Little Stuff

Getting down to the little stuff. Tonight I cut out the padeyes and fairleads. I will clue the padeyes around various points on the boat that I can loop straps through to secure gear. Several others have done it for their CIY's.  I didn't get but a finished pic of them. I routed the wide slot with a 1/2" bit which I ran down the plank twice. I cut two angles on the top side and then sanded them on the inverted belt sander held in the vise. 

They are cut from a piece of mahogany that I had. The slot is 1/4" x 1". That should be big enough for a strap to go through. 

I also made some padeyes. They will go under the inwale and will be used to string a line between the bulkhead taps that can be used to attach fenders and whatever you may need. I figuring I'll run a 3/16" line through them, so I made the hole 1/4". I first drilled the holes, then used a countersink bit to give the holes a little concave shape and then I used a hole saw to cut them out. I sanded them on my belt sander as mentioned above.

I had a few more minutes so I I routed the edges of my gunnel and inwale. 

A productive evening. 

Floor Timbers Done

It turned into quite the job but the timbers are done. They're all cut out and filleted in place. Here is the third one drawn on the ply.

Since I wanted the floor clear in front of the aft section, I glued blocks on the bottom of the panel to keep it at the correct height when in use. 

My cockpit is slightly off from the drawings. It look likes my midship frame may be out of plumb - I'm not sure. But in any case, the floor is a little short for the cockpit. I glued two little spacers on the midship frame just to take up the slack. One is 6mm and the other is 5mm. The floor won't be tight but there will not be much wiggle room. Should be a good fit.

Here are the 3 timbers. If you'll notice, the aft most timber has a piece of ply glued to it. My aft panel is a little out of plane. The boards are repurposed, of course, and I guess the floor buckled a bit. I wound up with a little rocking, so I glued a piece of ply to raise the timber just about 1/8". I think it will take care of it. Not the best looking fix but it will be hidden, so there you go. 

Here is the aft section in place. Notice the "clean" floor in front of it. This will be my daysailing setup and will give me extra foot and leg room. It will also give me a foot rest while I row. I like the setup.

After thinking about it a little while, I decided the blocks on the fore section needed reinforcement, so I glued a piece of ply to each row. That'll work. 

I've been wondering about securing the floor to the boat somehow. Pete said he lets his just sit loose. If he ever sails in big water, he may figure out a way to secure them. I'm thinking a short lanyard attached to both side of the sections, just enough to keep them in the boat during a capsize, should be enough. I don't plan to push the boat hard, but you never know!  

 

Floor Timbers

I got into the floor timbers tonight. It is a time consuming process getting the timbers shaped correctly. It requires determining the height of the timbers, the length and the angles. I used scrap ply and hot glue again. I got two of them done - one to go. I've decided not to put any in the fore part of the boat. 

Here are the various parts of the process. Scrap ply with pieces glued on copying the shape of the boat's bottom. The can  and little blocks held up the cross piece in the correct location and height while I glued the rectangular pieces on. 

When transferring the shape to the actual plywood, the cross piece laid right along the edge of the ply. The narrow one was the one I glued up the other night. The second one is a larger piece that will only be one ply thick. It had a straight edge so worked great.

Here are the two that I've cut out - not glued in yet. 

The near one will set under the front edge of the larger piece of the platform. It was easy enough to do the final fitting. The back one was a little harder to check. I actually screwed it to the platform and set the whole thing in the bottom of the boat. It fit nicely. It does raise the aft end of the floor just a wee bit too much. I may plane off 1/16" before gluing it in. The nice thing is that the folding support post hinges down right between those two timbers - no interference. 

I am going to cut a third one to place just in front of the last cross piece on the platform. 

TUESDAY MORNING

I got up early and decided to work on the floor timbers some more. I made a template for the third one and transferred it to my plywood.

I also planed the middle one down about a 1/16". Then I glued the first two down. Fillets will come this evening I hope. 

I am going to put blocks under the forward section of the platform. I took measurements for them and will cut and glue them on tonight as well. 

 

Compromise

I'm still working on the floor/platform. The floor timbers issue has come up on both the WBF and the CIY FB page. The issue is the structural function of the timbers. Clint said I'd be ok but even he chimed in.

I certainly want a strong boat. I'm especially concerned about the punishment the boat will take on the trailer. I've given it a lot of thought and I've come up with a compromise of sorts. I'm going to put two floor timbers in the aft section and perhaps one or two in the forward section. I may also add some glass to the forward section. 

Leaving one of them out of the aft section (plans call for three) I'll be able to lift the forward part of the platform out with no further obstructions and give crew several more inches of leg height. I think this is a win/win.

Tonight I attached two more cross pieces, one each, on the two platform pieces. This will strengthen them. Here's the one on the forward part. 

I also glued up what will become one of the floor timbers. Plans call for 3/8" ply. Since I'm leaving out one, I'm going to double up on one of the timbers. 

You can see the one section of the flooring in the boat. I leveled it and marked it. I'll take some measurements and hopefully get the floor timbers in early this coming week. 

Platform & Rub Rail

I got up early this morning and glued up the second rub rail. It doesn't require a lot of noise to this kind of task so I feel like I won't be disturbing Robin too much. 

 Tonight I continued on with the platform. I searched for 1-1/4" #10 brass screws today. A box of 100 cost $36! Too much. I checked online - $22. I went to Lowes and they didn't have 1-1/4". So I bought decking screws, a box of a couple hundred for $11. They'll work.

I got home and went to it after supper. I finished cutting the two outside planks and proceeded to screw them all back together. It was actually a little tough finding the holes I drilled to make sure the boards wound up in line. Oh, well. Here are the two sections in place.

I added the hinged support and voila!

Here is the platform in the "floor" mode.

I still need to add some kind of bracing under the floor. The plans call for "joists", but I'm not quite sure I'm going to follow that plan since I want the floor to be optional and that would leave the joists as a tripping opstacle. 

I had a few more minutes to work, so I decided to plane and sand the gunnels a bit. Made quite the mess.

Each task done is one step closer to DONE!

Two Parts

The platform needs to be cut into two parts. I devised a plan to do that and retain the shape.

I had already screwed the outside two planks onto the cross members. Tonight I screwed the other 6 boards using only a screw in each end. This would allow me to cut all 8 boards nearly in half in one cut. I set the depth of the cut on my skill saw at 1/2". The boards are 5/8" thick. I clamped a guide board across the planks and made a cut.

About that time the mosquitoes began attacking! I took the work inside.

I unscrewed the inside 6 boards and finished the cut on each with the Japanese saw. Then I sanded the cut ends of the boards since the kerf of the Japanese saw was not quite as wide as the skill saw kerf.

I was hoping to reassemble the platform but my box of screws contained fewer screws than the label said. Ugh! I decided that I have room for a bigger screw anyway, so it may just be as well. I'm going from #10 1" to 1,1/4" inch. That will give them more holding power. 

Hopefully get it done tomorrow night. I've got all the countersunk holes drilled and the through-holes as well. It'll just be a matter of putting the screws in and cutting the outside two planks. 

Of course, I will have to fit the platform to the sole of the boat. Still got to think on that one a bit. 

 

Assembling Floor

I'm continuing work on the floor/platform. Here are the boards cut to size.  

Oops! How did I cut one short????? I know I cut it on the line. I must have not seated the board against the other end. I did this yesterday. Tonight I cut another board. Fortunately I had enough from the pile I confiscated from the vacant building next to church.

I'm going to use the planed sides for up. It's a fresh finish on that side. 

I decided to but lateral boards underneath to hold the eight boards together starting with the two curved boards against the seats. That will give me the correct dimension cross-ways. There will be 4 cross pieces since the floor will be cut into two more easily managed parts. 

Here we go.

If you look closely, that's two cross pieces in the middle. One is wider than the others because it will create a ledge for the other half to sit on and will have a folding leg attached to provide support in the middle of the platform.

I'm going to screw these pieces together. I think that will be sufficient. I broke down and spent $10 for a countersink bit. I figured it would make it so much easier since I'll have a pile of screws to sink. 

It's going to take another night or two to finish the floor. After I get it assembled, I've got to figure out how to best support it when it's in the lower position. The plans call for "joists" but I believe I'm going to leave them out in the event that I want to leave the removable floor out and have a deeper cockpit on occasion (I'm thinking if I can ever get Robin on the boat).