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12' Circle SkipJack - Stevenson Projects
(Last edited 5-Feb-2005)
Here's my builders log charting the progress on building my SkipJack
(my thrid boat) to be named C-Squared (for my 3 year old twin
sons cameron & cullen).
Plans have arrived and I have spent several days reading (mostly lunch time at work and before going to bed). I purchased 4 sheets of 1/4 inch luan for deck, sided and bulk heads, and one sheet of 3/8 fir for the bottom.
I layout and cut the blanks from which the transon and bulkheads are to be made. I've noticed that the table saw is out of alignment, better make some adjustments before I go any further.
Having made some adjustmetns the transom is cut out, and I'm on my way!
Ahhh the turkey is cooking and by does it smell good. I the rear bulkhead from the blank. The semi-circular corner cutouts are marked with a home made compass, 2 nails through 1/2" x 1/4" x 8" scrap stock. The corners are cut. The turkey is yummy!
The front bulkhead is laid out and cut to shape, I'll leave the two holes and corner cut outs for latter (not in the mood for the jig saw). To make the four corbels (a corbel is a fancy name for a deck/side support) I cut a template for the router, and then use it cut out a corbel using a collar and a straight bit. (The jig saw is not my favorite tool, if I can use a circular saw or router I do.)
The other 3 corbels are routed, filed and sanded. I clamped all 4 together and sand to the same shape.
The front bulk head holes and corner cut-outs are completed. The jig saw was good to me today. (I suppose if I bought a good jig saw it would work better, not to mention some new saw blades)
Christmas and New Years have come and gone, this time of year does not leave much time for boatbuilding. The wife and kids had gone to
Since New Years I have been able to attached the stringers to the bulk heads and transom.
Finally I'm starting to make some progress again, I cut out the 4 panels sections that comprise the deck. I connected the sections to the deck supports (1x3's) and used epoxy and screws to attach. I wanted to make sure I had strong watertight joints so I used epoxy instead of the usual Titlebond II wood glue. I took a picture of the completed deck, one of these days I'll get it scanned and post it.
To make the centerboard and rudder I lofted the shape onto 3 layers on 1/4" plywood and glued and screwed together. I will spend time to feather the edges as I go along. I will probably need to put some weight into the rudder so it will stay down in the water, but that will come later.
I made a trip to the home center and picked up 2 nice sheets of 3/8" ACX fir plywood for the bottom. I lofted the shape on to the pannels and they were ready to be cut. I bought a 3 1/2 " Black and Decker circular saw, that was a mistake. I fired up the saw, put it to the wood and thunk, it stopped dead. Well dispite the specs and recommendation of the sales person the tool could not handle the job. I broke out the old craftsman 7 1/4" and cut out the bottom, I returned the mini-saw. After cutting the two panels I attached to the joint overlap again with epoxy and screws.
From the leftover 3/8" ply I cut out the sides to the mast/centerboard box, and the sides of the rudder box.
To make the stringers which will be used to attache the deck and bottom to the sides I bought a dozen 1x2x8's. I ran them through the table saw to cut the 17 degree angle on one side. Next I set the saw blade to about 3/4" to cut the kerfs in the stringers at 4" intervals. The kerfs will allow the stringers to be bent to follow the shape of the deck and bottom. I attached the stringers to the bottom of the deck and the floor side of the bottom. This was a messy job, and would have been much easier if I would have had someone help me (but I like the fact that I can build a boat by myself - at least until my boys are older).
It was now time to loft and cut the keel parts. The Keel consists of 3 solid wood parts and 4 plywood parts for the stem gussets. I cut the solid core pieces and filed and sanded to shape. The plywood gussets I cut to rough shape and attached to the stem/keel and then used my router with a flush trim bit to trim the gussets to shape.
Attached the bottom the the keel/stem assembly. I mark a line 3/8" on both sides of the center line, the keel should run between these lines. I applied glue to the top of the keel and between my guide lines and predrill countersunk holes for the 1 1/4" screws. Srews are placed every 4", this seemed to go together very nicely.
Attaching the bulkheads and transom to the deck and bottom was very difficult for one person to do. I first attached the bulkhead and transom to the deck which was not too bad. Howver flipping it over and balancing on top of the bottom and trying to line up was hard, especially since I had attached the top stringer to the transom incorrectly. I had to remove the transom from the top, remove the stringer cut a new string and re-attach. Oh well we all make mistakes.
Building time has been scarce lately, we've been doing landscaping around the house and work has been busy. I did get the rest of the part for the mast and rudder boxes cut out. I set up a guide block on the bottom of the router and cut out the slots in the top and bottom sides of the centerboard/mast box.
Building time again has been very scarce, I spent a week in
I cut the centerboard hole in the top of the deck by placing the centerboard box in place and drilling a 7/8" hole for my flush trimming router bit. I routed the hole using the cutout in the top of the box as the template. The bottom won't be as easy because the keel is in the way of the router, I will probably will make a 3 sided template and a hold in place with doule stick tape or hot glue to rout the bottom hole.
I took some to complete a sail rig for my double paddle canoe. I had made a sail mast and lee board last year but had not come up with a rudder design. Well I found a design I could use and made a rudder and a push/pull tiller. I took out the canoe but forgot the lee board at home. I sail 2 miles down wind very nicely but was unable to sail upwind. So I paddled back. I will be documenting this trip in more detail under the adventure section of the page.
I have not touched the boat this month but football sundays have always provided time to work on boats. It looks like I won't get C-Squared launched this summer, but I will shoot for the first nice spring day in 1998)
Well I did not get launched this spring, summer or fall. My real job really had me busy and traveling. My lovely wife is now pregnant with our third child, (looks to be girl). So I have been working very minimally on C-Squared. However, the entire hull is together and most of the edges are faired. The insides seems are 3/4 completed with Bonda as filler. The rudder, rudder box and centerboard were all faired and coated with 3 coats of epoxy. (Pictured)
The mast and boom were contructed, as a scaled down Weekender Gaff Rig, Mike Stevenson was kind enought to send me an old set of plans to accomplish this. I also made the main sail from Blue polytarp, white cloth duct tape and a brass grommet kit. Mast, Boom and Sail are shown below
Also the mast was test fitted in the mastbox. (Shown below) Also visible is the extra mid bulkhead that was added for the potetial of a removeable cabin (a convertable boat) and the fordeck over the mast/centerboard box has been removed for more room in cabin, or daysailing without.
I have primed and painted the mast, boom, rudder, rudder box and Centerboard, with white RustOleum oil based paint. ( I can't find my favorite Red Devil Oil enamel anymore) So I guess that brings things up to date, I hope to make some time this winter to make some more progess, I would really like to lunch this summer, but with a new baby expected at the end of April, that will be a challenge, and my handyman skills will be focused on converting the 3rd bedroom to a nursery.
Well I have got a random orbit sander for christmas, that should help with all the sanding that needs to be done. I spent some time putting in beams that attacht to the sides of the centerboard box to the under side of the forward deck. This was needed because I cut away part of the deck thinking I would put a cabin on this little boat. That still may happen, but if it doesn't I'll still be in good shape. It has been to cold to do much else, my epoxy pumps were not working well with cold resin, so I moved them in from the garage to warm up, and now seem to be working better. I have been trying to decide if I will a. glass the hull, b. just coat with epoxy, or c. just paint. But not of that will happen until spring, when it is warm enough. I will probably start working on a jib, that is a good winter project. Work has finally settled down, but the baby will be here soon too, and the nursery also needs to be done. I will take a picture of the new centerboard support beams and the painted controls (rudder, rudder box, centerboard)
Today after cleaning out the closet what will be the new babies room, I was able to spend some time on the boat. It was very warm today, and I also had moved the epoxy out of the garage and into the house and the pumps are now working properly again. (When it had been very cold they were not working) I was able to install the starboard side, corbel which is between the new middle bulkhead and rear bulkhead. I also used the extra unused thickend epoxy, to fill some screw holes and where the deck meets sides. I do this everytime I mix a batch, so hopefully when all is completed there will be few on better yet no more filling needed.
Well in the past couple of weeks, I have made my bowsprit out of a PT 2x2 and found some left over stainless steel bolts and nuts left over from the kids swingset, which I will use to attach the bowsprit. I also got the second centerboard box support epoxied and screwed in place, the the second corbel attached. I also purchased some half round for for trim. I wasn't going to bother, but I had some scrap and held it up on the side and it looked nice so I went and got 4 14' peices. I have run into a problem though, and that is I broke my middle finger on my right hand, (closed it in a closet) so the next 4 weeks it will be splinted. I also bought a quart of blue paint to test on the handle of the daggerboard.
Despite the broken finger I attached the bowsprite today. It was an ordeal to but a backing plate under the foredeck to screwn into, I wedged myself through the front bulkhead and managed to put a stick under it to hold it up until I could screw through the deck. Then the bowsprite attached with epoxy, stainless steel nut and bolt and 2 stainless screws. It's abut 42 degrees in the garage so it will take a day or 2 for the epoxy to set. Now as you all know if you have read this far, the boatbuilding bug has it's teeth firmly in me, I noticed in the current WoodenBoat that ClarkCraft has cut the price of the Hartley Trailer Sailer 16 price by $35 so I ordered the plans, I have eyed that boat since my first Issue of Wooden Boat in August of 1994, then the price went way up, but now a set is on its way. So there will probably be an new page here soon tracking the building of a TS 16. That is about as big as my garage can handle, and the max I would want to single hand, I figure it will tak 3 to 5 years to build which will make my boys 7-10 years old, ready to sail with me and help me build along the way. In the mean time, the new baby is due at the end of April, it would be nice to have the SkipJack done by then, with current progress and hopefully some warm weather it's possible. Well I'm going to go take a couple of pictures of current progess, for posting, it's been a while since I posted any
Tonight I put a coat of unthickened epoxy on the transom and the rear parotion of the deck. I want to see how it sets up, without using any fiberglass cloth. With the small electric heater on I am able to get the temp upto 60 degrees. So it will sit overnight, and I will check it in the morning.