Silva Bay Shipyard School Blog

Today we built the strongback. The station moulds will be attached to the strongback and the boat built on the moulds. This step requires a very solid frame and precise leveling so that the boat and the moulds do not rack.

We also epoxied some parts of the stem and stern assemblies. In the fore ground is the stem knee – half lapped out of clear Fir – by hand. In the background is the stern knee. Tough on the hands. The knees are half lapped to increase their strength. The grain direction runs both ways.

A motherload of red cedar arrives! This beautiful pile of wood will be used for planking all the boats+. Some of these are 27′ long! 3′ wide! In Ontario, one could retire on such.

Smells gooooood.

Today we finished building our strongback with station moulds. All square, plumb and level. Easy peasy.

Here is the finished product. A fat little boat will come off these moulds. Next the ribbands will be bent around the moulds for the oak to be steam bent onto…

This nice little pile of fir will make our transom via a huge glue up of 3/8″ planks, curved to the transom shape on our transom mould. Nice sticks eh? Totes.

Right! We are burnin’ now. This matchbooked pair of Fir planks will be the aft face of the transom. The transom is being laminated with 3 layers. The mould was shown previously, see next photo!

Here it is – the almost finished transom. 1 more layer to go… epoxy is not something I enjoy. Looks pretty rad though.

Here is the progress on the stem assembly. As you can see, the lapped stem knee fits! This built up section will be bolted and sika-flexed together. All clear Fir, with grain running in the appropriate directions!

MORE STEAM. This wicked setup is our portable 4′ steam box. We are using it to steam the ribbands into place as the front of the boat has a serious twist. The kettle switch off has been ‘disabled’ to provide constant steam!

Here are the ribbands in the box. They are about 14′ long. 30 mins per half inch in the steamer. Only the first 4′ need to be steamed, as that is where the business is…

Here are some of the ribbands in place -after they have been steam bent and clamped. With the Catboat, the ribbands are not part of the finished product. They are put in place in order to steam bend the Oak frames over, somewhat like a jig. Once this labourious part of construction is done, this boat could be built again and again on this strongback/mould/ribband setup.

This view shows why only the first 4′ needed the steam…

… and a few days later! A full set of ribbands ready to rock. The rest of the week will be spent on the deadwood, transom, keel, keelson and stem assembly.

It looks like a boat!

This is the stem assembly being Sikaflexed together. Sikaflex is a bedding compound that keeps water out of the seam and seals up the wood. It is also flexible, unlike epoxy, and therefore allows the boat to be repaired in 20 years, instead of totally scrapped capitalist style.

Here is the stem, stem knee and gripe all sika’d together with bronze bolts, nuts and washers doing the hard work.

Here is the mast step Mark I. David has done a fine job on this part – so fine in fact he did it twice just to prove he could.

This is where the mast step fits on the stem assembly. All the force of sailing will exert massive force on this part. Too bad all this exquisite woodwork will be covered by the cat boat’s cabin and decking! For the love!

Here is the keel with centerboard slot cut out on the table saw and forstner bit drilled into that beautiful shape. The entire keel will be shaped and beveled… a job I have undertaken. Btw, I am learning to cope with the fact that perfectionism and boat building don’t always agree with each other. Go make cabinets?

Here is my shapely keel work joined to the deadwood. Lots of curves here. The deadwood and the keel are epoxied and then bolted together. Fun note: I completely epoxied the deadwood onto the keel incorrectly. Feel the pain. So I have had to laminate some mahogany onto the deadwood as seen below. Exotic?

A boat builder only does two things in a hurry: making mistakes and fixing them. In fact David is writing a book called 101 ways to fix the boat you are building.

Hard at work with keel and keelson in place.

We are working towards getting the core of the boats structure dry fitted together. The stem assembly gets bolted to the keelson and keel, which runs out to the deadwood and transom. This is a slow process, as all the parts are inter-related and must fit to our exacting standards!

The transom being sanded. It looks amazing – book matched VG Fir. Sweet.

Today we went on a field trip to Channel Cutter Yachts which is run by Brian Gittins. Absolutely amazing. Brian does an incredible job on the decks and interior – beautiful boats. Here is a hull in his yard awaiting his attention.

Here is a cutter with decking installed. Solid teak. Yep. Teak. I have also discovered one of Brian’s hulls that is being completed by Kaj Jakobsen. Check it out at Kaj’s webiste – beautiful!

Wow.

Bryan’s shop from the stern of his current project.

The planes!

Here is where things got serious. Bryan’s personal boat just happends to be a 38′ Ingrid, based on a Colin Archer design. This is an amazing boat – a fall in love at first sight boat. The lines! Bryan’s restoration work is amazing. Best of many quotes from Bryan “I am a boatbuilder because I could imagine doing nothing else.” Followed by “you would never do anything if you thought about how difficult it might be…” like buying an Ingrid of my own? With rotten plywood decks?

Look at that deck! and the deadlights! Wow. John and I immediately started looking for Ingrid’s for sale. Dangerously we have found one in Nanaimo… watch out.

Gabriolan Snow Storm 2006

Here is the boat getting ready to get bolted together. The rabbet needs to be cut into the keel and stem before we can move on. We also have to drill bolt holes into the stem and deadwood. Sounds easy. Isn’t.

Here is the transom being fitted into place. The rake has to be perfect to fit the deadwood and keel. Look at that grain! This part of the boat will hopefully end up bright, as in varnished.

Bolt holes. Oh man. Steeeeep learning curve. Forget the jigs. Forget the drill press. Hail Mary and get to it.