And we're off for another busy day of boat building. First thing was to pull all the screws and washers from the first section of 1/4" ply. Then I got to put almost all of them back in on the other side. :-) Not much to tell here. Pretty much the same thing as yesterday; a little more trimming to get the second piece to fit around the first piece, and I did a better job of putting in the screws and washers so I used less of them. Yesterday I ran a line of screws up the scarf, another along the shelf, a third along the fairbody, a fourth in between and then filled in the hollows, of which there were many. Today I ran a line up the scarf and then installed the screws in a diagonal pattern; three across the shelf, two across the middle, one at the fairbody and then advanced that diagonal line down towards the bow. That worked much better with very few hollows to tighten down.
Now it was time to start installing the sides. Urgh. I really wasn't looking forward to this as I had a strong suspicion that it was going to be a bear. And I was right.
First I had to haul one of the long scarfed sides outside, turn it around and haul it back in. Another one of those long range planning boo-boos. Next was to cut off one corner at the bow so the panel would sit low enough that when you wrapped the panel around the shelves and chines you would have some panel below and above both to allow for trimming.
Now Renn would have you use an 8d nail to hold the panel in place at the bow, but I was looking at this and going "No way Jose'" so I decided to do it a little differently. I decided to screw some 2x4s to the floor to catch and hold the bottom edge of the panel, giving me something to really torque against.
This was my first try (two long 2x4s and two short 2x4s on each side), but I discovered that I had the blocks too high so I got rid of the long 2x4s.
Next I measured back along the curve of the shelves one foot less than the length of the scarfed long panel and clamped the floating jig piece down to the main jig and then clamped spacers to the floating jig piece so that I could rest the lower edge of the panel just below the bottom edge of the shelf. I screwed a vertical scrap piece of plywood to the ends of the spacers. This gave me a way to trap the back end of the panel. Then it was just a matter of setting the panel on the jig at the rear and then bending it around the curve of the hull, trapping the forward lower corner on the 2x4s and then pushing really hard on the forward upper corner and driving a long screw to hold it in place.
Now this sounds easy, but believe me it took several tries, a scraped up shin and some cussing before I figured this all out. How in the world Renn gets things to stay in place with a single 8d nail I have no idea.
Ahh, but the saga isn't over. After getting the panel set up the first time, I clambered inside the hull and traced the chines, the bottom of the shelves and along the bowstem.
Then I got to take that panel off, cut it to size and reinstall it to make sure it fits correctly.
Take it off for the second time and sand it real well. This is the last time it will be flat, so this is the prime time for sanding. Mixed up a batch of epoxy and liberally coated the face of the shelf, the vertical support and the panel where it will be in contact with the former. Do it again to make sure everything has lots of epoxy. Took what was left of the epoxy to make a thick batch of peanut butter to spread on the bowstem and install that panel for the last time.
Up at the bow it took a lot of effort to force the 3/8" plywood into place and I put four screws in just to make sure it would stay there.
Those screws will stay until I absolutely have to remove them as there is a huge amount of stress on that joint.
Then it was on to the rear panel. Much easier as this was on the straight stretch of the hull so I hauled the panel outside to turn it around (again). I clamped two 2x4s under the shelves to prop the panel on, set the panel on the 2x4s and discovered that the scarf went the wrong way. Hmmm... Oh well. Clambered inside the hull and marked where the scarf needed to be, took the panel off the 2x4s, cut the new scarf with the planer and set it back on the 2x4s. Climbed inside again to mark the chines, no need to do the shelves as they already line up and marked the transom. Set the panel on the sawhorses and cut everything.
Then it was more epoxy, more peanut butter in the scarf, screws in the verticals, clamps on the shelves and nails along the edge of the transom and Voila'! One side is done!
Tomorrow I'll start on the other side. Don't think I'll get it done, but it should go faster with the lessons learned from today. On the other hand, those panels will have to go back and forth over the top of the hull so that'll be a challenge. :-)
11 Hours