Fitting and sticking

So difficult to get the right shape. One could count about 5 layers of 6mm plywood on top just to adjust the final shape of chine up front.

Just before Christmas...

..spent about 3 hours on the boat with my kid. Still sanding, fitting, glueing some extra pieces, again sanding, etc. BUT it seems the next time I get a few hours there I will be finally able to attach the front part of the port side panel! Progress pics to come soon!

3 months have passed...

..and during those 3 months I have touched the boat maybe 5 times maximum, on average 1 hour each time. Getting the front end right has turned out quite disappointing. This is the point where I understand the real value of quality plans vs. "some drawings" form a 1960's magazine that do not go into much detail at all.

Verticalizing the stem line

So here one can see what I am up to and what was described in previous post. Looks like I gonna add one more layer later on top of the three I did today. The previous plank attachment piece will be removed, of course.

Waterline

Yesterday looking at a little boat strugling against the headwind in Lielupe (coming back from the bay) and now looking at the picture I posted under the title "Planking 3" I made a decision, based on a phrase I heard from an old sea-wolf (Viktors) - the speed of your boat in knots equals to the length of the waterline in metres. Of course, that is only a saying an approximation but there is definitely some truth to it.
For the last 8 months I tried to follow the Volvo Ocean Race and one thing I could not leave unnoticed was vertical stems on all of the boats. Noticed the same feature on most race boats at the local boatyards that I had visited lately.
So, looking back at my picture, I realised that the stem turned out pretty serious and by reshaping the chines I could get the stem line close to vertical, hopefully increasing the max speed by that. Follow my posts to see the progress of this mod!

Planking 4

As simple as "planking" sounds, the associated sanding and subsequent dust-eating seems never ending. So, I am still eating wooden dust on average an hour or two every other day. Progress still slow but I am somewhat persitent.

Planking 3

I would rather rename "planking" to "fitting". Maybe working with full scale quality drawings makes the difference but in my case I am working hard to get the things fit together. In the picture - I had to "grow" back the inner part of stem that I had previoudly removed.

Slow progress

From one side it looks like nothing is really happening on the boat, on the other - spending half an hour every three of four days will definitely show some results in the nearest future. Now I am preparing all ends to finish planking the sides up to the bow.

Planking 2

Ok, a few hours of sanding over the last two weeks and finally yesterday we (me with my wife and kid) were able to attach the starboard aft side piece (just mirror the pic in previous post to see the progress).

Planking 1

Here's the first piece of plywood sides attached to the boat. Used PU glue with small pieces of glass fibre. SS screws at ~70mm intervals. The end is ready for the next piece with a scarf joint.

Whoooo! Finally back to work!

Yesterday spent 2+ hours drippin sweat on my boat. Began sanding the frames/chines/clamps to accomodate the plywood planking. The aft port side is practically ready for planking.
Also cut and predrilled the aft sides - 2 copies for both sides, hope the other side matches later ;)
Feels very good. If everything goes as planned, will spend there a few hours tonight, too.

Sides

Not real work but still, last Saturday bought and brought some nice sheets of 6mm (actually 6,5mm) Riga Ply plywood for the sides. Paid LVL21, plus LVL2 for cutting (to fit in my car). Also started to sand the sides of the frame to accept the plywood eventually.