Sloop status : 3D

[tdrown]

On March 22nd I made the big step of attaching the bottom piece of the hull to the keel. The deck was assembled, the transom was attached along with it's stringer and the bulkhead stringers. I have a little more detailed account on my web site http://tyler.drown.org/boat.html with pictures for most days. The Keel was caulked at its seams and I did a few other jobs. Monday the 24th of March I went about attaching the deck. I have a slight problem there, I'm having a little trouble getting centerlines absolutely perfect. I've worked it to about a 1/4" difference between the deck joint and the forward bulkhead. but the nose of the deck is maybe 1/2" off then. This seems like it might be a big deal, I detachted the deck at the stem and the transom and its been preventing me from moving along (somewhat, there are always other jobs...). In other fronts I have the hull sides cut out, all but part B of the mast box ready for assembly, and the seat partition (the plans have the wrong value for the measurement 19-1/4", unless I am mistaken, but the triangle it creates at the top of the partition is mathematically impossible, I realised this after I used that measurement and the thing looked ridiculous). Today I cut the ring's for the wheel at the shop at my school. Any comments, questions and concerns are appreciated.

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[capt jake]

it is looking good there!! you are working in some tight quarters! Keep those cards and photos comin'!!

[Barry Pyeatt]

Tyler,

Sounds like the bottom is twisted a little bit and needs to be checked to make certain it is flat.

Check what you are using to prop it up and make certain that you have the same distance from the floor to the bottom with each of your supports. If you are using paint cans, then make sure you have the same height cans on both sides and are placing them at the same point on the bottom (like just under the front bulkhead) You also have to make sure the floor under it is flat. You can shim up one side or the other to align the front bulkhead better. It won't take much to bring the top centerline to one side or the other to align it. If your Keel is straight then you shouldn't have any problem there as long as the bottom was centered on the keel when you attached it. You can measure out from the keel to the edge of the bottom at the bulkhead and make sure that both sides are equal. If not then your bulkhead is offset a little.

If all the bulkhead centerlines are lined up on the bottom with the center line and the top center doesn't line up then shim on one side or the other under the bottom at the edge until it twists it into alignment. You may have to put some pressure on the opposite side to bring it down a little.

I would attach the stem and the transom and then do the bulkhead. And I would be certain that the angle with the bottom is measured per the plan before attaching the deck to the bulkhead. If it is the wrong angle you will have a problem with the mast angle and handling of the boat. That is a pretty critical angle on this boat.

[tdrown]

Good advice, I will probably do all that tomorrow. When the bulkhead is flush with both bottom stringers and in line with the centerline only the starboard deck stringer is flush, the port side is maybe 1/2" off, and the deck's centerline is off a little too. I've been thinking it was the deck, but I will look at the hull bottom and the keel. When I was screwing the bottom on the keel maybe 3 screws went through the keel a little since they were too close to the edge (near the cabin bulhead stringer), they were brass so maybe 2 stripped and were a pain to get out... Anyway, the bow and the stern were centered and my keel was stored either on its side or verticle. The transom might not have been mounted perfectly but even with the deck mounted 1/2" offset starboardly the fore bulkhead still is short on the port bow at decklevel. I could cut a stringer for the bulkhead to compensate for this if need be but I think that would blanketing the problem. as f now the deck is just screwed in a few places on the transom and is not attached at the stem.

Thanks again for the advice,

Tyler S. Drown

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[Derek]

Tyler, the boats looking good. Glad to see you have pics coming again. Follow Barry's comment, reread it several times so all makes sense and I'm sure you'll get your twist worked out just fine.

Go at it patiently and pull yourself up a moaning chair to take a breather now and then. Just sit back for a minute and look at it.

Otherwise your progress is great. You still have lots of help with you?

[Pat Mellema]

Tyler

make sure the bow of the deck is lined up on the stem as it will cause errors if not centered. It looks like you are making good progress.

[Russ Sylvester]

I agree with Pat, I would line up the deck/stem joint and average out the rest. It almost sounds like the keel may have a bend in it. Mine did and it caused the hull bottom/keel joint to be a real monster getting lined up.

One very small nitpick. The one picture that shows the decking joint right where the side deck pieces come together. Maybe it's the camera angle but it looks like the edge where the cabin side will attach isn't quite round and has a little peak to it. It might be easier to address it now rather than after it's in place permanently. Again I say it might be the camera angle and I could be all wrong. Otherwise it looks like you've got a fine craft underway there.

[tdrown]

I think it am lined up at the stem, I will have to check, I am not sure what you mean about the deck... on the shot with the deck on the side... what is wrong? The jointer does not follow the curve if thats it. Anyway, I can't do that now, maybe in 8 hours I can check all that, I have to go to school and take the state testing for half the day and regular classes for the rest.

Thanks for all the posts, keep them coming,

Tyler S. Drown

[Stuart Benbow]

If the camera angle isn't deceiving us, it looks like the hull bottom needs to be twisted to bring the starboard side up a bit in order to even out the way it lines up at the deck. I ran into the same problem.

Hope this helps

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[Sailor3356]

Looking good, its hard to tell if its twisted or not with the camera angles. But you are headed in the right direction. The black on the background of your web page makes it hard to read, but the pictures are good.

[Simon]

One other point (although perhaps not very constructive at this stage): are you planning on gluing the wheel together? If so having oiled the parts couldbe a problem, since most glues don't like sticking to oiled timber. I've no idea what the solution would be though. Everything else look sweet mate!

[tdrown]

I measured the distances to the keel on the bottom hull plywood. It turns out my keel is fine at the bow and stern, but soon thereafter it has a starboardly curve which at its worst is 1"... I dread correcting it and what it might involve, I already glued it with fiberglass resin, put screws in it, and chalked it. The problem at the bulkhead I have come to beleive is indeed the warped plywood, I noticed that one side was a little higher than the other side but I figured the keels was tilted to one side when I first put the plywood on. I should have put 2 and 2 together and realized my problem than. Oh well, hindsight is always 20:20.

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[tdrown]

Aye, good point about the oil. I could just sand it off, thats what I supose I will have to do. I was very lucky today, I talked to the shop teacher at school today and he gave me the last piece of mahogany he had in his stock (he normaly makes student's pay for that sort of stuff). When I traced the patterns on there was just enough space for all the spacers and spokes. Pretty lucky. I just need to finish the spokes by sanding (I'd like to turn them, but of course them being cicular and not really having a lathe would hinder that). Thanks for pointing that out, having a wheel fall apart when you are in out in the water would not be to enjoyable!

[capt jake]

Not only sand off the oil, but remove it with Naptha or Laquere thinner.

[Pat Mellema]

Tyler

It appears that your keel is off center most of the way along it's length and I think that is what your problem is with your centerlines not lining up.

[Frank Hagan]

I measured the distances to the keel on the bottom hull plywood. It turns out my keel is fine at the bow and stern' date=' but soon thereafter it has a starboardly curve which at its worst is 1"... I dread correcting it and what it might involve, I already glued it with fiberglass resin, put screws in it, and chalked it. The problem at the bulkhead I have come to beleive is indeed the warped plywood, I noticed that one side was a little higher than the other side but I figured the keels was tilted to one side when I first put the plywood on. I should have put 2 and 2 together and realized my problem than. Oh well, hindsight is always 20:20.[/quote']

I think you'll be OK on this. One of us ... I forget who ... noted that his keel is bowed a bit more than that. I think it was 2". I haven't measured mine, but I can assure you it isn't perfectly straight. It won't affect the sailing ability at all, and if you just average out the differences the best you can as you line it up, you'll be OK. Remember, only the fishes will know once you launch it!

We sometimes make this seem like an exact science, but the folks at Wooden Boat often have stories on 100+ year old boats that finally have their lines taken .... and they are crooked. There was a lapstrake Noregian boat loved by all its owners, and they were shocked to find the hull was not only asymetrical side to side, but that it was shorter on one side along the length. Didn't sail in circles either (unless the captain wanted it to).

Peter Stevenson said once that most of the design discussion you hear is an attempt to quantify what works. "What works" has been worked out in countless experiements by boat builders, and the study of that has resulted in the "rules" of boat design and boat building. But we tend to think a Naval Architect thought up these rules based on the laws of physics, contracted with some folks living by the sea, and built the first boat.

You will never get that keel straight, and it really doesn't matter, so forge on! There's a launch date in your future, and if you don't tell anyone about this, we won't either!

[Russ Sylvester]

As usual I wasn't very clear. In the picture 30centerlines2.jpeg the two deck halves come together to form the curve for the cabin sides. Right at the point where they meet looks somewhat peaked. I'm concerned that it will either create a gap later on or the cabin side will get distorted from a nice fair curve. I was trying to point it out as it might be easier to fix now rather than later.

Frank is absolutely correct, these boats are not an exact science and I've got a perfect example of inexactness that I sail most weekends. The work that you've done so far looks very good and you are definately on the right track. It's easy to nitpick from the sidelines.

[tdrown]

The warp in the plywood as so kindly pointed out was infact my problem. I put a big plaster container under the starboard side to correct it and everthing lines up great! I tried to post this message and a picture of it last night but my other computer is acting up again, it kept restarting every 15 minutes. I will finally be able to reattach the deck today! And move on, I've been on and off for a week trying to get this fixed.

[tdrown]

Yes thank you, thanks what I thought you were talking about but I wasn't certain. I might have to add a pretty small piece of wood there if need be, sorry about the picture clairity, I use an analog (not digital) video camera to film what I have done and I have an RCA video jack and cable input on my one computer that can recieve a regular video feed. I just play back what I filmed and press a key and it saves the image for me. Probably easier than some digital cameras, but not very good quality. Too bad that computer is on the fritz since yesturday!

[tdrown]

I just finished attaching both bulkheads tonight! I am so glad to get that out of the way. Would painting some of the interior before I put the sides on be a prudent move? I already put stain on the plywood bottom piece for some reason and some stain on some of the stringers. I'm exhausted, holding two things in place that want to go in opposite directions while drilling pilot holes and driving screws in impossibly tight quarters is tiring work!