Saturday, August 3, 2013

Back in the saddle...

Summertime and the living is easy... I  wish this was true. The summer is short and sweet in Colorado and it seems there is never enough time. If only I didn't have to work for a living! The wife and I love to garden and this year has been good so far.



The tomato behind the cabbage is just one plant, possible the largest cherry tomato we have ever grown. It's a constant battle to keep the weeds at bay.



A couple weeks ago we were treated to an amazing double rainbow. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it all in one frame. 





One of our other hobbies is beekeeping. We lost two of our three hives last winter, but did a successful split on the remaining hive this spring. The two hives are doing well at the moment, however, these are tough times for bees.



With so much to distract me it's amazing I'm getting anything done on the boat, however, I'm plugging along. The curvature of the sheer on the melonseed is quite pronounced. I had to laminate three pieces on each side to get the 3/4" x 1 1/4" overall dimension specified for the sheer cleats. I did this one piece at a time using 1/4" x 1 1/2" mahogany with epoxy as the adhesive. The cleats really stiffened things up. Next, I fabricated the mast step using 3/4" mahogany. The step required a surprising amount of work because of the compound angles and curves. 


  
I decided to put a rabbit on the bottom on the centerboard trunk. This will provide a nice clean joint between the trunk and the bottom.



The trunk logs are made from 1" x 3" mahogany with 1/2" x 3/4" rabbits. All inside surfaces are protected with 6 oz. glass and epoxy. 



After the trunk position was finalized it was safe to proceed with some deck beams.



 I'm using a joint taken from one of Howard Chappell's books on boat building.  



This work is most easily done by hand as every beam is different. I use a very thin backsaw and a couple sharp chisels on the mortise.



The tricky part is getting the length of the beam just right.



Two beams down and many to go...



Next up, cut a hole in the bottom...




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