Rebuild of Norwegian Pilot Cutter

[Michael D. Storey]

This is my favorite boat resto thread pix album of all that I have seen.

In the face of huge inhumanity in the world, I can look at the story of your boat, and see art and civility.

[JormaS]

Hi Svaap,

I'm full of admiration; you're doing a great job and you're probably rescuing a piece of history. I myself am in the process of donating my 40 ft Colin Archer (built at Lista, Norway, in 1975) to the local Sea Rescue organization for use as a platform for youth training. These are lovely boats with a very special charm.

I got interested in your deck and was wondering how you're going to caulk the seams -- now that we have so many more alternatives than the earlier generations had. The same goes for surface treatment like paints and varnishes etc.

All the best, Svaap!

[svaap]

Thank you for all your kind comments!!

As for the chaulking -I will use cotton strands driven hard into the seams. The planking is 40 mm and has a wedge-shaped opening that ends up closed 2/3 of the thickness.

It will be topped by some sort of seam-compound (Sikaflex?).
It's a shame we can not get Arbocol anymore -a superiour compound!


The picure below shows the last deck-beam being installed.
I waited to install this half-beam to make passage to the foredeck a bit easier. But now it was time to get it down, as the deck is meeting the beam any time now...



This beam was let into the carlin with "half-on-half joinery"



On the port side, I've reached the carling and will not have to fight with 8 metre lenghts anymore, as I will do the fore and aft-deck.

This will speed up the progress a bit:



The inner plank is exceeding the carling a bit, and will be planed to match with the profile of the inside of the carling.
I will measure the correct angle and do it with a powerplane and handplane.


The picture below is from one of the old half-beams.
Although poor quality-picture, you can see the close grains.
This is very slow-grown pine, very rot-resistant!



As I could not get this quality of pine, I decided to use oak on all the new beams.

[chuckt]

Hey--is that a dinghy hanging in the corner? Looks interesting

[svaap]

It is a small mahogany dinghy -a cutter design copper riveted.

Got it for $150 as it has a damage to the planking on the port side.

I will replace a couple of planks, sand it down and give it some coates of varnish.

Handsome little boat!

[ILikeRust]

Damn, that is one seriously stout boat you're building! Fantastic work; thanks very much for sharing!

[JormaS]

Your deck seams look like they are narrower than in the old deck. Their width seem to vary between maybe 2 and 5 mm. Are you going to rout them to a uniform width? I was thinking of how to accommodate the seam compound.

[svaap]

The seams will be 4mm when finished.
I need to open some of them slightly to get them uniform.

[wizbang 13]

Great Job!!

[JormaS]

The seams will be 4mm when finished.
I need to open some of them slightly to get them uniform.

Do you have a seam compound in mind? I think the manufacturers of polyurethane sealants like Sika, 3M and a multitude of others recommend a seam width to plank width ratio of 1 : 10. They have their reasons. In your case, the iroko planks are probably not going to shrink and swell a lot, so you might get away with a narrower seam.

When deciding on the seam dimensions, it's always good to know one's reasons. Often they are mainly aesthetic ones...

[svaap]

I think I will use some sort of Sika-product, and I know their recomendations to be like you mention.

Think this got to do with the neccessity of some width for the compound to be able to move (stretch/shrink) according to the manufacturers spesifications.

As you say, the iroko planks are fairly stable and I think I can get away with a bit narrower seams than specified.

I have consulted a boatbulder on the topic and he thought it would be best with 4mm seams.
I hope for the best.....

This is a picture of my uncles boat -a 32 feet Colin Archer design.
The seams on his deck is also 4mm wide and the deck (iroko) was layed in 1974 -still tight:

[JormaS]

I wonder why he says 4 mm would be best. Normally, I think a wider seam is always better than a narrow one because the stress on the compound's glue line is then lesser. But if we think there will be no movement, it doesn't really matter what we put in the seam, as long as it can resist the elements, mainly UV-radiation.

Your uncle's seams are probably polysulfide. I don't think any known polyurethane could stay that good for over 30 years. A good silicone sealant could maybe do it, but I don't think there were any in the seventies.

[svaap]

Hi Jorma:

I'm sorry for misleading you -the seams on my uncles boat have been replaced, but the deck is not leaking -so I think using the same width on the seams will be sufficient.

But I am depending on information from others here -as I have not done this before....

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[JormaS]

Jorma

[svaap]

Progress is a bit slow these days... -but some progress is better than no progress.... :-)

The planks in the foredeck is going in a lot faster than the full-lenght planks.
I use aprox 1,5 hrs from start to screwed down boards, and that makes room for visible progress in a working session -between other duties.

In addition to a full-time office job, we have duties at home with 30 horses to attend, and also a lot of work on maintaining the buildings on the farm.
Soon we are to harvest grass for our animals, wich leaves little room for "boat-exercise".

Still -some progress is documented:








If I could work a couple of hours 3-4 days a week, I would lay the remaining deck within 2 weeks.

Time will show when it's done...

-Bye for now!

[svaap]

Thanks Portland!

We have different rases or horses, ranging from small Shetland Ponies, Iceland horses, Arabs, different Welsch types to larger working horses.

My wife is running a riding-school with focus on NH principles.

[svaap]

I have made some progress since the last posting:

The fore-deck is "closing" -at least rear of the hatch that will be constructed shortly:

Pictures:





I don't have the neccessary oak for the superstructure, and I am struggling to get decent planks to work with.

The connections between the sides and the front/rear will be joined with what we call "sink-connections" -a bit similar to "dovetail joinery".

This calls for dry and stable stock, wich I am without...
Hope to find suitable wood shortly...

I am quite happy with how the deck appears.


Cheers!!

[svaap]

It's been a while since the last update and some progress has been made.

The deck is completed, and I am soon to start the chaulking of the seams.
I have purchased cotton for the seams, to be driven hard between the planks. I think I will use some sort of Sikaflex product to top up the cotton.

I struggeled a bit to make the framing for the hatch on the fore-deck (most of all to find the proper wood for it..)

There was a very pleasant guy that contacted me, saying that he had some oak lying on a barn.
It had been stored there since 1952 (!) and was bone-dry.
As you can imagine -all internal stresses was gone, and the timber was really dried out without any checks.
It was like having birthday, christmas and easter all at the same time...
The dimensions was sufficient for both hatches and the superstructure soon to be built.

I was truely a happy man!

Some pictures of the making of the hatch:

4749439183_65a208502e_m.jpg

Hmmm.... Why can I only post small pictures?

I don't think the files are any bigger than before....

Pictures coming as soon as I know how to insert them

:-)

[chuckt]

Wow! What a great find on that oak. Looking forward to more pictures. Don't know why they are turning out small for you.

[wizbang 13]

I think you need to un-check the little green check in the wee box "retrieve remote file..." ,cuz I sure like lookin' at yer boat.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

What a great thread.... thanks for sharing your project Svaap..

[Larks]

It's been a while since the last update and some progress has been made.

The deck is completed, and I am soon to start the chaulking of the seams.
I have purchased cotton for the seams, to be driven hard between the planks. I think I will use some sort of Sikaflex product to top up the cotton.

I struggeled a bit to make the framing for the hatch on the fore-deck (most of all to find the proper wood for it..)

There was a very pleasant guy that contacted me, saying that he had some oak lying on a barn.
It had been stored there since 1952 (!) and was bone-dry.
As you can imagine -all internal stresses was gone, and the timber was really dried out without any checks.
It was like having birthday, christmas and easter all at the same time...
The dimensions was sufficient for both hatches and the superstructure soon to be built.

I was truely a happy man!

Some pictures of the making of the hatch:

4749439183_65a208502e_m.jpg

Hmmm.... Why can I only post small pictures?

I don't think the files are any bigger than before....

Pictures coming as soon as I know how to insert them

:-)

If you have access to Fixtech products you may find them worth considering for your deck seams, or something of a similar makeup, their products seem to be more popular than Sika' products around here commercially for deck seams and window/port installations and deck fittings and the like. Because the Fixtech is not a solvent based product, once it cures it (supposedly) then stays at the same consistency rather than continuing to dry out over life and go brittle like Sika eventually seems to do. If the Fixtech isn't available there you may be able to find another product of a similar type.

[svaap]

Larks:

Fixtech products seems interesting, but as far as I could see they are not represented in Europe?
I will send an e mail, asking for the possiblillity of importing a few cases of their seam-compound.

Thanks for your recomendation!

Still struggling to import pictures -they all come out too big... (Didn't have that problem earlier..)
Anyone with a solution??

[m2c1Iw]

Still struggling to import pictures -they all come out too big... (Didn't have that problem earlier..)
Anyone with a solution??

Try unchecking the file transfer box had me tricked for a while.

[svaap]

Thanks a lot.....problem solved!!

I will post pictures of the process of making the hatch-framing.

[svaap]

The hatch gives access to the berth in the bow of the boat.
This area does not have a superstructure -it is just the deck-height, and this limits the space in the forward of the boat.

A hatch gives some more roomy feeling and more importantly, it will function as an emergency escape through the forward of the boat as well.

Bone-dry oak was planned and cut with the upmost care and attention -almost feeling a religious touch with the wood....trying not to make any errors..

It is constructed in two layers (upwards).

The first layer is going parallel to the beams, and just above the deck-planking:



And the mating part:



Dry fitted together:



And installed to the beams:



More coming...

[svaap]

After the sides were installed, I moved on to the next "layer" of the hatch.

I wanted a curved top of the framing, with a hinghed lid following the same curvator. This was chosen by aestetic reasons, and gives away the fact that I am doing this for the first time....it got a bit confusing how to make the mechanics of the hinghes go right... (head-scratching hours).

The hatch will also follow the waterline of the boat, making it higher in the back than the front.

Some pictures of the next layer, and a mistake I was about to make...
The joinery in the pictures to come is "open" and will not lock the timbers to each other like it should...



Mating parts joined, after carefully fitting (still wrong of course....)



Then I discovered my mistake....what a waste of prescious wood and time..

Luckily I had not cut the sidewalls to their final lenght, and was able to re-use the parts by flipping them to the other side.
Had to cut the joinery again, because the back-wall is leaning a bit forward to catch up with the angle of the "sampson-post" for the bowsprit.

I try to keep the wood as long as possible as long as possible, and this time it payed out.

Trying to correct my mistake I found myself making an exact copy of my error -can you believe it (!).

The third attempt was succesful though, but what a feeling to cut such precious wood the wrong way..

Here are my attempts:




...and finally adjusting the sidewalls:

[svaap]

Cutting the wood after all my mistakes was nerve-wrecking, and I really had to think things over a few times before I dared to start cutting...

Now I got it right, and was happy with how it turned out with the parts dry-fitted before glueing:






To make the two layers bond better, I routed a groove on both layers, and fitted a spline to strenghten the joint.
This would be glued with epoxy later:



Using masking tape I could glue without spilling to much...
(I really hate working with epoxy, but love the strenght and the end-result)



After wetting-out the surfaces a couple of times, I went for the thick goo in the end (with a lot of messy spilling..)

[svaap]

After the glue had cured I got my belt-sander working, and was soon happy to see that it came out ok in the end... (Cheers)



Now I have to move my attention to the hatch itself.
This will be about 40mm high and probably with a plywood lid covered with 10 by 65mm strips of iroko, laid in epoxy.

The hinghes will be mounted on sockets that are horisontally flat on the curved lid, to enable them to move freely.
They will be anchored by stout blocks mounted on the deck forward of the hatch.

Will it be watertight??
Hopefully by either routing out a groove in the framing and the lid that locks the two parts together, making the distance longer for the water to penetrate, or by routing out grooves for a heavy-duty gaskes to be compressed by the lid.

Time will show....

Bye for now

[chuckt]

Very nice work. One of my favorite threads to watch.

Just noticed you keep horses. We do too. Our own three and we board 12 others so I understand the interuptions that the barn operations cause. I find I resent the inevitable farm projects that pop up--I didn't mind them so much before my boat project arrived. Ours are show hunters with a couple of jumpers--mostly Warmbloods or Thoroughbreds.

[svaap]

Hi Chuck!

Thanks for the compliments!

I find harvesting the grass for our horses to be very rewarding. (and also a bit exciting)
We are in need of a lot of grass of high quality to meet the winter feeding.
This year our first "batch or cut" was poor. Cold spring slowed down the growth on our fields.
However, I think we will get a decent "second batch".

We have 29 horses on our stable (not all on boxes).

Farming, boatbuilding and a office job, gives a nice balance I think.
(although It can be too much at times...)

[chuckt]

Oh! I have lusted many years for a mower, tedder, and baler to go with my tractor and do my own hay but, lacking the hay fields as well, could not justify the cost.

Your beautiful country is on my list of places to visit--there were some very nice air fares earlier in the year but we had other commitments

[svaap]

The Norwegian geography can be spectalular, but we often get dissapointing temperatures during the summer.
We had some our our vacation in the norther parts, and got 3 days of good weather. Not bad out of 5 days, but it was the only 3 days in all of July month :-(

My wife is very eager to visit the States for a horse-camping holiday.
Riding a distance, and camping in a tent or under the open sky.....sounds like the movies.

We are discussing such a holiday next year.

[Driver Mark]

Seeing the photos of your work makes me ashamed of my wood butchery. I feel I'm in the presents of greatness.

[Larks]

Will it be watertight??
Hopefully by either routing out a groove in the framing and the lid that locks the two parts together, making the distance longer for the water to penetrate, or by routing out grooves for a heavy-duty gaskes to be compressed by the lid.

Time will show....

Bye for now

Could you fit an inside lip to yout hatch from the same timber but half the width and maybe 30mm high, with the opposite on the hatch cover to close over it?

[P.L.Lenihan]

It is very instructive to see such wonderful traditional construction occuring.Thank you for taking the time to post good pictures of your progress svaap!


Cheers!


Peter

[chuckt]

Is there a reason most boat builders dont do such joints? I suppose the obvious answer is the extra time. Seems like it would give you a better joint.

On your horse trip, there are lots of wonderful places to go--mainly out West and mainly in the National Parks. Unless what you are looking for is a cattle drive kind of experience. Also on our list of things to do.

[svaap]

A lid would probably be a good alternative to help make the hatch watertight.

I really have to look actively on how deck-hatches are constructed on other boats (seagoing).

I think the joinery on the corners of the hatch-frame isn't that unusual?
Such a joint will probably be stronger than 45degr flat-on, but as pointed out -it takes a bit more time to make.

I think it looks good.

Will use similar technique when assembling the casing (deck-structure) later on -then hopefully without any wrong cuts on those large timbers..

[Tom Freeman]

I've just found your thread, and I'm admiring your lovely carpentry work. Thanks for sharing it!

Tom

[svaap]

Thanks Tom,

I live my life under the same principle as you have in your "signature"... (Learning on the job)...

(Find myself doing things twice -or more- to get i right)

[svaap]

Hi folks!

I am soon to start caulking the decks with cotton strands.
Are there any rules as to where to start? (In the centre, working outwards or from the sides, working towards the centre)?

Thanks for your input.

[JayInOz]

Svaap you start by setting up the camera JayInOz

[svaap]

He he.... Will do so ;-)

Today I have sanded the entire deck with a monstrous belt-sander.

It is huge -3 phase, 1,5 kW weighing aprox 10-15 kg (!!) and takes a bit of effort and respect to operate.
The underside is fittet with a frame, to prevent the paper from "digging into" the wood.

Took 2 hrs to completely sand the deck, devided into two sessions in order to gather strenght... (Phew)

Will post some pictures later this afternoon.

[svaap]

Sometimes I really feel like I'm born in the wrong century....

Trying to post pictures again, but somethings changed (again), and I am getting nowhere.....

[svaap]

Hi again folks,

Making progress, but unable to post pictures on the forum.

Have tried different picture-hosts (Photobucket and Flickr) but all I get are red crosses.... arrrrgh!!

Please help lost boatbuilder.....

[Tom Freeman]

I got stuck when the system changed as well, and then someone told me to Go to the From URL tab, paste the correct location and then uncheck the box that says "Retrieve remote file and reference locally ".

That last step was giving me problems.

[svaap]

Thanks, but I have tried that allready...red cross...

[Duncan Gibbs]

Svaap, I use Picture trail. It has a whole variety of options under a menu item called "Get Image URLs" including the forums [IMG]...[/IMG] tag. If you can find that all you need to do is cut and paste it into your post.

An alternative is to right click on the full sized image on your image hosting site and copy the image address. Then use the button above and paste the address into the dialogue box.

Looking forward to the next instalments!

[svaap]

Picturetrail:





Success!!!

This is the "Direct Image Link"..

Will update my postings later today..

Thanks for helping!

[svaap]

After finishing the hatch-framing, I went on preparing the deck-seams for caulking.

This involved routing the top of the seams with a rectangular bit of 5 mm diameter. This was controlled by a batten screwed down on the "neighbour" seam. The areas not accessible was scraped by hand.

I needed to fit the forward end of the casing, in order to be able to caulk the planking butting in this part.

The same went for the back end of the cockpit arrangements.




After assembling the cockpit








To be continued....