At last a build thread: CR16 skiff

[cracked_ribs]

I didn’t get the chance to do much that physically got me any closer to a boat today but I did get a lot of little issues polished out on the 3d model. I transposed all the control points of the hull panels into an old version of the same software, Freeship, and compared the unfolded panels to make sure everything was rolling out predictably. I also went through all the various renditions and made sure nothing was left that had been changed in an early file but only in the bulkhead copy, say. I like to split the files up so I can delete everything but the hull panels in one version, or everything but the bulkheads and stringers. 3d design software always seems prone to glitching out when you get points that are attached to multiple planes so I like to take the final version and break it into three or four separate drawings so I know nothing is in them that’ll render weirdly in 2d when it gets flattened. That’s slow, fiddly work to check over so I was avoiding it but anyway, now it’s done.








I really roughly laid the panels out on a 4x8 grid just so I could mentally work with the plywood sheets. When I go to print stuff out I'll probably print it on 3"x3" grid for maximum measuring accuracy. The construction bulkheads I'll just hack out of cheap plywood; I don't need to waste marine plywood on frames that'll get cut down to a fraction of that size in the actual boat.

I also picked up (I think) all the components necessary to build a chimney to code. Man, those bits are expensive. I spent around $600 at Home Hardware getting rigged up. Tomorrow I’ll try to install everything. I’ll have to build a bit of framing in the garage to support it but I don’t think that’ll be too complicated. Anyway grinding ahead, one step at a time.

[cracked_ribs]

The wood stove is connected. I’ll still probably get a fireboard and when the shipment of more stainless chimney stuff arrives at the local Home Hardware next week, I think I’ll extend the chimney two feet further up. It seems to draft fine now but it’s not quite as tall as it probably should be. Anyway the wood stove is working and the shop is now ready for action. It was a perfect day to do all the chimney work: sunny and warm, maybe 10 celsius? Not bad for November.







I also got the air cleaner and everything back on the outboard and fired it up for a bit...I didn’t think to film it but it’s running pretty smoothly now so I think I can pretty much shelve it for the moment and focus on the hull.


The next step will be to get some beater plywood in and cut construction bulkheads and start framing everything up. The epoxy (and lots of other stuff) will start arriving next week so I better get ready to start cutting and stitching!

[gstanfield]

I can't quite make it out on my phone, but is that a Griso sitting there?

[cracked_ribs]

Good eye! indeed it is. That bike took my wife and I on our honeymoon about ten years ago...three weeks of sleeping in ditches and deserts and getting loaded on margaritas in the US Southwest.

Occasionally I run across Guzzi people that recognize this photo which got around for a while shortly after we got back:



Anyway, that's my bike and wife, mid-honeymoon, somewhere east of Palm Springs, I think.

[gstanfield]

Cool photo! To say that I’m a “bike guy” would be a huge understatement. I’ve owned most major brands out there, but so far I haven’t had a Ducati or a Guzzi, but life isn’t over yet!

[cracked_ribs]

Well I can tell you that the Guzzi sideways twin is a fun motor, that's for sure. I love feeling it torque-twist a bit if I blip the throttle at a stop. Very grunty, very strange. The single sided swingarm and shaft drive is a cool setup also. It's not everything I want in a bike - because that would be about five bikes - but it's macho and loud and flashy, while also being stylish and not dependent on insane speeds to be fun. I can't do supersports anymore...I'm too old for that action.

On the boat side of things, a dull update today: I bought some plywood. It’s kind of exciting for me because now things will really begin to roll ahead, but “today I drove to Nanaimo after work to buy plywood” doesn’t make for especially compelling reading.


I guess conceivably interesting is my choice in wood, which is a bit controversial: I bought a couple of pieces of cheap plywood just to build temporary bulkheads out of to wrap hull panels onto, but for the transom and some stuff that’s staying in place, I actually bought marine fir. There’s a lot of people who don’t like marine fir. It checks to hell if you don’t glass it and it’s hard to bend, but for the transom and forward bulkhead I don’t think it’s a bad choice. The transom will get glassed right up so I’m not worried about the checking there, and I can always put a light fabric on the collision bulkhead. The big question is “why not just use tropical mahogany hardwoods?”


I just don’t trust them. I know that’ll sound crazy to some builders, because the world standard is BS1088 Okume plywood. But I have seen that stuff go seriously wrong and I don’t trust it unless it’s from someone like Joubert. Same with Meranti. Meranti I trust more; it seems inherently rot-resistant. But you get a pinhole in okume and it turns into paper mache. Ordinarily the local plywood people carry Joubert plywood but I went in today and they were out, to my immense irritation. I called last week and they said they had tons. In fact they had some BS1088 “something tropical marine.” I think it was alternating plies of a dark meranti with a different tropical hardwood, maybe keruing. I think I used that stuff once. It was fine at first. But somewhere in the decking it got water in, somewhere I couldn’t see, and it disintegrated. Marine fir may be a little heavier than standard, and prone to checking, but it’s built here. I trust it. So at least for the stuff that doesn’t have to bend, that’s what I’ll use. It may be a little harder to work with but it's strong as hell. I think it'll work fine. Depending on how things go I'm not opposed to doing the whole hull in it. I know it has some downsides but man, it's tough as nails.

Up next: I get to start making sawdust!

[Fuzz]

I really like using the wood from BBC for anything less than half inch material. Most of it looks like it could be used for making fine furniture. When it comes to half inch and above I have no problem with marine fir. With the understanding the fir will be glassed on both sides and you do not need to bend it much. Fir is both heavy and stiff. Those traits can be very good things when used in the correct places.

[cracked_ribs]

Yeah, so far I am liking the marine fir; I haven't decided exactly where I will use that and where I'll use something else. I'm fairly annoyed that the local place that had Joubert in the summer, now has totally sketchy unknown-supplier asian plywood for the same price. I may end up building the whole thing out of fir just to spite them.

Today the boatbuilding started for real. I started laying out bulkheads on the plywood panels and making sawdust.


It took a while to lay out the transom pieces because I’m going to laminate a couple of layers together and I had to cram two pieces onto a sheet that could barely fit them, and it took a couple of tries to figure out the best setup. Anyway, half inch marine fir doubled up should be pretty solid.





The only other thing I got to was hacking up a chunk of scrap from the transom cuts. Why is that important? Two reasons: I wanted to make sure there really weren’t voids lurking inside - there weren’t; Vancouver Island plywood mills seem rock solid - and I wanted to make some wood soup.





In order to test the waterproofness of the wood, I’m boiling it and freezing it. I’m never going through another “supposed to be waterproof and isn’t” episode again, so I have six chunks of plywood boiling and I’ll take them out one at a time over the course of 24 hours and chuck them in the freezer and see if anything delaminates.


But I think it’ll be fine.

[cracked_ribs]

The first round of supplies arrived: 12oz biaxial fabric and some 8.8oz Rutan 2x2 twill. I won’t need it for a bit but still nice to see stuff showing up. My big epoxy shipment was dropped off at the warehouse in Blaine, so I’m waiting on that to get sent up to Canada now. But I still have maybe a gallon or so of epoxy from my last boat so no big deal, I could easily get started with what I’ve got. Even if I were ready with all the panels, which I’m not.





I did lay out more bulkheads today, that was satisfying. There’s plenty to go but nice to make headway. But the interesting thing to me is the boil test.


Several people have asked me about this. I thought it was well known, but then I have been in the boat game a long time. Basically the goal is to ensure the wood doesn’t have voids, doesn’t delaminate, doesn’t just in general suck. I boiled 6 pieces and took them out one at a time over the course of 24 hours, then froze them. After 24 hours in boiling water they were fully saturated and didn’t float anymore, so freezing them should really want to split them open. But no, all samples were hard as a rock afterwards. Well, all but one.


Somewhere around hour 21, my wife asked me if I’d boiled any of the plywood that failed on me on my prior deck repair on the Double Eagle. I hadn’t.


“You should,” she said. “Do you have any left?”


In fact I did have a few little bits left, so I went downstairs and snapped off a little leftover triangle of $150/sheet marine tropical hardwood, and chucked it in the boiling water and went out to go lay out some panels.





Zero delamination.






Bottom line: THIS is why I trust made in Canada marine fir. I couldn’t split the piece I’d boiled for 24 hours apart with a steak knife. It was solid as a rock. Ramming the point of the knife in like Norman Bates it only made it through two plies.



The “marine tropical hardwood” on the other hand…






Garbage! So there you have it, that's why you test your wood. That $150/sheet "certified BS1088 marine tropical hardwood" lasted 1 hour in the water (and probably less, that's just when my wife noticed it was delaminating and told me to come check it out.)

***no, that garbage wood was NOT supplied by Boat Builder Central, who I trust to have enough pull to ensure real marine plywood. But this stuff was stamped BS1088 with third party verification and everything. So whatever else you do, TEST YOUR PLYWOOD!***

[cracked_ribs]

Work continues...the bulkheads are now all cut out; I am just working out the stringer dimensions so the bulkhead layout on the strongback can be set up.





I put wheels on the strongback today so I can move it around for ease of construction, and put the bulkheads in order to get a bit of a sense of things. I'm pretty happy with how it's looking and will start setting up the jig properly tomorrow. I do need to leave the strongbacks empty to scarf up the long panels; I'll try to get the ply for that on Monday if I can, and scarf the ply together early next week. Then it's cutting panels and stitiching and gluing begins for real.





The little guy is excited to be in the shop with me. He's too young to grasp any of what's happening but he's just happy to be there.