in salt water, and we can get some decent wind, waves, and tides here. It's still not too heavy for me to easily pick up and put on the car. I also did my first ever lamination on the deck beam, which is far from perfect but seems very strong. Having climbed into it, I concur that the laminated beam is the way to go. I will try to improve on my technique for the coaming. All they had was red oak, at 3/4" thickness, so I had to rip it into 1" and 1.5" pieces, put those on their side and push through the saw with featherboards to hold them straight to get three roughly 1/8" strips per piece. The stuff is not cheap, either. In case you are wondering, I will be skinning the frame as-is-- bare wood with no finish applied. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudzu Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 Looks good from here!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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