Humid

When I opened the door this morning to go shopping it almost felt like I was back in China, +29C and extreme humidity (my eyeballs fogged up ;). Not too bad for many parts of the world but for Poland it was horrible, I got sweaty just by sitting still on a chair.... Finally around three o'clock we had a big thunder storm and things got sort of back to normal.

Continued with the bits and pieces today, by shaping them (rasp, plane and sure form) in pairs. Did most of the work today outside after the thunder storm.

Two identical foot braces (almost)

Two identical cheek pieces

Shaping the rudder stock pieces

Dry fitting the rudder assembly, rudder down..,

...and rudder up

Shaping the rudder profile, leading edge done working on the trailing edge

Time today: 4h

Flipping again...

Turned the boat over again today. Gathered up some strong guys at the office and it was over in 30 minutes (including the drive). Unfortunately I did not get any picture of the actual flip nor the team, they where like a team of SEALs, swooped in, did the job and disappeared again. So I will be buying the pizza on Monday.

My cradle may look a little low but it makes it very easy to get in and out of the boat. Come to think of it today was the first time that I stepped into the boat, a very nice feeling!

Then I spent some time finalizing the shape of the centerboard. Not sure if it is NACA shaped any more as I mostly eye balled the shape based on my cuts. Now it needs some filler, some sanding, some glass and some paint...........

Yes, that is sweat stains you see

Time today: 2h (including 1/2 for the flip, since we were seven persons doing that perhaps it should count as 3.5h???)

Cancelled....

I was supposed to be back yesterday but my flight from Prague was cancelled (after takeoff) due to some problems with the landing gear. So I spent most of the night yesterday trying to find a hotel room and a taxi from the airport.

Now I am back at least and I started the night by cutting the last foot brace so that I have a pair.

Then it was back to shaping the centerboard.

I managed to rough out the shape of the trailing edge on one side and start the other one before the block plane became too blunt. So onto honing but before I could do that I had to lap (flatten) my water stone. I think the honing affectionados of this world would cringe if they saw the shape my stone has taken over the past weeks/months.

Some pencil lines to be able to see my progress

Here you can see that there is a hollow in the stone that need to be removed

Honing

Sharp enough? I think so!

Hopefully I will get the boat turned over tomorrow.....

Time today: 2h

Charles bridge and boats

The only boats I could find....

Cradle

Turning over time is approaching so the centerboard will have to rest for a few days, instead a built a cradle for her the rest on when she is right side up.

It is a very simple cradle just two planks aligned with the seat fronts, some blocks added so that the base will align with the floor of the garage and the planks should follow the shape of the bottom.

This is the whole thing, the idea is that the weight of the boat will shape the planks to follow the bottom.

Perhaps another picture will make it more clear....

The weight of the boat is simulated by sand buckets and lead pigs, you can see that the longitudinal planks bend and fit with the bottom (actually the weight I put on was not enough to get the correct bend)

So the transverse planks are aligned with each other and will rest on the floor, the longitudinal planks will support the bottom. I will also put supports under the stem and the transom. Make sense??

I am of to bed now, have an early flight to Prague tomorrow, back to the garage on Thursday.

Time today: 2h

Centerboard profile

As I cannot work on the actual boat until it has been turned over (something I hope will happen by the end of the week) so I continued to work on the bits and pieces, today it was time to shape the center board into a NACA 0010 profile.

I decided to make guide cuts with the table saw so that I would have some guidance when rasping and planing the profile.

Marking up the profile, the numbers are the depth of the cut at each line

After cutting

I also cut out the pieces I glued yesterday, unfortunately I forgot yesterday that I need two foot braces so I had to glue up another one today.

Pieces

As I do not have a good wise to clamp the centerboard to during shaping I had to build a temporary table on the strongbox.

My "clamping table"

Centerboard ready for shaping

Starting to shape the leading edge with spokeshave, plane, rasp and sure form

And the other side, plenty more to do tomorrow

Time today: 4.5h

Bits and pieces

Lovely summers day today, +23C and blues skies.

First job of the day was the final coat of paint, then I had to take advantage of the nice day and take a walk on the beach.

The last coat?

Instead of orange peel I now have brush streaks, the world should be lucky that I am not a professional painter...!

Surprisingly few people at the beach today considering the weather, usually on a day like this it is packed

On my beach walk I found that even the water was warm so I was tempted to go for a swim. I however agreed with my selves that it would be better to focus on getting on the water rather than in the water, so back to the boat.

I could not work in the garage/basement due to the fumes so I decided to work on some bits and pieces, i.e. rudder, tiller and foot brace, in the kitchen.

Drew them on cardboard, luckily I have moved a lot so I have many boxed that make good template material

Since I am building my boat with a push-pull tiller I will mount the "rudder stock" higher than showed on the drawings, hence I made my rudder blade about 10 cm longer than the design to get the same area in the water. Also my tiller/rudder yoke is looking differently than the original design.

Cut them out

Put my gas mask on and went into the basement to mark them out on plywood and cut them to shape

And finally glued them up

The foot brace and the tiller yoke was glued before cutting them to the correct shape, so that is something I need to do tomorrow.

Just one more picture of the boat.......

Time today: 4h

Midsummers eve

Today midsummers eve is celebrated at home in Sweden, but since I am in Poland I have to celebrate in my own fashion..... the boat!

I bought some more epoxy today so that I can start glueing stuff again. The first thing to get glued was the pieces for the "rudder stock".

Then I painted the boat again, only one more layer and she will be ready for turning over again.

I have come to the conclusion that the "orange peel" texture is not because of the paint but rather the epoxy below that was not sanded properly. So there is nothing I can do about it now since I have no interest in sanding of the paint and starting over. Luckily I am not building a yacht but rather a boat, so I can live with it. At least this time I remembered to tip (going over the paint with a brush after rolling)!

Happy Midsummer, Cheers!

Time today: 1.5h

Back in business

A slow start after a long time.....

Sanded, vacuumed and washed the hull.

Time today: 1h

Viking

Ship repair yard

Passed by Remontowa shipyard the other day.

Another early morning

Fourth coat is on, now there is no longer any shine through, so a bit of light sanding and a finishing coat or two should do the trick.

Will be gone for some time, starting up my new job, so not much will happen in the coming two weeks.

Time today: 1h