Meanwhile...

My own project has been stalling now for a week or so but meanwhile we (with my wife) decided we should restore an old aluminum boat for my wife's friend who is about to get married. Boat belonged to her late dad and was built in 70s or 80s. The main job was to replace the rotten wooden transom which we successfully accomplished today. I used "exotic" American wood that came from a shipping crate of some x-ray machine ;)

Sidework 2

Attached those things I do not know the name of. The gap will eventually be covered with plywood. The front of the boat from stem to station #2 will be fully covered, therefore these things reach only up to station #2.

Sidework

Reinforced the side clamps with doublers in the two middle sections.

Overthrow

This is how it looks when it look like a boat. Actually, it is huuuuuge! Need to glue the support for the one remaining butt joint on the bottom planks.

Finished planking

Finally, dunno after how many months all the planking is in place, glued and fixed with screws!!!

Next up: sanding and fiberglassing the hull.

Bottom planking 7

Breaking news! After a few hours every once-a-week since my last post I finally solved the bottom planking mystery tonight! Tip: if you plan to build a boat, spend a few hundred $ on decent plans. Building something from magazine 4 page plans is a pain in the ass guarranteed. I could make the sides and bottom come together up front only after trying and fitting at least 20 times each, and that is only port. Hopefully starboard will benefit from learning curve. It took me about two years. Not having idea of how something needs to be done is a great party pooper. Cheers!

Back

Finally, after several months of default we are back to the boatwork! Two days back my fam came with me to the shop, I was sorting some plane drawings, my wife made a little oil painting with our kid and after that she got terribly bored. I asked if she really really wanted to do smth, she said yes. I gave her a chisel and a hammer and showed what is to be done on the boat to get it out from the stagnataion point. And she did it! Looks like the bottom planking mystery will be solved.

Bottom planking 6

Here comes the promised pic

If you compare it to previous pics, the keel between the most forward rib and the very front has been leveled out, I hope this allows me to fit the bottom plank finally.

Bottom planking 5

Two days ago, Sunday afternoon had a few minutes with my boat again. Discussed the front end problems with Aivars (guy I share the workshop with, he is building a Corby Starlet airplane) and came to what seems like a solution. Hope to get there again later today, work a bit and also post some pics.

Bottom planking 4

Finally, had some quality time with my boat last night. Still tinkering on how to best fit the bottom and sides up front. Spent about an hour sawing, fitting, glueing...

Bottom planking 3

Yesterday and today had a few (3 total) hours on the boat - fitted the outer keel, fitted one more bottom piece and also decided how I will bottom plank the front part.

Bottom planking 2

So nice to see the boat actually taking shape.

Costs

Just calculated that so far I have spent:
- materials and specific tools that I will not ever use elsewhere = LVL192 (EUR272, USD354)
- shop rent summer'11 = LVL120
- rest of the tools I do not count as either I already had them before this project or (like cordless drill) they are useful around the house and I would have those anyway.

The hours I estimate around 100 so far, with my current salary... that's a lot in money terms!!!

Bottom planking

Yesterday I realised that in order to shape a symmetric front on the boat I need to know how the bottom will look like, so I decided to start bottom planking as well. The fitting seems pretty easy, at least on the aft.

Bought some 9mm plywood for this. Also bought 200 pcs Torx head SS screws for bottom planking which I intend to leave in the boat contrary to the side plank screws.

By the way, Lithium

Thought I would blog it here... Recently my 5 yr old green Bosch cordless drill burned, was a good piece of equipment but its time had come. Not that I once bought it for the this boat project but still, it was much used here. So I was in the market for a new one.
Was looking for a nice deal with double NiCd or NiMH batteries but anything of brand was in the region of 50 lats anyway. Then I recalled trying a small-form LiON cordless drill-driver and being very impressed.

Looked at that segment, and, voila, there it was - cheapest of the brand things - the Skil 2321 AA 10.8V LiON, one battery only but comes with 1 hour charger, can be charged anytime, no memory effect, nothing. The torque is surprisingly good. You do not feel the absence of the "counterweight" at all! During the port front side planking drilled about 80 holes (in plywood), screwed about 80 screws (20mm), then few more longer screws here and there but the battery showed no sign of getting low. A very good investment, me like very much!
The expense of LVL 40 is added to this project expenses as much of this tool will be used up in the boat shop.

Finally, the port side panel is there!

Took about 4 hours today and finally jumped this hurdle! This side/front attachment has been holding me back for half a year or so. Now I expect the things to move ahead faster.

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.