The Centre Line is complete

It looks like nothing happened this week to the unsuspecting eye but quite a lot happened (please believe me) and the backbone of the boat is now in place. We are now ready to start fitting the hull skin.....a couple of days behing schedule but not bad considering lots of encountered problems.
At the start of the week we just had the basic components but nothing secured in place or joined together. This was the difficult part to marry them together and get them glued in. It was all glued in by Thursday night and friday was spent cleaning off and then scribing for the first piece of cloth/epoxy coated foam to be fitted on the moulds on Monday.
We encountered the first problem of the week when we overbrowed the hog and so a full day was spent rectifying this by fairing a new line along it's length on one side and then transferring that line to the other side and then adapting the keel to this new width. Luckily we had plenty of width to spare.
The main problem of the week however was how to create a fair bearding line for the planking down the apron. This was overcome with most of Wednesday spent designing a crook tool which accurately allowed us to do so. I think the design went through about 7 different versions along the way until we got to the final successful one. When the apron was browed off and a battten run along the moulds it all faired in wonderfully.

The moulds are now set up.

This week we set all the moulds on the box , made the transom cradle, worked out the placing of the transom and more or less finished the male pattern of the lead ballast keel.
The job which posed the greatest problem was the positioning of the transom working off the drawings and getting the lines to fair in with the rest of the hull, particularly the on the last station. With much head scatching and referral and measuring on the plans we found the correct position but found that the bearding line for the planking needed some reworking particularly from the bilge area to the sheer line. It was all sorted by friday afternoon when we steam bent the hog around the top of the moulds. I was particularly pleased with the lead ballast keel plug which turned out beautifully after much bewilderment and confusion during it's build. We hope to begin the hull skin by next wednesday.

Week 2 - Creating Centre line Components and Hull Skin

This week we were making various components for the centre line structure and the hull skin.

At the start of the week we cleaned off our glued up transon amd marked it out for cutting and then cut to the outside face. This was left to one side and then we made a template for the transom knee and apron. The tansom knee was cut out and shaped and left to one side. A jig was then set up for our stem apron which we laminated and cleaned off leaving to one side.

The last few days of the week saw the a real flurry of activity with the help of many others. This invloved scarfing and joining together the high density foam to make 16ft x 4ft sheets. A layer of thickened epoxy and then cloth had to be bonded over all these sheets so that when they are cut into strips for the hull skin they will have a grain strength running along their length. A final layer of peel ply was added so that we have a nice finish on the inside of the hull to work on. All this was left to cure overnight before setting them to one side on friday when we turned our attention to setting the moulds on the box. We will have all the moulds set up by Tuesday.

Fnishing the Moulds & making the Centreline Structure

I started work on Tuesday morning in the workshop, straight into finishing off work on the moulds with the help of Dan who is going to be my much appreciated helper for the next while.
We needed to join the halves of the moulds together by drawing out a grid on which we laid them to bring them togther correctly. We finished this by Tueday evening. On Wednesday we got the box set up and repaired and levelled on the workshop floor on to which the moulds will be set upside down.
After lunch we collected the wood for keel, hog and apron from the woodstore and started to mark out the keel for cutting and shaping and then transferring the widths onto the moulds. By Thursday the keel was finished and then on Friday we marked out the hog and transferred the widths onto the mould stations and then cut out the notches on the moulds. By Friday afternoon the centreboard slot on the hog just had to be cut but we left this to one side to epoxy glue up the various bits of mahogany for the transom. By late friday evening it was glued and clamped up. A really good start to the build. On Monday we will finish the hog and then set up the moulds on the jig.

A morning off launching class of March 2010's boats

On Wednesday 15th November we had a short interlude to our hectic schedule when we had te privilidge of watchinbg the 'older boys' launching the fruits of all hard their labour in Lyme Rgis Harbour. It was an absolutely beautiful day and hard to believe that 2 weeks before Lyme harbour was covered in snow. All the boats launched were a credit to those who worked on them and each reflected the character of the owners from Matt's amazingly crafted little rowing and sailing skiff which was like a piece of furniture to Frank's canoe which he rowed off in with sole determination into the sun. Ian's 'Witch of Weymouth' received all the media attention it deserved and I am sure his months of frustration gave way to high emotion. Ian's 18 ft gaff sloop looked majestic in it's red sails which did not get the opportunity to catch any wind but the 2.5hp outboard spluttered to life and eventually lead him out of the harbour walls. My favourite had to be Dick's little red electric powered river lauch which he is taking back to Adelaide. It is my favourite as in a way I think he was doing in some ways whatt I want to with mine in marrying classic design with modern technology. After a few hours it was back to the workshop to complete the dreaded C&G laminated stem assignment.

We started making the Moulds

We have started making the mould patterns for the build by first transferring the full size patterns supplied by the designer on to hard board to make templates. We then fair off the mould edges (as shown here) of these templates to 19mm ply to make the actual mould stations. There are 22 mould stations on Joel White's plans but we decided that 9 stations taken from critical points along the boats stem and keel will be sufficient for our modern composite hull. The finishing of these will take place at the start of January. In between we have had various C&G assignments to undertake here on the course aswell as other lectures. Fiirst week of January we hit the ground running with the build.

From January 2011 I will be commencing the build of a Herreshoff 12 1/2 by Joel White at the Lyme Regis Boat Bulding Academy on the beautiful 'Jurassic Coast' in Dorset, England.

For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with these boats, let me give you a very short intro. The original Herreshoff 12 1/2 was designed by Nathaniel Herreshoff in the late 20th century as a deep keeled yacht with a 12.5 foot water line and manufactured in his boat yard in Bristol Rhode Island. In 1987, the late Joel White re-designed the boat with a shallower lead ballast keel allowing the boat to be easily transported and launched without the assistance of a crane.

To me this is an ideal boat to own as it is a relatively small boat to sail and launch off the back of a car and provides the stability of a large yacht where all the crew can feel safe and not have to wear wet suits as you do when a sailing dinghy of similar size. The Haven is 16ft long with a 12.5 ft waterline. Apart from the practicalities of this boat I also fell in love with it's lines which are so typical of Herreshoff's larger boats.

The plans for the boat have been purchased from The Wooden Boat Store in Brooklin Maine. The build spec on the plans is for carvel planking but I am not going for this type of build. A Haven was built last year here at the Academy under the supervision of Mike Broome in sheathed strip plank which turned out absolutley georgeous. This time the build will come under the supervision of Justin Adkin who has years experience in building ocean going racing rowing boats in modern lightwight foam and fibreglass construction. Under Justin's guidance I am going to build the Haven's hull in this modern manner to provide a lightweight fast boat but finish the decks, cockpit and rigging as per Joel White's plans to provide that classic look. I am still undecided but might use Carbon Fibre & Kevlar with a foam core should the budget stretch. For me ths will provide the boat to tick every box of my current requirements.

I arrived here in Lyme Regis along with 17 other students at the start of September from all over England and Scotland with others from Germany, France and Australia to complete The Academy's long 38 week course programme, City and Guilds Level Three in Boat Building, Maintenance and Suport. Since then we have been working almost 12 hour days completing an intense foundation course in wood work for the first eight weeks culminating in building a clinker section then moving on the boat lofting for 2 weeks, template and mould making for a week and last week building a stitch and glue dinghy by the end of the week. Before Christmas we have various City & Guild Projects to complete along side other tutorials, lectures and practicals. In the last week of term we move down to the main workshop where the moulds will be completed and set up for the build next year. Alongside my Haven, 8 other boats will be built along with 3 canoes, the largest number ever built at the Academy........Yikes!! Challenging times ahead.