Calendar Islands Yawl 16 in Chattanooga

[dalekidd]

Well, it's time to build a Calendar Islands Yawl 16. There are only a few threads on the forum about the CIY 16, so maybe there is a place for this one, especially since I'll be building from the plans and trying to economize where possible (might as well say it: I'm cheap). Clint has completely reworked the plans and made all of the updates for me. He's been great and we're just getting started.

I've built three S&G boats previously, but it's been nine years since the last. The CIY meets all of my design criteria for my next (and probably last) build: a lapstrake design using modern methods (as in ply and epoxy), able to single-hand but also take crew, simple unstayed rig, ability to sleep aboard, decent rower, good in light air but easily reefed, and last but not least - pleasing to my eye. I very seriously considered the Scamp and Walkabout (love John's boats) but the CIY won out.

My goal will be to launch by summer 2022. So let's go build a boat!!!

There will be a more details and pics on my blog for anyone interested:

https://captnkid.blogspot.com/

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[John Meachen]

You could always build a scale model as a training exercise.The mistakes,if any occur,won't cause as much anguish and you will have had an opportunity to figure everything out.As a bonus you get a nice thing to have around the house.

[neil.henderson]

Hello Dale and welcome, Could you please enlighten me re. what you mean by S&G boats - I'm not familiar with the term. I've just finished my 2nd glued clinker boat and find them great fun to build though my learning curve was near vertical cliff in the early days! Two books worth thinking about might be 'how to build glued lapstrake wooden boats' by John Brooks and Ruth Ann-Hill, the book (name?) by Iain Oughtred.
Have fun with the build, you don't need a lot of expensive tools - and use others to learn from, we are all happy to help.

Regards Neil

[dalekidd]

Hello Dale and welcome, Could you please enlighten me re. what you mean by S&G boats - I'm not familiar with the term. I've just finished my 2nd glued clinker boat and find them great fun to build though my learning curve was near vertical cliff in the early days! Two books worth thinking about might be 'how to build glued lapstrake wooden boats' by John Brooks and Ruth Ann-Hill, the book (name?) by Iain Oughtred.
Have fun with the build, you don't need a lot of expensive tools - and use others to learn from, we are all happy to help.

Regards Neil

Thanks for the reply. I do have and have read Brooks' book. Not Oughtred's. My tool box is basic but adequate I believe. I have acquired a couple things to help with this build including a 3.5" Porter Cable saw, a Japanese pull saw, a set of wetstones, and a vice for my bench. S&G is stitch and glue as in stitching panels together and sealing the joints with epoxy and fiberglass "tape". Here are my 3 previous builds.

Pixie: a self-designed 7'6" sailing dinghy

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16' Selway Fisher Wren

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And my most recent a Jacques Mertens-Goossen Semi Dory 11 (boat builder central) which included a birdsmouth mast

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PS: I found your Gannet thread. Looks very nice. Going to go back and read it more thoroughly soon!

[dalekidd]

The cart before the horse: or maybe I should say the trailer before the boat.

Of course, I've known that I would need a trailer for the boat I'm building, completion of which is probably a year or more away. I decided I would continue to look and if the right one showed up, I would get it. Well, one showed up this week which had just been listed. My day was flexible so I jumped. Talked to Scott, the seller, and he was very helpful in describing the trailer in more detail than just a picture. I liked him and decided to go for it. Drove 120 miles to look at it. It proved to be a very solid trailer. Needed a little work but good "bones". He helped me get her ready for the road and even threw in a jackstand, winch, and a couple extra rollers.

So I've landed this 1979 Dilly galvanized trailer for $160. I had to take a trailer light kit with me, it will need tires and a fitting or two; but a good find I believe. I'll cover it and park it 'til ready. Gonna be some motivation to get hopping!

Here she is:

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In the meantime, I'm working on building a pair of oars. Right now they're pretty rough. I've spent the last couple hours in the shop sharpening old planes. Still trying to get the hang of it. Planes are new to me.

At the moment here they are weighing in at 5.5 lbs and 9'2":

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Hoping to have them done this coming week.

The plans are the best! Not only is Clint a great designer but he's also a great draftsman! He's even modified them some to fit my situation including redesigning the middle frame and transom to be made out of ply rather than solid wood. Though his specialty is kits, this boat can certainly be done with the plans he has drawn.

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I've bought the ply I'll need for the strongback. I've ordered sails (I know it's early but, hey, I'm eager): mizzen from Duckworks and a main sail kit from Sailrite. I'll be ordering my okoume probably Monday.

We're in full blown build-a-boat mode here.

[neil.henderson]

Looks like you are leaping ahead which is great, a couple of ideas for you to ponder:
a) As you are building a clinker (yes?) boat you want the trailer to support the boats weight on the central rollers with the side bunks just stopping it rolling side to side - I would add some long (about 1 metre long) bunks to the trailer that will sit just under the turn of the bilge midway along the boat.
b) If you can go to a woodwork shop/course to learn how to sharpen blades, once learnt it is reall yquite simple but it does need to be done correctly using the correct sharpening devices - I use a Veritas honing guide to ensure that the blade is fixed at the correct angle when sharpening. And the blade is sharp when 1) you can see yourself in the bevel and b) you feel you can trim the fingerprints off your fingers with it (not necessary to try!). I personally use 3 grades of wetstones to get this finish on my chisels and planes........
c) I-shaped floor joists make a great base for a strongback - they tend not to either twist or bend.
Glad to see you making good progress.

[slycreek]

Best of good fortune with it. You may already know McLaughlin Boat Works, I got some hemp line through them a few years ago and they are good source for small quantity of cloth and other fiberglass supplies. I finally launched a Highlander at the dam a few years back, so strange to be lake level yet at elevation 681’ one is 47’ above the valley when wind is Southwest.

[KenStocker]

Welcome to the Forum, we'll be following along!

Ken

[dalekidd]

Looks like you are leaping ahead which is great, a couple of ideas for you to ponder:
a) As you are building a clinker (yes?) boat you want the trailer to support the boats weight on the central rollers with the side bunks just stopping it rolling side to side - I would add some long (about 1 metre long) bunks to the trailer that will sit just under the turn of the bilge midway along the boat.
b) If you can go to a woodwork shop/course to learn how to sharpen blades, once learnt it is reall yquite simple but it does need to be done correctly using the correct sharpening devices - I use a Veritas honing guide to ensure that the blade is fixed at the correct angle when sharpening. And the blade is sharp when 1) you can see yourself in the bevel and b) you feel you can trim the fingerprints off your fingers with it (not necessary to try!). I personally use 3 grades of wetstones to get this finish on my chisels and planes........
c) I-shaped floor joists make a great base for a strongback - they tend not to either twist or bend.
Glad to see you making good progress.

Thanks! That's a great tip re the trailer. I knew at some point I was going to have to know how to set it up.

I bought a set of whetstones, 400, 1000, 3000 and 8000 grits, and a honing guide. I've got a block plane going pretty well. I've watched a couple videos but still need to learn more. I'm sure a class would be nice.

[dalekidd]

In the last 3 weeks a good bit has happened. I located some Douglas Fir from an old bowling alley that was sold at auction. They'd dismantled the floors and the joists were made from DF. Unfortunately the wood was not clear. However, I bought 54' of 2x10 and brought it home anyway. I was able to rip it and put together my 8 staves for the mast. I was going to have to scarf each stave once anyway (without special ordering a 17' piece of lumber) but was able to put mine together with only 9 scarfs. One stave needed two. I do have a couple small knots but I've positioned them where most will be cut out when tapering and rounding. Here they are ready to have the birdsmouths cut into them. My mast is going to be 16'9".

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My plywood arrived on Monday from Bedard's in Tarpon Springs, FL. Good prices and I knew they would carry quality material. JF was also great working a good deal on shipping. Picked a carrier with a terminal 4 miles from my house. Shipping was much cheaper going that route rather than delivery to my door. I went with a combination of Meranti and Okoume. I'll use the latter where I'm leaving the wood bright and use the Meranti where painted. Will save some money. Only exception will be plank #2 which has to make a pretty good curve at the bow.

I also undertook the strongback. I used OSB, which Clint recommended and uses in his kits, along with a ripped 2x4 for stiffness. I'm building on a dirt floor so I took pains to get it level. I used a 4' level along with a 20' piece of tubing filled with water to level it. I was more confident of a true reading using the tube to level it longways. (Don't have a laser level.)

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I need to finish my oars and the main mast. I will probably use the strongback as a work table to cut out a lot of my pieces before I set up the frames.

Hopefully will be seeing some steady progress in the weeks ahead.

A lot more details and pics on my blog for anyone interested:

https://captnkid.blogspot.com/

[dalekidd]

I finished roughing out the spars tonight (all except the boom for the main sail which will come later - it will be hollow and made from plywood and spacers). They will need a final sanding and maybe a little more shaping (as in tapering the bottom of both masts), but I feel like I've made some good progress. I'm up to 80+ hours on the build.

I ran out of the Douglas Fir after making the two masts, so I made the yard, boomkin and sprit out of some clear pine from one of the box stores.

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After laminating two pieces for my mizzen mast, I made a jig to taper it. I know most do it differently, but this worked ok for me.

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Here's my glue-up of 3 additional spars: yard, boomkin and sprit for the mizzen.

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I used a router to cut my dado before gluing the two halves of the boomkin together.

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[dalekidd]

I'm 90% done my spars and oars (main boom will come later as it is made with plywood). A little more "fine tuning", and sanding and they'll be ready for urethane. I'll be using Helmsman Spar Urethane. They're not going to win any awards, but I think they'll look fine and be very functional.

Here they are as of the moment.

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Next, I'll do the rudder, daggerboard and trunk, and stem. Then it will be time to set up the molds for the hull. Progress!


https://captnkid.blogspot.com/

[schoonerjay]

Rapid build, love the progress! Two side comments: love the watermelon counterweight on the trailer in post #11. Same post showing the pic of the three spars being glued up suggests the cinder block wall behind the bench has some moisture incursion? Had similar in a large crawl space in my house in western NC - it rains ALL THE TIME in that part of the mountains! Mold was quite an issue for us, is it for you? Even though my shop was in a different part of the basement and mostly above grade I had to keep a dehumidifier running in there through the winter.

[dalekidd]

Rapid build, love the progress! Two side comments: love the watermelon counterweight on the trailer in post #11. Same post showing the pic of the three spars being glued up suggests the cinder block wall behind the bench has some moisture incursion? Had similar in a large crawl space in my house in western NC - it rains ALL THE TIME in that part of the mountains! Mold was quite an issue for us, is it for you? Even though my shop was in a different part of the basement and mostly above grade I had to keep a dehumidifier running in there through the winter.

LOL! As I was sanding away on my mast, one of my church members (I'm a pastor) drove up into my driveway and took out this huge watermelon and gave it to us. I set it on the trailer and that's why it was there.

Re the moisture issue: yes it was very humid down there. If you'll notice, that is a dehumidifier there in the background. I bought it shortly before starting the build and I leave it on automatic. I have a hose connected to it that carries the water outside into my yard and down the hill. The humidity stays right around 50-52% most of the time. It is very comfortable down there now. No mold that I can tell.

As for rapid, I've logged almost 90 hours so far, averaging about 8 hours per week on actual building. I'm not counting clean-up shop time, researching computer time, shopping time etc. My goal is to put in 10 hours a week and finish in maybe 18 months. This is supposed to be a 500 hour build but I'm almost up to 1/5 of that already. We'll see.

Thanks for the comments!

[dbp1]

Re the moisture issue: yes it was very humid down there. If you'll notice, that is a dehumidifier there in the background. I bought it shortly before starting the build and I leave it on automatic. I have a hose connected to it that carries the water outside into my yard and down the hill. The humidity stays right around 50-52% most of the time. It is very comfortable down there now. No mold that I can tell.

If you want to experiment with water based paints, humidity is your friend! Let it creep up to 80, 90% and you should have no trouble maintaining a wet edge!

[dalekidd]

If you want to experiment with water based paints, humidity is your friend! Let it creep up to 80, 90% and you should have no trouble maintaining a wet edge!

Sounds like an idea. At this point I plan to paint the boat with an oil based Glidden Porch and Deck paint and Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane on the spars, role and tip. I used them on my last boat with very nice results. I will not be keeping the boat in the water.

[dbp1]

Sounds like an idea. At this point I plan to paint the boat with an oil based Glidden Porch and Deck paint and Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane on the spars, role and tip. I used them on my last boat with very nice results. I will not be keeping the boat in the water.

Good to go with what you know! I've been enjoying experimenting with System 3's water based stuff... doesn't smell at all, dries extremely quickly (multiple coats per day), and humidity screw it up... really the only troublesome part is maintaining a wet edge. Good enough for my standards, but I'm sure not for some people!

[dalekidd]

Time for another post.

I've reached 2 milestones the last few days. I passed the 100 hour mark in build time. My goal was to work 10 hours a week. I'm averaging 6. Hopefully I can pick up the pace.

Second, I finished my oars and spars (except the main boom which I will get to when I tear into my plywood).

Here are my 9'2" oars.

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They are decent. The blades turned out pretty nice I think. The looms are only OK. As long as they are strong enough, I think I'll be satisfied. I'll be eager to row with them, very curious about the amount of effort it is going to take to work with 9'2" oars. In my head the amount of leverage I'll get with just 27" inboard is not very much. My rowing experience is very limited. We'll see. I left the handles unfinished per recommendations I saw on this forum.

Here are my spars.

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L to R: sprit for the mizzen, boomkin, mizzen mast, yard, main mast.

Everything is coated with 4 coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane Clear Gloss. It ain't varnish, but I've used it on my previous builds and have been very satisfied.

There are lots of "warts", but like someone said, I can't let perfect become the enemy of good.

Next it's on to the frames and the parts of the boat that I can do before I revert my worktable back into my strongback.

https://captnkid.blogspot.com/

[Pete Bergquist]

Looking good Dale. Time for the strongback work!

[dalekidd]

Progress continues. Frames and transom done (with the exception of the midship frame). I haven't decided whether I'm doing the last frame with plywood or "real" wood. Clint has it drawn both ways.

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I'll figure out that one remaining frame and go on to the daggerboard and trunk and the rudder assembly. Then I guess I'll set up the frames and think about some planks!

https://captnkid.blogspot.com/

[neil.henderson]

Hi Dale,
Looks like you are making great progress - well done.

Just 2 ideas/thoughts:
1) Those mould frames must not bend/twist or move during the build if you can possibly avoid it. - so you may want to consider some additional bracking around the plywood. And I would add a long diagonal (for to the cross pieces) on top of your strongback to stop it bending.
2) When you crawl underneath to scrape squeeze out from the plak you just fixed on, will you be able to do this with solid moulds and is the strongback high enough off the floor that you can slide under between floor and boat after you have added the sheer plank?
3) the Wooden boat magazine recently had an article about making spars using plywood and timber - very interesting idea.

Sorry about all the questions - but I have been there and its worth spending time now even if it seems like a delay!!

Good Luck Neil

[dalekidd]

Hi Dale,
Looks like you are making great progress - well done.

Just 2 ideas/thoughts:
1) Those mould frames must not bend/twist or move during the build if you can possibly avoid it. - so you may want to consider some additional bracking around the plywood. And I would add a long diagonal (for to the cross pieces) on top of your strongback to stop it bending.
2) When you crawl underneath to scrape squeeze out from the plak you just fixed on, will you be able to do this with solid moulds and is the strongback high enough off the floor that you can slide under between floor and boat after you have added the sheer plank?
3) the Wooden boat magazine recently had an article about making spars using plywood and timber - very interesting idea.

Sorry about all the questions - but I have been there and its worth spending time now even if it seems like a delay!!

Good Luck Neil

Thanks for the advice. I have put some diagonals on the strongback but may need to do more. I am very aware of the need for a strong "foundation" on which to build. Not sure about being able to crawl under it. I'll give that some thought. Wouldn't be to difficult to raise it. The other CIY 16 builders don't seem to have the strongback very far off the floor. I do plan to brace the molds. It's still going to be a while before I get to that, so I have time to figure it all out.

The main boom is Clint's design. Not sure where he got it from. Should be a very straightforward build.

[Pete Bergquist]

my stongback was far enough off the floor that I could easily slide my robust body under it. Even with that squeeze out cleaning was challenging at times, especially in the bow and at the base of the sternposts. Definitely give yourself plenty of space to get under it!

[dalekidd]

I've been at it. Working on the inner stem, daggerboard, trunk, rudder blade, midship frame and bulkheads. Nothing completely done per say, but progress. This work includes my first pieces from the "good" plywood. Please excuse the daggerboard: it's made out of junk plywood. I should start over but I'm going with what I got. It's covered with heavy glass so that should help. I've also been using my "new to me" Porter/Cable 3.5" saw with laser. It's nice! I've also been cutting some pieces with my Skil jigsaw. I've found that using a metal blade on a slower speed reduces greatly the "tear out". Next I'll finish the daggerboard including paint to get a true thickness. Then I'll finish the trunk. I want to do the main boom and scarf my plywood for planking while I have the strongback to use as a worktable. Then I'll be ready to set up the station molds!

Here's my stem getting laminated from left over Douglas Fir.

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Here are the two pieces for my trunk getting glassed on the inside.

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I decided to do my midship frame from from solid lumber instead of plywood. Saved me from buying an extra sheet of the good stuff which will help with my budget and shouldn't hurt the quality of the boat.

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And the daggerboard glassed and with an extra coat of epoxy. Spare me the lectures on using cheap plywood. It's a piece that I had and I decided to use it. As easy and as seldom as I sail, it should be fine. If it breaks, I'll make another.

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And here are my two bulkheads. They need a little sanding but are about ready.

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Not shown is my rudder blade. It's just two pieces of ply laminated together. I haven't cut it to shape yet.

With the time I'm able to put into the boat, I figure it will take me another month to be ready to set up the molds. That'll be a big step. Looking forward to it.

Still trying to build this boat for $3k. It'll be close. I'm thinking I will go over a little bit, something like $3200-3500. I have 140 hours into the build of what's supposed to be 500 hours. That's probably for the kit whereas I'm building by plans only. And my time includes making two oars.

[dalekidd]

I worked on my rudder blade and head today. I was a little nervous about cutting them out because it's a kickup rudder and both parts have a big arc. I have a Rotozip which I've never used except to experiment. Quickly broke a couple bits doing that. I still felt like it should work so I made a guide from scrap plywood and gave it a try. It worked like a charm - even cutting through the laminated blade which is 3/4" thick. I did the two laminates for the head individually. Tear out was minimal as well.

Here's the guide. The square part of the hole makes room for the knob on the rotozip shield.

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In action:

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Result, the rudder head:

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and the rudder blade:

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Glad it worked. I plan to make my own deck plates and I want to use the same method.

[Clinton B Chase]

Hi Dale,
Looks like you are making great progress - well done.

Just 2 ideas/thoughts:
1) Those mould frames must not bend/twist or move during the build if you can possibly avoid it. - so you may want to consider some additional bracking around the plywood. And I would add a long diagonal (for to the cross pieces) on top of your strongback to stop it bending.
2) When you crawl underneath to scrape squeeze out from the plak you just fixed on, will you be able to do this with solid moulds and is the strongback high enough off the floor that you can slide under between floor and boat after you have added the sheer plank?
3) the Wooden boat magazine recently had an article about making spars using plywood and timber - very interesting idea.

Sorry about all the questions - but I have been there and its worth spending time now even if it seems like a delay!!

Good Luck Neil

M. Storer initially gave me the idea about a plywood sided, box boom. It is now a standard on many of my designs! So light and so stiff.
Access to underneath is fine as designed. The solid molds can be made U-shaped too...but I still find you need to crawl in between each station to do a good job cleaning up.

[dalekidd]

Oops! I cut out the ply for the hollow box mast and was preparing to scarf the pieces together, when lo and behold, I had cut two matching pieces short! What happened?! I measured twice cause I only want to cut once. Here’s what happened: I needed two pieces 6’2” long. I drew them 62” long! Mental error. Oh, well. I don’t have any extra ply to speak of so I decided to splice in the difference using butt blocks. It was going to have one joint anyway. Why not two?

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I also scarfed up the staves and cut little notches for the butt blocks.


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Gonna start gluing up the pieces in a day or two. I’ll do the straight-side stave first followed by the internal blocks and lastly the curved stave before enclosing the whole thing. It will all get epoxy coated before closing up.


I've also glassed and epoxied my rudder blade.

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Lots of little things going on. Before you know it, it's going to look like I'm building a boat!

[dalekidd]

I'm nearly finished my main boom. It's taken quite a while to do it. I'm going to have about 18 hours in it by the time it's finished.

I was trying to figure out how to make the curve in the second stave on the main boom. (The first stave is straight). Turns out it was a lot of thought for little trouble. I added a small block at the beginning of the curve on each end and the stave bent right around it along the curve as drawn by the designer. A simple C clamp held it in place perfectly. Great!
I decided that I ought to go ahead and do the whole interior of the boom while I was at it. I cut out the end blocks, which I made a little longer than drawn per advice from other builders, and one extra block along with a couple spacers to bend that stave around. I also coated the whole interior with epoxy. I used my 1/8" dowel trick to hold the two end blocks in place. Since they are not "square", I was afraid they would slide when the pressure from the clamping was applied. I will likely drill holes there anyway when I go about rigging the boat, so it won't be noticeable at all.

Here it is with everything but the "lid".

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Once that set up, I epoxied the other side and have routed the edges, sanded and applied two coats of Helmsman on it. Two more coats and it should be good to go.

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While the second coat was drying, I decided to tackle the tiller. In the interest of the budget, I decided to go ahead and use some left over Douglas Fir. I cut nine 1/8" strips and laminated them. It's curing as I type. It will need some shaping and sanding but should be good.

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Very near setting up frames and doing the hull.

[StevenBauer]

Great progress.

[dalekidd]

Got the final two coats of Helmsman on the boom and I did some more work on the tiller. After taking the clamps off, I sanded down the worst of the squeeze out, ran it thru the band saw twice to get the sides even, ran the router with a 1/2 radius bit over the four corners, and then did some sanding. I think it turned out decent. I cranked out the extensions as well. (the tiller is two parts to allow for folding it up). The extensions will be attached to the two sides of the tiller with a pivot bolt and a removable pin, go through a slot in the transom and then be attached to either side of the rudder head. I’ll think about a hiking stick later.

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[Paul356]

Very interesting to watch this progress. Thanks for the detailed photos and hours count.

[dalekidd]

I guess it's time to get to the hull. In order to use my strongback as a workbench, I need to scarf my plywood now, before putting up the molds. So here goes...

It's going to take 6 sheets of ply to do the planks. Clint designed the boat so that you can get 2 planks out of a 24"x16' piece of ply, so I took my 6 sheets and ripped them down the middle. I cut them on the pallet they came on, cutting two pieces at the time with my skill saw and using a 1x4 as a guide.

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On cutting the scarfs, I've decided to take the chicken's way out. I'm using a router rather than a plane. I spent some time setting up and testing a jig. I used some scrap shelving lumber to build it. Here is a sketch.

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You can see from the measurements I'm going with a 7:1 scarf. And here's the real thing.

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I made it 27" wide (30" was not necessary) leaving a little space on each side for my router bit to drop into place before biting. I made one other change from the diagram. I moved the cross board that the ply rests upon back so that it butts up against the lower cross board. Oh, and I didn't need a guide on the upper cross board. The force of the bit pushes the router to one side, so the other is not necessary. I used spacers on each side of the ply as well as a wedged scrap piece of ply with a practice scarf laid across the plywood and under the upper cross board all in order to keep the ply firmly secured while routing. I have a bar across the jig and a bar across the far end of the ply to help keep everything in place. Since I'm using a 1/2" bit, I cut several "guide-bar" spacers increasing in width by 7/16" to lay next to the guide in increasing increments to give me the correct spacing for each pass. I do the first pass at half depth and the rest at full depth. I've only cut two scarfs but they have come out pretty nice I think. There's a little "feathering" at the edge, but I figure my squeeze-out will fill that and the hull will be painted.

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I hope to finish the routing tomorrow and then glue-up next week.

More details and pics at captnkid.blogspot.com

[Clinton B Chase]

Very cool Dale....it is nice to see one going together from scratch!

[dalekidd]

I have finally finished scarfing my plywood. It has taken 2 weeks. As I routed those bevels, I modified my procedure a little as I went along. It took 6 passes of the router to do each one. I started with a half-depth cut on the end. My second pass was a full depth cut, but I made it going left to right. With the router bit turning clockwise, that meant that the leading cutting edge of the bit was moving toward the end of the plywood rather than into the board. That created less stress and gave a smoother, more feathered edge. I was getting a good bit of chipping if I went right to left. The next 4 passes were full depth, each time adding an additional spacer against the guide, of which there were 4 - increasing in width by 7/16"each. My bit was 1/2".

I used my chalk line to get my boards lined up. I put two fixed points at each end, pulled the string tight and clamped a block in the middle. That gave me 3 points to press the ply against and make sure they were straight.

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Here is a finished scarf.

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I had 10 scarfs altogether. Some of them will need a little "finishing" before painting, meaning a skim coat of slightly thickened epoxy and some sanding.

I'll get 2 planks out of each board. 4 of my six finished boards needed 2 scarfs each. Planks #4 and #5 are slightly longer than the 15'10" finished length of the scarfed boards. On each of those, the second board coming out of it was short enough that I could cut a piece out and add it to the end. Like so:

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I had to reposition my strongback. My workspace is 10' wide, and I had failed to make sure it was in the middle. I slid it over and double checked that it was level. Again I used a clear plastic tube filled with water to check the level end to end. My 4' level was good for side to side.

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Time to set up the molds and go to planking!

[dalekidd]

Very cool Dale....it is nice to see one going together from scratch!

From scratch and on a budget! I'm having a lot of fun. Really enjoying the build and it's going to get exciting here shortly. I hope I can do you proud.