Summer Breeze building
notes -
Day Six (Oct 13, 2000)
Today I did the quarter knees and
the inwales.
Quarter knees strengthen the joint
between the transom and the sides. I attempted to omit them during my first
season of use of Featherwind. It held up OK, but there are signs of fatigue of
the joints so I'm going to add them soon. A French curve is handy for
drawing your pattern. I made mine from 2x6 stock. Use your bevel gauge to take
the angles off the transom.
The first cut I did with my band
saw, but a saber saw or coping saw will do.
The pull saw makes short work of the
notch for the inwales.
The finished product looks like
little modern sculptures. (If you rendered these in 20 foot tall welded
stainless and mounted them at jaunty angles you could sell them for big money to
a corporation or University.)
In spite of the bottle of Titebond
sitting there, I glued these with PL-Premium.
I heard a disconcerting "CRACK" sound, and found my starboard gunwale
had spontaneously broken. Ouch! The wood is cypress and the grain had "run
out" a bit at the break, but this was rather concerning. I instantly
removed the frame, and smeared in some PL, covered it with plastic wrap and
clamped a temporary support piece to it to pull it back into shape.
I then glued a reinforcing piece on
both sides just for safety (and symmetry.)
The inwales were glued on next. I
made them half inch thick instead of 3/4", to facilitate bending. (In the
future I'll make gunwales 5/8" thick instead of 3/4".) I also wet them
and propped them on the edge of a bench with some weights pre-bending them in
the middle for a couple of hours before gluing them. Do a dry run, to mark where
it fits into the knee. Lean towards the long side of the mark, to allow for a
little trimming to fit. I glued the ends with PL and the spacer blocks with
Titebond. I put two clamps per block so I could pre-drill in the block centers
for my Stainless Steel, square drive deck screws.
Tip!
Put
two screws into the ends of the block you will use for your oar locks, so the
middle in not obstructed when you go to drill the 1/2" + hole for your oar
pins.
Next, the keel and
skeg.
Day Seven!
