20' Sooty Tern

[Vernon]

I love this thread allready!
After 3 seasons of sailing with my 20´ Arctic Tern I´m even more impressed with this design.
As I work usually in the metric system I build LJS 6000mm between the verticals.
I did strech too my centerboard and case. But that is up to the builder.
Here is a link to some of my building pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seaandshore/?saved=1
Have fun!
Max

Thanks Max!, that's a well placed link - lotsa details I can look at. I'll be going back to check out the rest.
Lovely colors btw.
Vern

[Vernon]

.... p.s. Vernon, the bar has been set very high by Max F.

Indeed, I'll be fiddling with my camera to set the resolution even lower!

[Vernon]

I went right through the album , she's lovely Max, a great tent too!

Didn't catch the tent, but I had to go back to look. Nice tent true, but the rudder hardware - oh man!

And I like this one, I'm gonna toss a plank across the building form between stations 1 and 2 - do some real thinkin.

[Vernon]

I picked up some lumber for the framing.

4 1x12x14' and 1 - 1x8x16 SYP. Iain had it listed as a good choice in the book. I'm going to do laminations for the aprons and stems hopefully starting tommorow.



It nice clear stuff with some really strain grained sections for the longer parts.
Ranges between 9 and 15 rings per inch.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Great thread Vernon! Another great thread I should say!

There are more amazing wooden boats gathered in one place than anywhere else on earth.

James, I'd have an absolute ball at the PT WBF, no doubt. But, one day my dear virtual friend, you must make it to Hobart for the WBF there, where you'll be disabused of the fallacy of the above. Last Hobart festival had over 700 wooden boats and ships, which is about two and a half times the size of the PT festival. I'll by you a beer so you chin will have something else to do than drop to the ground! I just wanna go to ALL the festivals anyhoo!

Carry on!

[Vernon]

Then I spent some time tearing down the lofting board, putting away tools, and generally cleaning and reorganising. Now I'm ready to start making some sawdust. thinking bact to an issue I had from the last build, I decided to make a 4x8 table out of the lofting board parts to work on the aprons and stems.

solid layer of 2x material and 3 sheets of plywood all screwed to my sawhorses.

[PeterSibley]

Didn't catch the tent, but I had to go back to look. Nice tent true, but the rudder hardware - oh man!

And I like this one, I gonna toss a plank across the building form between stations 1 and 2 - do some real thinkin.

I like my hardware plain but I DO like a good tent !

[Vernon]

I have some more prepatory work to do (battens and lap clamps) but wanted to add some wood that stayed with the boat. Makes me feel like I started.

So I went to work on the keelson.

Needed straightening, so I snapped a line and cut it with the circular saw.



Followed by planing that edge.




Rip to width, sand both edges, plane faces, and finally a quick sanding of the inside face.



A little fine tuning on the forms and mounted the keelson. I left it long on both ends until the aprons are fitted.



Got-er-did! - that's a start.
Interestingly, the lowest point on the hull is aft of station 4 a bit - just under the center bubble. She's a little fuller on the backside.

[Vernon]

I want to line the whole boat out at once this time, so I'm making up a bunch of lining battens.

This is just cheap 2x4x92 5/8 studs. I'm picking the clearest pieces, but leaving some knots. I'll end up with about 3 long battens of clear straight stuff to keep and the rest will be junked when I'm done with them. Hopefully they'll work well enough to give me a good representation of the shape.



ripped for width, then for thickness, scarphs cut on a quickie jig at the radial arm saw.




half of them glued up, this is where I'm at right now - posting while waiting for the TB2 glue to set up enough so I can glue the rest.
I'm working late tonight so I can plane all these and get going on the aprons tommorow.

Note to self - need more clamps, don't tell the wife.

The battens vary in length from about 18-22 feet finished. I was snapping out obvious week spots as I went.



Iain shows lap clamps cut out of plywood and small wedges when you don't want to use screws.
I saved all the scraps from the moulds and didn't bother with careful layout, the rest of the junk osb will be cut into clamps.

Got the wedges as a byproduct of cutting scarphs though - a bonus.



I remembered to add to my wood samples.

[Vernon]

Great thread Vernon! Another great thread I should say!



James, I'd have an absolute ball at the PT WBF, no doubt. But, one day my dear virtual friend, you must make it to Hobart for the WBF there, where you'll be disabused of the fallacy of the above. Last Hobart festival had over 700 wooden boats and ships, which is about two and a half times the size of the PT festival. I'll by you a beer so you chin will have something else to do than drop to the ground! I just wanna go to ALL the festivals anyhoo!

Carry on!

Hello Duncan, Thanks for dropping in. That trip to Hobart (and about) would sure be nice, but James got me thinking more about the PT festival and I checked around online. For anyone wanting to go, the airfare was surprisingly afforable - the trip was half of what I expected. Of course I'm talking about within the US.

I've been meaning to catch the shed thread and comment, that building of yours just looks like a boat shed - more so with Looe in there. Love those sheds with character.

Vern

[Duncan Gibbs]

Thanks Vern! I do love your big shed there. That drawing board/lofting floor set-up is terrific.

Man, I'd love to get up to PT one day and hang out with that crazy West Coast crew.

What's the road distance from Ohio to PT? Could you trail your new build there?

I'd love to get Looe to Hobart: About 2000km as the crow flaps.

[Vernon]

Thanks Vern! I do love your big shed there. That drawing board/lofting floor set-up is terrific.

Man, I'd love to get up to PT one day and hang out with that crazy West Coast crew.

What's the road distance from Ohio to PT? Could you trail your new build there?

I'd love to get Looe to Hobart: About 2000km as the crow flaps.

2,400 miles. Google says about 40hrs drive time, that's why I was checking flights.
It would be a wonderful 2 or 3 week trip though, lots of nice places to visit between here and there.

[Max F]

Quick you are man!
Thanks Peter.
I had a look to my own Flickr account too and realised that some pictures have vanished.
No idea what happend.
So I reloadet some of them again. Now other pictures are missing! ??????
Does somebody know what has gone wrong?
Well there are new pictures now at folowing sets. hull, centerboard.
Max

[Vernon]

Quick you are man!
Thanks Peter.
I had a look to my own Flickr account too and realised that some pictures have vanished.
No idea what happend.
So I reloadet some of them again. Now other pictures are missing! ??????
Does somebody know what has gone wrong?
Well there are new pictures now at folowing sets. hull, centerboard.
Max

I had a Flickr account for most of my canoe build. After uploading a bunch of pictures about 2/3rds through, I started getting warning messages that I had to upgrade after 200 pics or some such. I had thought the limit would be file space used, so I had been editing all my pictures way down before uploading. I suppose they wanted some cash - I just opened a google account, read the terms a bit more carefully, and I'm using their picasaweb now. It's a bit easier for me anyways....

[Vernon]

Picked up this morning with the second set of battens dry, all are ready to plane.




I ran them through on all 4 sides, they finish out at about 5/8th by 7/8th.
They'll be planed down some more later if that turns out to be to stiff for the curves.




Looking the other way as they come out. The bench is the same height so it can be used to catch really long pieces.




And the overall view. There are some disadvantages to the long skinny layout, but I love the ability to run these long pieces.




I end up with 13 battens, don't know how - not enough fingers I'd guess, thought I was making 12.
3 of them are clear and straight grained, so I did end up with a few to keep. The others, I'll have to be careful with.

[Vernon]

Started cutting laminations for the aprons and stems. Laminating these would not be necessary, but it's the best use of the material I purchased.

Cut to 1 7/8th wide first. They will finish at 1 1/2", but I like to have some material to cut off with the bandsaw so I don't have to deal with cleaning up the epoxy squeeze out.




Then split into 1/3rds to come up with 1/4" lams - the material was 15/16th to start.
The bandsaw blade wasn't up to the task, so I ended up using the table saw for this too.
I'll need another blade for the bandsaw soon, that 1/8" blade in there isn't going to cut it.

Ba dump bump isn't gonna cut it huh

Anyway, 2 stacks at 4 1/4" high - the aprons and stems combined.



The stem is raked and will be laminated from the inside. This will result in endgrain showing where the rake is cut. Does anyone have an opinion of putting 1 additional lam of walnut on to cap it after it is cut. In the event that I later decide to varnish the stems it might look kinda neat and give it a little extra protection.

That's where I'm leaving off for the weekend. The BIL and his family over for dinner Friday night, called into to work once on the latest snafu, and dinner out tonight with the Commander. My butt's draggin, I'm just gonna get the shovel and do a quick cleanup of the latest round of butchery and knock off early.

Vern

[P.L.Lenihan]

the 1 shop rule we have here is that ya can't operate the machinery and drink a case in the same day.

An dats exactly why I has always refused to own machinery.Too much interfering with the case.

I like your long and narrow shop bench too Vern. Very handy for the long stuff(obviously) but also great for spreading out and clamping many smaller tasks all along the bench.


Have you got yourself a moaning chair/happy corner set up in your shop?




Cheers!

Peter



P.S. I was born with a mess-o-neurons but the passing of time has seen all but two leave the roost. Lucky me!

[PeterSibley]

I am suffering bench envy ! My set up is going to be VERY rough by comparison.

[Vernon]

Do to a limited number of clamps, I have to do 4 laminations, 1 at a time. I decided to work a few evenings this week so I can possibly start assembling this coming weekend.

Laying out the apron.



Old underlayment nails with sharp sides on the heads tapped in along the line.



Tap the forming material in place, remove it and draw the line formed by the embedded nail heads with a batten.



cut the 2x6 scrap forming material, screw it to the table.



Dry fit the laminations to make sure they won't break.



And finally glue them up. I like to wet all the parts with neat epoxy, mix in 406 thickener and recoat, wrap the whole deal in plastic, and clamp it up.

[Vernon]

Thanks Peter, and Mr. Sibley.


And Peter, Do I have a moaning chair? Are you kiddin, things are much worse that that here, I'm planning an entire moaning suite!

I've got the task chair in the above photo. It adjusts in height so I can roll it around and work seated at table hieght like on the saw horses there.

The adjustable drafting chair at the pc below, so I can work seated at the bench. Both are work chairs though, and there's no crying in boat building.



But...
When I set up the building form, I left room over by the stove I'm fixin to pipe when it cools a bit.
That's where the real moaning will happen.

I've been toting this ole friend around since SWMBO determined that it was to be no longer permitted in the big house. I got it sometime after we were married, so it must be about 19 years old.

So I gots the chair, the lamp, and the little stool (medicine table) - all sitting by the fireplace.
Furnishing for an entire moaning suite! ...whenever I get around to it.

[BBSebens]

A top notch moaning chair for a top notch build. Will be following closely.

[Vernon]

A top notch moaning chair for a top notch build. Will be following closely.

Thanks!
Hopefully I don't spend too much time on there this summer, when winter comes I'll put some wood on the fire and rename it the snuggly medicine chair.
Vern

[Vernon]

One more small step done tonight after work.

pulled the apron from the forms, bandsawed 1/8" off both sides to get the epoxy off, ran it through the planer to take it down to 1 1/2", and put it back on the form - it will be used as the form for the stem.

dryfitting the lams for the stem.



You can sorta see the apron looking a little darker after planing.
The apron is 6 - 1/4" lams and the stem 11 or 12.



And then glue up the stem, wrap it in plastic and clamp it over the apron.

[neilm]

Thanks Peter, and Mr. Sibley.

That is a serious moaning chair! Did you stretch it too?

Neil

[Garth Jones]

Hey Vernon,

James is right, the PT WBF is a great event. And Rowan is a lovely boat! I don't know how far away you are from Pittsburgh, but I built a Ness Yawl a few years ago that I keep at Moraine State Park during the summers. You say you never have been sailing. Well, I'm always happy to take people sailing.....

Here is Goldberry:


Cheers,
Garth

[jim_cricket]

Good luck with your ST project Vernon! I'm looking forward to the pics. And Garth, what did you do with the original sloop rig on your NY?
Cricket

[Garth Jones]

Good luck with your ST project Vernon! I'm looking forward to the pics. And Garth, what did you do with the original sloop rig on your NY?
Cricket

I still have everything and the fittings are still on the boat. At this point I can rig the boat either way.

[Vernon]

That is a serious moaning chair! Did you stretch it too?

Neil

No, the chair's built as drawn.

BTW Neil, tonight I pulled the stem and apron off the form and layed the apron on the pattern for the Arctic Tern. The 2 are very similar as you said and should work fine if layed out a few inches off the station lines.

Vern

[Vernon]

Hey Vernon,

James is right, the PT WBF is a great event. And Rowan is a lovely boat! I don't know how far away you are from Pittsburgh, but I built a Ness Yawl a few years ago that I keep at Moraine State Park during the summers. You say you never have been sailing. Well, I'm always happy to take people sailing.....

Here is Goldberry:


Cheers,
Garth

Ooh, another pretty boat.

I'm up by Lake Erie in Bellevue, OH, very near to Cedar Point. It'd be around a 3 hour drive or so. The Ness Yawl was one of the top contenders when I was finalizing what to build. I love the look of the 4 strake hull.

What made you change the rig? I'm going with same rig as pictured, but only because I like the look and the consensus here on the forum seems to be that it is easiest to use, not that I'd know any better.

Vern

[Vernon]

Good luck with your ST project Vernon! I'm looking forward to the pics. And Garth, what did you do with the original sloop rig on your NY?
Cricket

Thanks, still plugging away on the Mantinicus? She's gonna be one fine little sail-n-oar boat. I'm going to attempt slowing down a bit on the details to get to somewhere near the finish you're achieving.

Vern

[jim_cricket]

Still chipping away Vernon. This is a busy time of year for me, so work on the boat slows way down, but I do think I'll launch it this summer, maybe sans rig. I broke Cricket's mast earlier this season too, so I have that to do as well. Just please don't launch your ST before I get mine in the water!Cricket

[Vernon]

still laminating, got the aft apron done today.

layout on the lofting




dry fit



glued up - the apron and stem from the bow are laying there too, you can see I got a bit of springback on the apron, I'll have to use the stem when I set it up to make sure I get a good layout and fit later when I install it.



I'll still need to cut the rake on the stem and laminate 1 more piece on it but that'll have to wait for another day. I finally broke down and ordered a few blades and a guide roller set for the bandsaw.

I've been breaking up samples of the glued parts and have no issues at all - happy, happy.

Here's a cross section of the offcuts from the top of the apron and stem.

[PeterSibley]

Ah yes , a new bandsaw blade ! Definitely and very soon for me . I just bought a new 10" ripping blade for my table saw and the difference is just remarkable !

[Vernon]

Ah yes , a new bandsaw blade ! Definitely and very soon for me . I just bought a new 10" ripping blade for my table saw and the difference is just remarkable !

Makes a difference for sure, I have to stop and sharpen the planes and chisels, and get a few table saw blades sharpened as well. Seems like I left everything dull after the last project....

[Vernon]

The aft stem is glued up now.





Working on shaping the 1st apron



And gluing it in place. It's kind of an odd detail here, the apron is cut straight across and the glued to the keelson. The keelson is then faired to shape. I suppose it's optimized for the maximum amount of gluing surface and I doubt the 1x4 keelson could be forced down into a notch without distorting it behind station 2..



This is where I'll leave it for today, waiting on the aft stem to dry on the table and waiting for the forward stem to dry in place.
I'll work on lap clamps for the rest of today, and assemble the other end tommorow.

[Vernon]

Aft stem coming off the form
The other stem just happens to be laying there in front.





Aft apron glued in place

[Vernon]

I glued up some lap clamps with TB2 last night. I decided on doing these clothspin style clamps instead of what Iain shows. They have a 7" reach, 5/8th thick, I should be able to use these one handed without the wedges with the 3/8" planking I'll use.



I ran them through the planer to clean em up. There's about 20 of them, I'll make another set tonight before calling it quits for the weekend.

[TerryLL]

Your photos thus far of your ST build look remarkably similar to the ones I took building a Caledonia Yawl. I did the aft inner stem in six 1/4" lams and got more springback than I wanted. So I pitched that one and did a second in eight 3/16" lams and got negligible springback. The fore stem was 8 lams at 3/16", plus 12 lams at 3/16" for the outer fore stem, both with barely any springback.

[Vernon]

Your photos thus far of your ST build look remarkably similar to the ones I took building a Caledonia Yawl. I did the aft inner stem in six 1/4" lams and got more springback than I wanted. So I pitched that one and did a second in eight 3/16" lams and got negligible springback. The fore stem was 8 lams at 3/16", plus 12 lams at 3/16" for the outer fore stem, both with barely any springback.

I could of read that thread! If I had to do it again I would cut the lams to get 4 out of a thickness of material instead of 3. I overbent everything about 1/4" and the stems came out just about right, but the aprons sprung back a bit further. I'm just going to finish up the outer stems before I plank and fit them before I mount the top of the aprons to the building table to make sure everything comes out OK without a bunch of extra shaping.

[neilm]

Those clamps look interesting. Let us know how they work. I wonder how much pressure they can handle? I think I am just going to use self tapping sheet metal screws as temporary clamps. I watched a friend use them and they worked fine.

Neil

[Vernon]

Those clamps look interesting. Let us know how they work. I wonder how much pressure they can handle? I think I am just going to use self tapping sheet metal screws as temporary clamps. I watched a friend use them and they worked fine.

Neil

I'll let you know about the clamps, I'm sure they'll be pictures.
I plan to use 3 of these between stations and quick clamps at the stations to avoid running any screws.

I used something very similar for my canoe, they come from one of the Walt Simmons books.
You can see the smaller one in the pic below, they worked great for that and I'm hoping the scaled up ones work as well.




Especially since I made another batch today. This brings the total to around 50 which should be enough to do a plank per side in one day.

[Vernon]

I also managed a bit more on the boat. The keelson is shaped on both ends, the rake drawn on the stems, stems fitted pretty good, and finally enough head scrating done to figure out the bevels in the area where the apron marries to the keelson - it changes in this area from a flat with 2 bevels on the apron to a point on the keelson.

[Vernon]

Wrong end for this sequence, but same deal.

[TerryLL]

I also managed a bit more on the boat. The keelson is shaped on both ends, the rake drawn on the stems, stems fitted pretty good, and finally enough head scrating done to figure out the bevels in the area where the apron marries to the keelson - it changes in this area from a flat with 2 bevels on the apron to a point on the keelson.

Those bevels where the keelson meets the inner stems boggle the mind. I just left them fat and did a bit more whittling as I laid on the garboards for their trial fit.

I also made a slew of those clothespin clamps but found they didn't provide enough pressure to hold the planks in place once spread with all that slippery epoxy. Drywall screws with UHMW blocks were the answer.

[Max F]

Watching your thread is like building LJS again. Makes me want to start a boat again.
Cape Henry is my favorite for this time. I thought allready to buy the plans.
Filling the screw holes with a syringe is quick and easy. I did it after all strakes were on.
I used 50ml syringes and had to fill them only half, otherwise the epoxy kickes inside due to the pressure and temperatures in summer while filling the holes.
I liked very much John Brooks ( "How to build glued -lapstrake wooden boats ") method of hanging the strakes with long battens on the outside and little blocks on the inside.
The long and floppy plywood strakes bend even and don´t flatten out between the molds like they the second strake did when I dry fitted it.
Have fun. Max

[Vernon]

Those bevels where the keelson meets the inner stems boggle the mind. I just left them fat and did a bit more whittling as I laid on the garboards for their trial fit.

I also made a slew of those clothespin clamps but found they didn't provide enough pressure to hold the planks in place once spread with all that slippery epoxy. Drywall screws with UHMW blocks were the answer.

That's what I'm going to do, just leave extra meat there and fit with the plank. Unfortunately I don't have the ply yet, so I'll be held up until Monday at least on going to much further. I can still finish beveling on the rest of the keelson but I don't want to do too much without the garboards in place. Hope my clamps work OK, if not they'll still be useful holding things in place while I fit the planks. I like to scarf on the bench and then put the long planks in place so I need a 1 handed way to get them started on the boat.

I was out at the CY forum last night and found you're thread there. You're first picture looks familiar, I would have got mine setup quicker had I seen it earlier, looks like the same boat at that stage. I really like Iains 4 strake designs.

Vern

[Vernon]

Watching your thread is like building LJS again. Makes me want to start a boat again.
Cape Henry is my favorite for this time. I thought allready to buy the plans.
Filling the screw holes with a syringe is quick and easy. I did it after all strakes were on.
I used 50ml syringes and had to fill them only half, otherwise the epoxy kickes inside due to the pressure and temperatures in summer while filling the holes.
I liked very much John Brooks ( "How to build glued -lapstrake wooden boats ") method of hanging the strakes with long battens on the outside and little blocks on the inside.
The long and floppy plywood strakes bend even and don´t flatten out between the molds like they the second strake did when I dry fitted it.
Have fun. Max

Thanks, I may try the battens, I have plenty to work with. On my canoe build, there was quite a bit of fiddlyness to avoid having the planks flatten out.

[Vernon]

I had to stop today and work on the bandsaw and sharpen planes and chisels.
I bought a couple of blades and upper and lower roller assy's for the bandsaw. The adjustment for the upper set wasn't quite right, so I got a piece of 7/8th rod and modified it a bit with an offset to get to the center of the adjustment on the rollers.

Kinda ugly, but it works just fine and I'll clean it up later. This set of rollers works so much better that the ones with friction blocks that came with the saw. I also installed the new 1/4" blade, it cuts like a dream in comparison to when I started.



The test was on the rake of the stems, no need to do anything other than finish sand them in place when the time comes.

[Vernon]

Beveled the keelson today.

roughed out with a 2" chisel



smooth with a plane



50 grit on a block across the grain



both ends are left a little on the heavy side, I'll fit them when I have the actual planking material so I can get the best fit.

[Garth Jones]

Ooh, another pretty boat.

I'm up by Lake Erie in Bellevue, OH, very near to Cedar Point. It'd be around a 3 hour drive or so. The Ness Yawl was one of the top contenders when I was finalizing what to build. I love the look of the 4 strake hull.

What made you change the rig? I'm going with same rig as pictured, but only because I like the look and the consensus here on the forum seems to be that it is easiest to use, not that I'd know any better.Vern

It is easier to use in a few key ways. First, the boat is easier to sail solo. I can handle the sloop rig along just fine, but this is more relaxing. Second, the set up time from trailering to sailing away from the dock is maybe five minutes. The sloop rig, with the stays, etc. takes 40-45 minutes to get set up. That's not a problem if the boat stays in the same place, but I want to be able to take her around to other lakes. We are shortly going to spend a week in the Finger Lakes and my wife and I will be delighted not to spend 1.5 hours each day rigging and derigging. Reefing is easy, since that can be down with the lug down in the boat - no crazy flapping as the wind gets up. Finally, the boat is much easier to row with the lug yawl rig since the big lug sail can be dropped into the bottom of the boat and set up of the way. With the sloop rig it's just about impossible to get the boom/main secured out of the way neatly.

Cheers,
Garth

Garth