First Cut on Marine Ply!

Milestone today. I cut my first piece of marine ply. I cut out my daggerboard trunk out of a piece of the 3/8" meranti. You don't want to make a mistake on that stuff!

Here are the two sides to the trunk after wetting out some fiberglass on each one.

I also glued up the doublers on the midship frame and put another coat of epoxy on one side of the daggerboard after sanding it smooth. 

A Little Motivation

Pete, one of the other CIY 16 builders is just about done. He's taken the boat out of his building space and is setting her up. A day or two and he'll be in the water. He lives in Maine: that's wooden boat country for all you land-lubbers. 

Here she sets. He's done a very fine job.

You might notice the floor is in the raised position which makes it an ideal sleeping platform, one of the reasons I chose this design. 

Midship Frame & DB

I spent an hour and 45 minutes redrawing the midship frame onto the lumber that I glued up yesterday morning. Yep, it took a while. I used a batten to draw the curved line.

Like the transom, when I glued it up, it got a little "off plane". I guess pulling on it with the small clamps did that. I don't think it will be a problem. I plan to put "doublers" over the joint. 

I also spent 5 minutes sanding off the fiberglass overlap on the daggerboard. A few imperfections that I can clean up. I think this board will be ok as well. Might not be as strong as better ply, but, again, I don't plan to abuse it. 

Here are a few pics of the board with the imperfections. Trying to glass both sides at the same time presented its challenges.

Came back this evening and cut out the midship frame and the "doublers" to cover the joint and one of those knots. The one on the left is a bit longer because it's covering that knot. They're ready to be glued up in the morning.

I also sanded out the rough spots on the daggerboard. I'll probably put a coat of epoxy on it in the morning also. 

Budget

I set a budget of $3000 for this build (the kit cost $9500). This would include everything: trailer, boat, sails, hardware, rigging, paint, epoxy etc. That was a tall order! I'm up to about $2600. Not much left to buy except rigging, hardware and "incidentals". It's going to be close. A $20 here and a $30 there: it adds up quick. Will probably go over a little bit. Who knows? With Christmas, a birthday and another Fathers' Day, I might get enough help to make it! LOL!!

Daggerboard and Midship Frame

Yesterday I started the day by drawing the midship frame on one of those junk pieces of plywood. That enabled me to see what kind of lumber I would need to fashion that frame. Turns out that a 1x6x8 would do it. I picked that up in route to church.

Last night I cut the lumber to size and it's ready for glue up this morning. I'll cut out the "dummy" frame and trace it onto the glued up lumber when it's glued and dry.

I also sanded the daggerboard and cut the fiberglass cloth which I plan to wet out this morning. It's heavy cloth so I'm hoping this will give some added strength to the poor piece of ply.

This morning I've gone ahead and glued up/wetted out yesterday's work. That piece hanging over will be coming off as will the ragged edges. I was going to lay the board on a couple nails but the kept wanting to come off on the lower side. I went and got my step ladder and suspended a board with a nail through it and hung the daggerboard. Only issue, I drilled a hole and the dust from the hole got all over the board and glass. Wiped it off as best I could. The sander will take care of most of it along with a couple more coats of epoxy and paint.

I will probably reinforce those joints on the frame with a short piece of leftover plywood (which I'll certainly have when I begin cutting up the good stuff). Guess you'd call it a "doubler". Most of those knots you see will get cut out except for one. That will certainly need a doubler. 

 

More Work on Daggerboard

I spent a couple more hours working on the daggerboard today. My efforts went into shaping it and filling needed areas with epoxy. 

The simple truth is the two pieces of plywood I bought the other day to use for the daggerboard are just JUNK. I should have known since they were off of pallets. I've put several hours into the board, so I'm going to finish. I had to fill with epoxy several places that tore out when planing and sanding. I started to trash it and start over. I'm going to coat it with fiberglass and epoxy. That will help. I don't plan on being hard on the boat so it should be ok, at least for a while. If it breaks, it won't be hard to build another one and you can sail without a board. 

I also opened an old can of Glidden Porch and Floor enamel. It had a half inch of hardened paint on the surface, but when I got that off, the rest seemed ok. I'm going to paint the daggerboard. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it glassed. 

Here are two pics. The first is the whole board. You can see the beveling of the trailing edge and the rounding of the forward edge to create something of a foil shape. The second is a closeup of one of the spots with epoxy filling. 

Here are two pics of the stem. Today I just marked the lines where the approximate bevel will be. I also cut each end. The closeup is of the lower end where the garboard will hit it. It's lying on the piece of cloth that I'm going to use for the daggerboard. 

Daggerboard

I started on the daggerboard. Clint's layout on the plywood did not allow for the daggerboard. His plans suggest solid wood for plans builders. I've decided to make it out of plywood. My SD 11 was fine with box store plywood sheathed in glass. 

I bought two pieces of plywood from a guy who disassembles pallets. The sheets are not a full 4x8 and they are cheap plywood. I bought them for $15 each. One sheet of good ply would have been $50. They are not perfect by any means. I see some voids and they are just rough. I'm going to use the best one out of the two. I will not be out much if it breaks and I'll make another stronger. As little as I sail, I'm willing to give it a try. Trying to make that $3k budget.

Here is the daggerboard cut out in 2 matching pieces getting laminated together. I tried to put some weight on the 2 pieces but it wasn't enough, so I used clamps and screws. I screwed it right down to the table. It's sacrificial anyway.

A closeup of the screws through the 2 layers. I put a bunch in. I think they'll come out easily enough. I'll have to fill the screw holes with epoxy, but that's easy enough. I'll be painting the daggerboard. Of course, it gets shaped into a foil and sheathed in epoxy/fiberglass.