Rio's New Jig

I climbed into my boat for the first time today.

It may not seem like a big deal but it's huge to me.  I'm very inspired to finish her now.  I sat in my boat, heard the wind pick up the canopy and it sounded just like a sail.  I could almost hear the water under her hull.

Must.  Keep. Building.

It was raining this morning, and I was worried that I had picked a bad day to move her.  People showed up, the clouds parted, the sun greeted us and the boat was moved.

Val unscrewed the remaining screws holding her onto the jig.  Then we pulled the canopy off.   We put 2x4s underneath Rio and moved her aside. The new building jig was installed and Rio was loaded onto it. 

I still can't reach some of the spots but this is a major improvement. 

ALL THE PLANKS ARE UP.

YES, I AM YELLING.

Second set of planks went up without a fuss. 

Third set of planks....well, were a bit problematic.

I must have been sloppy cutting the third port plank because it was nearly too short to use.  It touches each side, but without an inch to spare. Take a look at the bow where the third plank attaches- there's a little gap towards the top.  At first I panicked.  Then I decided I'd recut the plank.  Then, I thought, "ah, what the hell, that's what epoxy and fiberglass are for..."  I'll have to exercise some creative filleting techniques to make a nice smooth nose on Rio. 

It was a little heartbreaking because up to this moment, everything has been lining up properly.  I haven't encountered any setbacks, other than my own general nervousness- it was bound to happen.

Filleting and fiberglassing the plank joints has been interesting.  I stand 5'5 on a good day, so there's been a lot of tippy-toeing and stepladder usage.

Val is 6'3, so I was grateful to have him around to help me wire the harder-to-reach parts. Rio is taller than he is at this point- can you spot the nerdy software engineer below?

Now that the planks are all up, the enormousness of her design has been a shock.  I've been on a SCAMP, and I know she's a big little boat.  But it was still a shock when the third set of planks went up.  Absolutely voluminous.  Just a ridiculous amount of space.

The more I work on this boat, the more I love Rio and the SCAMP design in general. Welsford is a genius. 

Horrible SCAMP Joke and Garboard Planks!

(Two posts in one day?   Yikes, it's almost as if I had something to talk about!)

Husband is staring at the SCAMP poster admiring her pram bow.  Or, as he likes to call it, her 'snub nose.'

"So, if you sail a SCAMP around the world, does it become a snub nose revolver?"

Ergh.

Garboard planks are wired in.  No epoxy yet- the sun was dropping faster than I had hoped and we ran out of light.

Grainy photos ahoy!

It's not perfect in a thank-god-for-epoxy way, but it looks fair, doesn't it?

I'm seriously regretting my decision to build such a tall building jig.   Once the planks are up, it'll be a real challenge to reach inside the boat to do anything.   I'll keep that in mind for my next boat.  Hah!

Drill Guide FTW, Picking Hatch Locations

Great progress this week!

I've been tackling a lot of the things that I've been procrastinating on- these items were terrifying to me, and in hindsight, weren't nearly as scary as I had anticipated. 

Drilling a perfectly perpendicular centerboard pivot hole without a drill press was daunting to me. But with the help of a new friend, a Wolfcraft Drill Guide, I'm pleased to finally say that the task is done.

 Also drilled out the hole for the water ballast's plug, again with the help of my new buddy. 

AND, I drilled through my centerboard trunk for the pivot pin, using the same tool.  I bought this little press through Amazon Warehouse for $23, so I'm pretty pleased with the value.  I have no doubt that someone who is more skilled would have faired just fine without the press, but I really needed the hand-holding. 

For what it's worth, the centerboard fits, and the pin goes in without too much grief.  

Also, I bit the bullet and cut out my deck plate locations.  There's been a lot of artistry involving recessing deck plates on the SCAMP forum, which looks amazing and might just be the best way to do it.  Being lazy and perhaps in the spirit of "just-get-the-damn-thing-done" I opted to keep it simple. 

I'll be gluing the deck and the deck doubler together before installation, then I'll just drop it in when the time is right.  There's a bit of rain in the forecast, but I'm hoping to get this epoxied together next week. 

Tonight, the first plank goes on. I feel like I've been chanting "the planks go on soon" a lot lately.  But seriously.  Tonight.  I'm going to be putting the first set of planks up.  It's scary, and exciting.  Feels like a pivotal moment. 

Feeling Nostalgic and All Bulkheads are Up

Relationships are tough, and as an introvert who doesn't deal well with social interaction in the best of situations, I simply don't think I have the right tools to fix what is broken.

And so my head has been in a nostalgic space lately.  I daydream about what my life was like half a decade ago, when my father was still alive and I had a voice of reason and a sounding board for all of my hair-brained ideas.  He seemed to understand me.   Even after I would bike through all the mud puddles and emerge covered in dirt, and even after I signed up for shop class in middle school, and even still when I told him that my main goal in life was to sail around the world single-handed in a sailboat at the devil-may-care age of 15. 

This is a complicated way to explain that a few weekends back I ended up inheriting this weird looking tool from my dad's shop:

Yesterday, while attempting to shave off a concave bevel on Rio's second plank with a block plane (which didn't work well at all, shockingly enough) I remembered I had this funny looking tool.

So I pulled it out of the shed and gave it a quick clean up.  Turns out, it worked perfectly for the job.

Val demonstrating how useful this tool can be.

There's something very therapeutic about using this tool on my boat.  I know my father would have been quite pleased that even beyond the grave he's still helping me on this build.  Said tool is apparently called a 'drawshave' or a 'drawknife' (many thanks go to my wonderful father-in-law for finding out for me).   And it's starting to occur to me that perhaps there's a lesson in the use of this odd tool in how I handle the issues that are cropping up in my family life.   Perhaps it isn't about having the right tools, but more about attempting to do something at all.  

Planks have been beveled.  I almost attached the garboard planks yesterday, but remembered I had yet to drill the centerboard pivot hole, along with all of its accoutrements.   I had some colorful things to say about it, but it wasn't nearly as impressive at what could have been said had I planked Rio and left the pin uninstalled.

The transom has been installed along with all associated stringers.

I haven't permanently installed the hatches, but they're fun to throw on just to see a glimpse of what she'll look like when we're done someday.

Progress. 

Spring is Here.. and so is the bow!

Cold frame built?  Check.

 

 Mason bee chateau?  Done.

Boat build restarted?   YES.

Houston, we have a bow!
With weather this nice, it'd be a crime not to be outside building.

Wish me luck!  It's officially building season. :D :D :D

It's that time of year...

Currently 50F outside at the moment!  I've got a cold frame to finish and a mason bee house to build.  Once those two chores are complete, the boat building posts will kick up.

If the temperatures weren't enough of an indicator of the change of seasons, check out what I found in the egg box this morning:

The first eggs of the year!

Eggcited doesn't even begin to describe it.