Fairing the bow?

[john_manchester]

Anybody got any pointers on how to fair off the Princess bow? Maybe some pictures on what it looked like before the planking went on?

I'm ready to start fairing the bow on my PS22 in preparation for the planking--except for the sudden realization that I don't know what I'm doing. I took off the corner where the keelson and stem meet with a handsaw, and started trying to get rid of some of the excess width with a belt sander and plane so I can actually get a batten close in enough to fine-tune the bevel on the keelson. I have the idea that the keelson is supposed to taper down from 3 1/2" to 1 1/2" or so at the bow so it blends in with the knee, but I can't tell how far aft to take the taper.

I'm going to try attaching some photos of where I'm at. If you think I've already screwed myself, please break it gently since I've already become emotionally attached to the boat.

[john_manchester]

Here's a view from "underneath"

[john_manchester]

And a side-view

[Designer]

This part is a bit tricky to get just right. The first order of business is to fair the bow profile which is the pink line that I have drawn over your photo. Try to make the curve look like the shape on the plan when viewed from the side. When you are happy with the shape you need to mark a centerline all of the way around the stem, knee and keel batten. You will need a light batten to bend from the keel batten to the chine to guide you for beveling (light blue line). When finished the batten should lie flat against the longitudionals like the right hand side of the forward bulkhead drawing. The left side shows the brown area which has to be planed away. Remember when fairing you have to start from further aft than just the area of the bow you area working on. It has to fair from chine to centerline and it has to blend through fore and aft as well. You have to roll that bevel around to follow the twist toward the bow - ie the compound bevel. The black arrow shows that you have a peak. You will plane that peak away, so you have smooth fair line, following the dark blue line so that it is a continuous smooth line, right through the stem. It is normal for the stringers in the bow section to "twist out",so you need to bevel them off to match the batten. Gee, this is one of those things which I could show you simply hands on, but it is a bit difficult to describe.

Looking at the bow-on photo and it may be just the camera angle, it looks like the keel batten is not let into the forward bulkhead enough, so that it can't be bevelled properly, it won't flow along the line of the bulkhead (as shown in the accompanying drawing).

[john_manchester]

So I do still have quite a bit of material to take off. I guess I can just take my time and apply the old rule "If it looks rigth, it is right"?

I haven't attached the stem cap yet--should I do that before fairing the bow profile? I was thinking I'd sort of "rough in" the curve without the cap, and install it after the planking, and then go back over the profile more carefully.

I think the forward bulkhead looks wrong in the photo since I just cut off the bottom 1 1/2" straight. After notching for the keel batten and cutting the scuppers, I didn't think there'd be enough material left worth keeping.

Thanks very much for helping on this one. I'm sure it's the sort of thing taht's obvious if you can see it or of course if you've done it, but otherwise is tough to conceptualize.

[Designer]

It is a good idea to temporarily put on the stem cap to get the bow profile just right. Yes you have a lot of material to take off. When blending all of that in I like to adjust for a 1" wide metal strip to take the wear from beaching etc. so you can allow for the bottom ply and adjust the stem flat so that it will fair in.

I made a drawing of the bulkhead which I converted to jpeg format which I could not post. I resized the file but it still refused to take. I can email it to you if you would like.

[john_manchester]

Yes, please. john_manchester@hotmail.com

[Greg Luckett]

I am surprised Charlie Jones has not waded in on the topic yet. He must be out and about?

[Charlie Jones]

Charlie Jones is working his behind off trying to get his Meridian 25 launched on Monday for a cruise start date of Tuesday

Laura is putting in 14 hour days also.

Still have the mast to rig, bottom paint to apply and about 2 million other little details left to go. We've got three people working on the boat, this weekend we'll have four. I've closed the shop for the duration.

My jib is supposed to arrive tomorrow and I HOPE the damn clevis pins FINALLY get here today. THEY were supposed to be here LAST friday, but they sent the wrong size.

So I haven't even LOOKED at the board for a week or so. Just happened to get up early today and checked in.

I did post a series of pics of fairing the stem piece, but not really of doing the whole bow. I think it was titled "one way to fair a stem"

[Greg Luckett]

Yep, out and about, as I thought. I figured you must be busy.

My regards to Laura for me?

Thanks.

[john_manchester]

Well, I followed Graham's instructions and I think I got it about right. I pulled the cap off after fairing the profile, and haven't put it back on yet. Hard to tell from the pictures, but what do you think?

Charlie's pictures of the stem can in handy before cutting it--nice step-by-step, detailed shots. There are a couple of nice shots of the bow floating around too, just beautiful (and very humbling).