I will make keel timber from Siberian lark. I’ve saved a plank with very nice, tight grain for this purpose.
Measuring width at every station and mold.
Transferring to the plank.
I need to shave 8 mm of the plank, to land at 18mm thickness. I do it by hand, with scrub plane.
Who needs a gym?!
Straightforward assembly but with two sensitive moments.
The stem, even though held in position by stem supports and bulkhead 9, is still prone to shift a bit. If unnoticed that can result in skewed installation.
I eyeballed the final position and checked with a long straight edge before leaving epoxy to set.
Horizontal batten, if glued to bulkhead 9 prior installation as called out in plans, will make mounting bulkhead 9 on the jig impossible. This batten locks into rectangular openings in longitudinal bulkheads (flotation tanks) so with it mounted already on bulkhead 9 one cannot tilt the assembly to slide onto the jig.
I noticed that when dry-fitting the bulkhead.
Much easier if this batten is mounted after the bulkhead 9 is installed.
Next step is making the keel timber.
Keelson glued and screwed according to plans. I managed to squeeze in two screws to reinforce this crucial joint. Excess glue used for “welding” - epoxy fillets.
I use ice-cream stick which has a nice curvature for forming fillets.
I gather material to fill flotation tanks. Just to be sure I make an experiment with a piece of this foam - clamped in water barrel, to see if it soaks water after a few days.
Transom protected with masking tape before gluing in place. Masking takes a lot of time but I’d rather do this than scrape excess epoxy.
Glued in place. I wrapped the whole transom in paper, to prevent epoxy-stain on mahogany.
While this was curing I dry-fitted fore part subassembly.
It became obvious that the batten I glued the other day is in wrong position.
Plans specify this clearly but apparently I missed that.
A few minutes with hot-air gun and the problem is solved.
Dry fitting floor carlins.
Glued in place the other evening. These rectangular openings look like being eager to receive a wedge. I sent a mail to the Architect about that.
Dry-fitting the stem.
All fits well.
I glue in place longitudinal supports.
Bulkhead nine will be installed tomorrow - and the jig will be ready to receive planking!
When doors to my boatshop are open you see the front of the building jig.
My family says it looks like a giant ant.
I hope to change this view as soon as possible so that they stop seeing ant and see boat instead.
Last two days were spent on working on flotation chambers which form a truss stiffening the structure. Most challenging were parts midships. As my Ilur is the latest revision, with more space for sleeping on sole boards, the designer decreased the size of aft flotation chambers and added midships flotation. The challenge for me was to figure out if I want to install them permanently already now (I decided to do it now) and then in which order.
Dry fitting of epoxy-coated parts with pauses for scratching my head.
Parts are cut with high precision so I was pressing in the vertical member with a clamp.
I decided to start with these vertical members first. They interlock with frames 5.5 with tight fit. As I epoxy-saturated plywood edges on this interlocking joint, to protect end-grain from moisture ingress, I will “weld” the assembly with epoxy fillets. That simplifies the assembly.
Wooden batten which supports and stiffens the structure had to be planed to trapezoid shape to match the angle.
Then came gluing part. First the batten was glued. Squeezed out epoxy excess was used then to glue the horizontal/inclined floor. A bit of gymnastics to keep control over this whole dripping and sliding mess but all went well.
Midships chambers have to be filled with foam before planking - if one does it my way. Plans propose gluing this subassembly after the boat is planked, for easier access to the centerline while hanging planks. I chose to do it already now, to stiffen the structure and as it seemed to be easier at this stage.
I added water draining openings in the vertical panel. Even completely filled with foam these spaces will get humidity or condensation inside so letting water out is a good idea.
Once all was cured the next day I moved into fitting aft structure. Longitudinal members interlock with bulkhead 2. Here again I sealed interlocking joints with epoxy and mounted them on press fit. Fillets on all sides will hold components firmly.
Left for curing overnight.
It starts to look like a boat! I had to clean up the boatshop from all unnecessary stuff as the boat is now occupying most of available space.
Tomorrow I will mount the transom and floor carlins, then I’ll work on fore structure and hopefully mount the stem.
Trimming and fitting sloped floors and modifying the jig around bulkhead 4 support.
But mostly scratching my head on in which order shall I glue all these interlocking joints so that I don’t lock myself in impossible situation.
Such moments are worth taking a break so I hanged on hammock and was figuring out the solution. The weather was perfect.
Since these sloped sections will become inaccessible for maintenance once the boat is finished I decided to epoxy-coat them properly. Two layers, wet-on-wet, should do the trick.
Once I figured out the order in which things will be installed I glued half-frames 5.5 to centerboard case.
All exposed plywood edges which will be hidden in interlocking joints got double coat of epoxy, to seal the endgrain.
Tedious job but worth the effort - it should prolong life of the boat.
Evening was cold so I got some more pot-life on epoxy batch - well needed as I was running between my boatshop and workshop.
Lastly bulkhead 4 doublers got glued to sloped-floor panels. All left for curing overnight.
Next step is to fit wooden battens under these floors and on bulkhead 9. After that I shall glue the whole truss, mount the transom and start with laying the keel plank.
I took really seriously description in the plan that centerboard-case should be heavily coated with grp-armed epoxy. So seriously that the case became a bit too wide. Upon fitting half-frames 5.5 I saw that guiding holes on bulkhead supports do not match.
One way of fixing it would be to plane down timber on the bottom of the centerboard-case.
After some head-scratching I decided to make a notch instead - to bury frame ends into the timber. This way I will preserve timber thickness, frame will be mounted in the correct position (steered by holes in frame support) and it was the easiest fix.
Even better - this joint will be stronger than just filleted face-joint.
After dry-fitting both frames I masked the vicinity for gluing.
Before I glue anything I wanted to dry-fit the aft structure, just in case. Routed openings have rounded edges at the bottom so some trimming is needed to get a perfect fit.
Once all was trimmed the whole structure locks in place with tight fit. Transom mounted to check the fitting.
All looks good. Some small adjustments to be done tomorrow and I’ll glue the whole structure.
Centerboard case was ready to be glued together. Not to risk misalignment I used brass screws, they will be hidden when the case gets its wood trim at the top.
As the centerboard case will get lots of load during the life of the boat I used WEST G-Flex for this operation.
Once the glue set I sanded the whole case, trimmed a bit tenons which go into bulkheads and dry-fitted the whole assembly.
Happy with alignment I drilled holes for positioning screws. This time bronze, they will add strength to these crucial joints.
I’m religious with regard of masking so I take my time with paper tape.
Left for the epoxy to cure. Tape removed after I was sure of no more squeeze out.
It was a warm day so after four-five hours I could finally hang it in the boat.
In the meantime I planed and sanded mahogany trim on the transom.
Later in the evening bevels were added so I can hang it in the boat tomorrow.
Transom got cleaned-up on the inside face. If not for the wood grain one could think that both mahogany boards are indeed one, wide board. They will be stained, to equalize the color.
I’m happy with the result.
Last step before I close the centerboard case are doublers. I use plywood part from the kit as a template and cut them from mahogany.
I am religious in regard masking tape so before each epoxy session I mask all unconcerned pieces so that cleanup would be easier. It takes probably equally long with my masking as it does when cleaning the glue spills but I prefer this way.
Inside face of these doublers gets epoxy coat using the squeeze out.
I need space for yet another messy job today so I stack these pieces for curing once all squeeze out is done.
I was busy during the day with other stuff - and it was a hot day. Late at night, when temperature dropped, I started the biggie: gluing mahogany boards on the outside edge of the transom.
Having longer pot-life with lower temperature was advantageous: there were a lot of adjustments, gliding parts, massive squeeze out and all this mess when doing massive epoxy work. Thirty pumps of epoxy went into covering the transom with goo. Exhausted but happy I leave the whole assembly for curing over the night.
Tomorrow I’ll clean the centerboard and glue both halves together. While this cures I’ll trim planks on the transom.
I dare to say that epoxy-plywood boat-building takes more time than traditional, plank-on-frame build. All because of epoxy process which needs time to cure.
You save time elsewhere - in sourcing timber (plywood is more easily available) or by using pre-cut kit instead of spilling planks or steaming frames. Anyway - it is interesting to try this process and building lighter, easier to maintain and dry-sail boat. At least that is the fame of this technique.
I only had one hour today to spend on building Louve. Transom got cleaned after gluing mahogany doubler on the inside face. This piece got trimmed to bevels.
I mixed a small batch of epoxy to touch-up places where wetting of the second coat on the center board case was a bit thinner. I also took opportunity to apply one more coat on the plywood edges which will be inaccessible after I close the case.
Excess epoxy got used to seal plywood edges on the stem.
Tomorrow I shall glue mahogany on outside face of the transom and fit doubler pieces onto centerboard case. That would allow me to finally close this phase and mount the CB-case on the jig.
Having all bevels done on the transom I ripped mahogany board which I’ll use instead of plywood backer on the transom inside face. I planed it to the thickness as in plans and glued in place. That will yield a nice, mahogany trim on the inside, I’ll varnish or oil it.
This acts as a holding edge for lazarette cover and side seats.
Gluing so wide pieces always results in big epoxy squeeze out so it is wise to have a secondary glue job which can use this excess.
I decided to glue skeg. Alignment is done with three brass screws which sit in tenons. This way it was no issue to hold all in place & tight.
Both glue jobs took my whole shed so I moved outside to cut and sand mahogany planks which will be used as transom external face. This is old mahogany which I bought long time ago from bankrupted boatyard. I used some of it to build cabin sole on Meritaten but saved widest pieces for using on a new boat. Louve happens to be the one!
Sanding reveals the real color of this beautiful wood.
By the time I was done with all planks I certainly drove my wife and neighbors to tears with the noise. Being a kind man I move to my workshop to plane larch trim on centerboard case.
Silent and pleasant job. Who needs a gym-pass? Woodworking keeps you fit - with hand planes.
I plan yet another coat of epoxy on the inside but that must wait until other glue jobs are cured. Let’s call it technological pause.