Lapwing #4

[Dale Niemann]

When I took the WoodenBoat School class on building the Caledonia Yawl we used very thin cheap plywood (called doorskin here) to make exact patterns for each lap.  It worked very well and was comforting to know that the final piece would fit because you had already created an exact fit.  The doorskin expense is well worth it in my opinion.

Dale

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Thanks for the idea Dale.  I have a sheet of cheap thin ply - I will try it out for the strake I am stuck on.

[Dale Niemann]

One thing I forgot to mention.  They were long pieces but we just drywall screwed several short 8 ft pieces together in approximate shape and length and then marked them and cut.

Dale

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Finally have the glue drying on Strake 4.  This one required 'custom fitting'.  I think the next one should go more easily (I hope).

[John Turpin]

Well done. Yes, 5 is much easier than 4.

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Stuck working at the computer rather then in the garage (boatshed as it is referred to by the rest of the family).  Someone told me about a web site (www.wordle.net)  where you put in text and based on frequency of words it draws a word cloud.

I took the text from the description of Lapwing on Graham's site and words from Tom's original description of what he was looking for from the design and it produced the image below.

Lapwing 2.tiff

[Tom Lathrop]

Come on Richard.  I am sure my ideas were more coherent than that :-P

Is that the same program the CIA is using to search for Osama?

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Milestone!!  Planked up on both sides!!  Had a bit of a mission when I finished strake 7, put the inwales on and worked out the sheer strake was not going to be sitting properly.  I ended up having to remove 3/4 of strake 7 on both side of the boat, plane the land on a different angle and redo.  It has all ended up pretty well in the end.

Now the sanding and filling beings.

[John Turpin]

Wow! It looks great. It's a great feeling once you get to that point, huh?  Excellent work!

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

After doing nothing since mid Dec. (tied up with family commitments and summer holidays)  I have made a start again.  Have started by sanding the bottom of the boat and putting down a layer of fiberglass cloth.  I have also started preparing the keel and laminating the outer stem.

[John Turpin]

Wonderful news.  Glad to hear that you are back in your workshop.

[ChrisObee]

Have started by sanding the bottom of the boat and putting down a layer of fiberglass cloth. 

How are you applying cloth?  Are you applying a fitted piece of cloth to each strake?

[John Turpin]

Richard, in your stem-bending photo, what's the 8" piece of PVC?  Is that your epoxy pot or something else?

Also, when I took my newly laminated stem out of clamps, I was stumped as to the best way to clean up the sides where glue had oozed out.  It just looked like a huge scraping/sanding job.  Instead, I found that I could run the whole piece through my thickness planer.  Making very thin cuts (and dancing around to deal with that big curve), was able to clean up the edges in about five minutes with very little effort.  The most amazing thing was that I actually thought of that idea beforehand.  Normally, those ideas come to me the next day.

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Hi John

The PVC is a clamp (not being used and not strong enough for the laminating) - if you haven't come across it before you just slice a PVC pipe into say 2 inch pieces and then make a cut through it - a cheap way to make some clamps to lightly hold things  in place.

I don't have a thickness planner but am planing to use my electric planner to clean up the edges.  Then I need to get the inner stem square and fitting.

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Hi Chris

I just used a 1 mt wide piece of cloth in one piece.  Had to fillet the strake so it would lay out smoothly (in practice there are some air bubbles I need to tidy up)

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

A psychological milestone- the turnover (managed to do it myself so only cost me one beer rather then the six pack I had on hand - this boat is light at this stage) !  After a long break I am back in to doing some building in the weekends again.  I have put one coat of epoxy primer on the hull - but plan to do the real painting at the end - when we will be back into warmer weather again.

Next step is to fillet all the joins on the inside.  Building this way means a lot of the interior is already complete.  Know from past experience there is still a lot of work to get to the stage where John and Blue Peter are at (you must be getting close to launch date John)

[John Turpin]

Hey! Look at that! What a beautiful boat.

Now, it starts getting fun. Congrats, Richard.

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

After a long break I am back on the project.  Figuring out hatches next.

[John Turpin]

Wow.  You're making some real progress.  It looks great.  Actually, it looks remarkably familiar.  :grin:

[Scott Dunsworth]

Richard looks VERY good! My first boat was a lap boat, Penobscot 14 and it was a gem, but I have seen a finished Lapwing ( Tom's ) and it is much more to my liking.

Here's a pic of my 14.