A skiff

[cracked_ribs]

Well you're certainly more than welcome to attend the launch, whenever that happens; to record it properly will require video and possibly a chase boat, so a co-pilot or something would be pretty useful.

I actually did get won over by the stiff bilges - again considering the different build methods, stiff bilges makes it even more similar to a hard-chined panel boat. They really are quite alike, it's funny.

I have probably a little less freeboard at the stern but not by much. The running surfaces and general idea behind how they achieved their performance are extremely similar. If I'd known about that boat I probably would have lifted some measurements if I could find them; it's a proven version of the experiment I'm doing.

 

[cracked_ribs]

As I focus more on the large editing job I have on the go, I'm getting a bit strapped for time and so the updates are less frequent but work on the boat continues.

I have glassed everything on the exterior of the boat, and filled the weave with a wood flour mix. It won't be sanded down much at all; a scuff at most so the strength of the wood flour mix is more important than the shapeability at this stage.

Today I laminated the stem, and ripped the spray rails and keel. Here's the stem gluing up:

The clamps are just snugged, not cranked way down. Just enough to get epoxy all around the edges. Next: ripping the trim bits.
Ripping long sections of wood accurately is really simple if you have a table saw...which I don't.

I drew a line down the centre of this Douglas Fir 1x3 and cut it with my Hitachi worm drive, which, again, I love.

It's not actually that hard to rip stuff by hand if you're careful. I used up most of my carefulness on not stepping into the whirling macerator of death next to my shins but I still managed to cut a decent line on the keel, which is pretty good since I decided to crank up my productivity by drinking a tall can of vodka-infused energy drink.

That'll make a nice keel. I think I'll probably glue a strip of UHMW or HDPE to it or something because it'll get grounded out at my island place all the time.

The other thing I did was clean up a couple of spots where the curvature of the bottom was extreme enough that it formed a couple of minor depressions. They weren't severe but the lighting in there hit them at a shallow angle so I was always looking at them and it bugged me, but more importantly I lay a straight edge parallel to the keel and slid it down the side, looking to see if the water would take a goofy path going over those spots and there was about a 1/4" dip. I laid down about an eighth of an inch of peanut butter, then some scrap 4 or 6 ounce weave overtop and saturated the glass. I'll probably have to do one more layer of peanut butter and I might cover that in a bit more weave as well, but then I should have smoothed the transitions right out.

Mostly fixed:

The only other picture I have for you today is this: I put the stem in place and took a picture and rotated it so I could get a better sense of the lines. I think that'll do pretty well.

 

[Rain City]

As I focus more on the large editing job I have on the go, I'm getting a bit strapped for time and so the updates are less frequent but work on the boat continues.

I have glassed everything on the exterior of the boat, and filled the weave with a wood flour mix. It won't be sanded down much at all; a scuff at most so the strength of the wood flour mix is more important than the shapeability at this stage.

Today I laminated the stem, and ripped the spray rails and keel. Here's the stem gluing up:

The clamps are just snugged, not cranked way down. Just enough to get epoxy all around the edges. Next: ripping the trim bits.
Ripping long sections of wood accurately is really simple if you have a table saw...which I don't.

I drew a line down the centre of this Douglas Fir 1x3 and cut it with my Hitachi worm drive, which, again, I love.

It's not actually that hard to rip stuff by hand if you're careful. I used up most of my carefulness on not stepping into the whirling macerator of death next to my shins but I still managed to cut a decent line on the keel, which is pretty good since I decided to crank up my productivity by drinking a tall can of vodka-infused energy drink.

That'll make a nice keel. I think I'll probably glue a strip of UHMW or HDPE to it or something because it'll get grounded out at my island place all the time.

The other thing I did was clean up a couple of spots where the curvature of the bottom was extreme enough that it formed a couple of minor depressions. They weren't severe but the lighting in there hit them at a shallow angle so I was always looking at them and it bugged me, but more importantly I lay a straight edge parallel to the keel and slid it down the side, looking to see if the water would take a goofy path going over those spots and there was about a 1/4" dip. I laid down about an eighth of an inch of peanut butter, then some scrap 4 or 6 ounce weave overtop and saturated the glass. I'll probably have to do one more layer of peanut butter and I might cover that in a bit more weave as well, but then I should have smoothed the transitions right out.

Mostly fixed:

The only other picture I have for you today is this: I put the stem in place and took a picture and rotated it so I could get a better sense of the lines. I think that'll do pretty well.

Are you going to carve a big tittied mermaid getting nailed by a Rottweiler into it?

 

[cracked_ribs]

Are you going to carve a big tittied mermaid getting nailed by a Rottweiler into it?

That is an extraordinarily specific question and I'm not sure if I want to know the background there.

Strangely someone else just asked me about a mermaid figurehead for the prow, and my wife is kind of obsessed with A) mermaids and B) boobs. She is doing a mermaid mural for our front door, actually. So far bestiality hasn't come up but here's my question for you: just based on my limited knowledge of mermaids their options for getting banged, by rottweilers or anyone, really, seem a bit vague. I don't know how I'd depict that.

Unfortunately anyone relying on my artistic skill to produce a hot mermaid is taking quite a gamble. I could give it a try but the results would be...unpredictable.

 

[Dorman Point]

That is an extraordinarily specific question and I'm not sure if I want to know the background there.

Strangely someone else just asked me about a mermaid figurehead for the prow, and my wife is kind of obsessed with A) mermaids and B) boobs. She is doing a mermaid mural for our front door, actually. So far bestiality hasn't come up but here's my question for you: just based on my limited knowledge of mermaids their options for getting banged, by rottweilers or anyone, really, seem a bit vague. I don't know how I'd depict that.

Unfortunately anyone relying on my artistic skill to produce a hot mermaid is taking quite a gamble. I could give it a try but the results would be...unpredictable.View attachment 59754

Dear god. That’s the stuff of nightmares.

 

[walleyes]

As I focus more on the large editing job I have on the go, I'm getting a bit strapped for time and so the updates are less frequent but work on the boat continues.

I have glassed everything on the exterior of the boat, and filled the weave with a wood flour mix. It won't be sanded down much at all; a scuff at most so the strength of the wood flour mix is more important than the shapeability at this stage.

Today I laminated the stem, and ripped the spray rails and keel. Here's the stem gluing up:

The clamps are just snugged, not cranked way down. Just enough to get epoxy all around the edges. Next: ripping the trim bits.
Ripping long sections of wood accurately is really simple if you have a table saw...which I don't.

I drew a line down the centre of this Douglas Fir 1x3 and cut it with my Hitachi worm drive, which, again, I love.

It's not actually that hard to rip stuff by hand if you're careful. I used up most of my carefulness on not stepping into the whirling macerator of death next to my shins but I still managed to cut a decent line on the keel, which is pretty good since I decided to crank up my productivity by drinking a tall can of vodka-infused energy drink.

That'll make a nice keel. I think I'll probably glue a strip of UHMW or HDPE to it or something because it'll get grounded out at my island place all the time.

The other thing I did was clean up a couple of spots where the curvature of the bottom was extreme enough that it formed a couple of minor depressions. They weren't severe but the lighting in there hit them at a shallow angle so I was always looking at them and it bugged me, but more importantly I lay a straight edge parallel to the keel and slid it down the side, looking to see if the water would take a goofy path going over those spots and there was about a 1/4" dip. I laid down about an eighth of an inch of peanut butter, then some scrap 4 or 6 ounce weave overtop and saturated the glass. I'll probably have to do one more layer of peanut butter and I might cover that in a bit more weave as well, but then I should have smoothed the transitions right out.

Mostly fixed:

The only other picture I have for you today is this: I put the stem in place and took a picture and rotated it so I could get a better sense of the lines. I think that'll do pretty well.

Love your work CR and it seems you nailed those rips on the 1x3’s but for future reference it quite easy to make a simple ripping table saw using your skill saw. Once the stand is made it’s very simple to attach your saw and remove it as needed. You can whip up a saw stand in about half an hour and have it for future use. Just build a simple flat small table stand run your saw through it and screw it down, flip it over and have a gate made that you move and hold in place with your C clamps or other wood clamps. Easy peasy, a man with your skills it’s nothing for you to build.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Love your work CR and it seems you nailed those rips on the 1x3’s but for future reference it quite easy to make a simple ripping table saw using your skill saw. Once the stand is made it’s very simple to attach your saw and remove it as needed. You can whip up a saw stand in about half an hour and have it for future use. Just build a simple flat small table stand run your saw through it and screw it down, flip it over and have a gate made that you move and hold in place with your C clamps or other wood clamps. Easy peasy, a man with your skills it’s nothing for you to build.

You know I thought about it, but I was nervous about the blade running without a guard of any kind. Although, in retrospect, I don't think what I did was any safer and in the future I'll probably do exactly that. I have a little routing table that I built which is exactly the same concept so I probably should have just put a table together for the saw (or the old spare skilsaw I have somewhere, that's just a no-brainer) but yeah, I pictured the blade running there exposed and just chickened out.

But it would have been a better solution, for sure.

 

[walleyes]

You know I thought about it, but I was nervous about the blade running without a guard of any kind. Although, in retrospect, I don't think what I did was any safer and in the future I'll probably do exactly that. I have a little routing table that I built which is exactly the same concept so I probably should have just put a table together for the saw (or the old spare skilsaw I have somewhere, that's just a no-brainer) but yeah, I pictured the blade running there exposed and just chickened out.

But it would have been a better solution, for sure.

Lol I have a beautiful Delta 10” table saw, one of the first things I did 10 years ago when I got it was remove the blade gaurd, I think I threw it away years ago. Blade guard you don’t need no stinking guard.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Well, I could just be a bit of a wimp. There's a few tools that really unnerve me and I take a ton of precautions around; lathes are probably the ones I fear most, followed by chainsaws, and then radial arm saws. But after that, I think tablesaws are my most feared tool. I had a saw that had had its safety features bypassed kick up on me on a construction site years ago, pitching my left hand right into the blade and leaving my index finger looking like a small banana, if a banana was filled with blood, and you peeled it with a claw hammer. When I arrived at the hospital, the first thing they told me is that they'd be amputating that finger, and probably some others.

By fluke, right before they wheeled me in to start cutting parts off, there were a few people brought in from a major car accident that needed lifesaving surgery so I got bumped. Naturally it wasn't up to me but I had to agree, a couple of fingers isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, so I just shrugged and asked if they could give me anything for the pain, which they wouldn't do.

I sat there for about five or six hours with a toque wrapped around my hand, clenching everything to keep it together as much as possible. It sounds bad but the incredible stroke of luck was that a surgeon who specialized in hands was in the hospital doing electives and he heard a guy was in the ER with a wrecked hand so when he got finished his privately booked stuff, he came down to see me. He took a look and said "I can save that if you can handle me working on it here" so I just sat on the stretcher in the hallway and he kept loading in local anaesthetic and piecing it all back together. My index finger took 61 stitches, I remember him saying. A lot of it I couldn't really watch but he was clearly an expert...Dr Rodney French. He had a resident working with him but I forget her name, which I regret because together they saved the whole thing. I have one slightly flat, wurbly finger, but three years later I was playing lead guitar in a metal band, that's how well they did, in the hallway at Royal Columbian.

Anyway it made me a little paranoid about some kinds of stuff and I'm a bit creeped out by unguarded blades now.

I should have taken more pictures today, but I didn't, so here's a list of what I got done instead.

1) scarfed the spray rails
2) scarfed the keel
3) turned a couple of 1x3s into what will be reverse chines
4) ground the glass off at the sheerline

All the pictures I took were from the process of ripping the 1x3s. I also took a jigsaw to them every 4" on the stern 8', and every 1" forward of that so I could get them to bend smoothly to the curvature of the chine.

They're just test fitted, they're not actually gluing down yet. Still, I'm slowly moving forward and that's the main thing. Not sure how much time I'll have in the leadup to Christmas and then after that we're heading to our island place for a bit of vacation so could be a week or two without much progress, but I hope to be fairing in January.

 

[Rain City]

Well, I could just be a bit of a wimp. There's a few tools that really unnerve me and I take a ton of precautions around; lathes are probably the ones I fear most, followed by chainsaws, and then radial arm saws. But after that, I think tablesaws are my most feared tool. I had a saw that had had its safety features bypassed kick up on me on a construction site years ago, pitching my left hand right into the blade and leaving my index finger looking like a small banana, if a banana was filled with blood, and you peeled it with a claw hammer. When I arrived at the hospital, the first thing they told me is that they'd be amputating that finger, and probably some others.

By fluke, right before they wheeled me in to start cutting parts off, there were a few people brought in from a major car accident that needed lifesaving surgery so I got bumped. Naturally it wasn't up to me but I had to agree, a couple of fingers isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, so I just shrugged and asked if they could give me anything for the pain, which they wouldn't do.

I sat there for about five or six hours with a toque wrapped around my hand, clenching everything to keep it together as much as possible. It sounds bad but the incredible stroke of luck was that a surgeon who specialized in hands was in the hospital doing electives and he heard a guy was in the ER with a wrecked hand so when he got finished his privately booked stuff, he came down to see me. He took a look and said "I can save that if you can handle me working on it here" so I just sat on the stretcher in the hallway and he kept loading in local anaesthetic and piecing it all back together. My index finger took 61 stitches, I remember him saying. A lot of it I couldn't really watch but he was clearly an expert...Dr Rodney French. He had a resident working with him but I forget her name, which I regret because together they saved the whole thing. I have one slightly flat, wurbly finger, but three years later I was playing lead guitar in a metal band, that's how well they did, in the hallway at Royal Columbian.

Anyway it made me a little paranoid about some kinds of stuff and I'm a bit creeped out by unguarded blades now.

I should have taken more pictures today, but I didn't, so here's a list of what I got done instead.

1) scarfed the spray rails
2) scarfed the keel
3) turned a couple of 1x3s into what will be reverse chines
4) ground the glass off at the sheerline

All the pictures I took were from the process of ripping the 1x3s. I also took a jigsaw to them every 4" on the stern 8', and every 1" forward of that so I could get them to bend smoothly to the curvature of the chine.

They're just test fitted, they're not actually gluing down yet. Still, I'm slowly moving forward and that's the main thing. Not sure how much time I'll have in the leadup to Christmas and then after that we're heading to our island place for a bit of vacation so could be a week or two without much progress, but I hope to be fairing in January.

Holy sh*t I kid you not my twin brother had the exact same scenario happen to him. Shift change saved three of his fingers after a table saw accident. They're mangled to sh*t and he has a titanium knuckle but they saved them! Creepy.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Incredible

 

[cracked_ribs]

Seriously?

Surreal. What are the odds of that?

Wait, unless it's the same surgeon and he actually just plays this trick on people all the time so he can get 5 star Google reviews.

"Another hand guy eh? Okay, tell him you're going to amputate and leave him in the hall, I'll be down shortly."

 

[Rain City]

Maybe it's a tactic to make the patient happy with the outcome because "it could have been much worse"

 

[cracked_ribs]

Maybe it's a tactic to make the patient happy with the outcome because "it could have been much worse"

Right? You go to a mechanic and he says $2000, you'll be choked.

Unless!

He says the transmission is shot, it'll be $5000 or she'll never run again... well, wait, let me check in the back just in case we have a good used transmission for her...long shot but I'll try to find something. Oh look, thank god, here's one. Okay, that'll save you three grand. Just the re and re now: two grand and you're all set.

Amputation, ha! Clearly he was farming reviews.

Seriously though after writing the story out I gave it a bit of thought and looked his clinic up and emailed the whole story to him with a thank you; what's kind of wild is that three years after the accident I was playing guitar in a band that put about five guitar solos in every song. I just played lead on a metal album for a friend of mine in Edmonton a month or two back. I'd never have had any of that without that surgery.

Life's pretty crazy.

 

[cracked_ribs]

I don't have a build update other than "the epoxy I used to scarf the trim together is now set" but I do have an update about the surgeon who saved my fingers.

I had emailed his clinic and they forwarded the email to his personal email and tonight he wrote me back.

I guess there's only been a couple of times in his career he's gotten to hear the end of the story and he was really appreciative about the whole thing. He wrote a pretty long email about how although he's technically a plastic surgeon, which I believe is not uncommon for hand specialists, he's never done cosmetic surgery, just hand and wrist stuff because that's what he believes in; saving hand function.

He talked about being in it for the chance to help people but also about how he didn't often get to see people fully healed up and back to living their lives so there was less confirmation, maybe, than he'd like to experience, and more challenges and frustrations. I'm paraphrasing here, but I think I get what he's saying: I'm sure he sees people at some of their worst moments, and then only once or twice more, taking out stitches and stuff. They're still early in the healing process. He probably doesn't get to see a lot of people who are happy with the situation - they're probably mostly upset to be missing some parts and it's hard to put a positive spin on "you lost a finger but we saved your hand" when yesterday you assumed you'd always have that hand and all the fingers on it.

Anyway, I was very happy that he wrote back. There's a lot of cool stuff I'd have missed out on if he hadn't stepped in.

So that's my Christmas update: a bit of goodness and a bit of humanity in what, particularly for anyone in health care, has probably been a tough year.

 

[Oly1]

I don't have a build update other than "the epoxy I used to scarf the trim together is now set" but I do have an update about the surgeon who saved my fingers.

I had emailed his clinic and they forwarded the email to his personal email and tonight he wrote me back.

I guess there's only been a couple of times in his career he's gotten to hear the end of the story and he was really appreciative about the whole thing. He wrote a pretty long email about how although he's technically a plastic surgeon, which I believe is not uncommon for hand specialists, he's never done cosmetic surgery, just hand and wrist stuff because that's what he believes in; saving hand function.

He talked about being in it for the chance to help people but also about how he didn't often get to see people fully healed up and back to living their lives so there was less confirmation, maybe, than he'd like to experience, and more challenges and frustrations. I'm paraphrasing here, but I think I get what he's saying: I'm sure he sees people at some of their worst moments, and then only once or twice more, taking out stitches and stuff. They're still early in the healing process. He probably doesn't get to see a lot of people who are happy with the situation - they're probably mostly upset to be missing some parts and it's hard to put a positive spin on "you lost a finger but we saved your hand" when yesterday you assumed you'd always have that hand and all the fingers on it.

Anyway, I was very happy that he wrote back. There's a lot of cool stuff I'd have missed out on if he hadn't stepped in.

So that's my Christmas update: a bit of goodness and a bit of humanity in what, particularly for anyone in health care, has probably been a tough year.

Glad you heard back from him, especially just before Christmas. Your story probably made his holidays a little bit merrier. Good on you for contacting him.

Oly

 

[cracked_ribs]

It was only a matter of time before I screwed up something that couldn't be unscrewed, and today it happened. I was running a grinder on the surface of the hull, just taking off a little bit of epoxy to give the surface some grip, and that's when I did it. I snagged the power cord and stumbled a little bit and just from the sound, I knew I'd screwed up, bad.

That can was full, god damn it. The cord caught it and pulled it off the bench it was sitting on and by the time I grabbed it it was half gone, and the remainder was all foam. Anyway I'm soldiering on, and I did have another one in the fridge. Plus they're on sale right now at the local liquor store so the only real victim here is my pride. Still, though.


It's been busy with Christmas and all, but I have gotten a couple of things done. I shaped the end of the keel, or skeg or however you want to describe it:

It's not going to be a perfectly smooth transition from skeg to no skeg, but I want to have some durability there, while at the same time reducing the amount of cavitation on the trailing end, so I just gave it a bit of an ensmoothening.

And the keel is on:

Or at least the latter 3/4 is glued down; I wanted that to cure before I start hauling it down to follow the hull lines. I've extended the reverse chine forward, and am just letting things cure before I finish it out with a tapered forward section.

And I also stuck down the port reverse chine, or, again, since I'm doing it in sections, the rear 8'. I'll probably get the rest of it handled tomorrow.

The transition sections I slopped layers of glass and peanut butter into are shaped but need a skim coat of fairing mix; the side lighting makes them look really rough but they're not too bad and the hollows they've filled are now about right; I just need to handle the cosmetics there now. But I'm about to begin fairing the whole hull, so that's no big deal. I'll skim coat the whole thing in the next while, although I'm heading off to my cabin in a couple of days for some relaxation, so the next update might be a bit of a wait. I'm hoping to get all the trimmy bits glued on before I go, but hard to say. I only work on it an hour or two here and there, so progress is pretty slow. But the important part is that I keep moving ahead, a bit at a time.

 

[daddystoy]

Slow and steady wins the race!
Just ask the turtle!
Nice work by the way....again.

 

[cracked_ribs]

I had a couple of hours yesterday and a few more today so I continue to chip away at things.

Yesterday I got the stem glued on and the keel mostly sorted:

I needed to make a template to fill this little triangular section so I found a piece of paper I knew I couldn't possibly benefit from reading and scratched the inner lines with my thumbnail to get the dimensions, then cut it out and chopped up a bit of scrap fir to fill the space.

Then it was finishing off the reverse chines:

Which I have also begun to blend in with a bit of filler.

Seeing the hull with the trim bits on the bottom is pretty exciting. I am looking forward to rub and spray rails; then I'll really feel like it's a boat that needs to get smoother, not a half-built project in the garage.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Squaring off chines, blending surfaces, cutting rub rails.

I just cut some poster board into strips and mashed it up against the wall of epoxy to use as a dam. It's quick and easy and keeps the epoxy in place until it kicks. I know a lot of guys clamp boards with packing tape against the hull to achieve this effect but this is a quick and dirty version and it'll all be sanded so I don't bother with anything fancier.

Here's one after I peeled off most of the poster paper, which took about 15 seconds:

The rest will get sanded off at some point, which will take about a minute.

Here's my beloved Hitachi worm drive with a block clamped to it so I can make 1 3/4" strips off the hull ply remainder. More bedroom work, which always makes me smile.

And a stack of rubrails and inwales on the hull.

About the only other stuff going on is me blending in the chines and the stem to smooth that all out. Still a ways to go there and the pics don't really look like anything.

Off to the cabin on the island for a bit; may not be any updates for a little while. First trip there since my kid learned to walk; should be interesting. I will have to figure out a way to keep him away from the wood stove.