Wooden Boat Plan

I had a nightmare last night. Not about 60 foot breaking waves in the Gulf of Mexico. Not about being dashed on rocks, or falling overboard. No, I was worried about my lofting.

I woke up in a cold sweat, realizing that the chance were zero that a batten, run from Cabin Boys stem to his transom, would show a fair line. I mean, how could the stem, the 4 forms, and the transom all line up perfectly, so that a plank, when pressed around that curve, would touch all 6 points at the same time?

Impossible. I would have had to do a perfect job of lofting -- and I knew I hadnt done that. And I would have had to build all the forms exactly right, and mounted them, again, exactly right. And then my jury-rigged stem and transom jigs would  have to be perfect.

Not a chance. The batten would probably have more bump and bends than the Long Island Expressway. My project was doomed.

So first thing this morning, I dragged Helena down to the basement workshop to give it a try. At least Id have a shoulder to cry on.

Heres what I found:

All that praying I did last night must have paid off, because that batten went around Cabin Boy like a dream. Smooth as glass, and touching every edge.

So, it looks like this boat might float, after all.

This Day 15 was work on the chine pieces day. A chine is a sharp turn in the bottom of a boat. Like where Cabin Boys bottom meets the side -- right where the batten is in the photo above.

Like all flat-bottom boats, Cabin Boy has a chine piece on each side that stiffens the boat, and helps strengthen the bottom-to-side joint. Its a 8 foot long piece of white oak, and it needs to be let into the forms, the same way that the keelson was, and for the same reason. The chines are on the inside of the boat. The bottom and side planking needs to go over them, so they need to be let into the inside side of the boat.

I cut the first chine out of a long plank of oak:



Actually, I practiced on a cheap plastic chisel first, for a good long time. Its not as easy as it looks to crank the grinder with one hand and manage the blade with the other. But after turning a cheap plastic chisel into a cheap plastic butt chisel, I thought I was good enough to sharpen my lovely English plane blade.

And, I have to say, grinder worked great, so after honing the blade on an oil stone, I was finally able to use my long wooden plane.

I used it to take the bumps out of the edge of the chine piece. Because the plane is so long, it rides on top of the bumps and you have to take the tops of them off, a little at a time. I worked up a good sweat doing it, which really impressed Helena.