Everything is Installed!


Very short post.

The picture above shows the fully assembled (minus the canopy) boat. Note the unusual jam cleats on the rear deck. I modified a design that I stumbled upon online that the poster said he could not find any reference for who designed the cleat. They are made from "wormy" American Chestnut.

First a picture of clamping the deck front molding lamination. The wood is more of the mahogany that was used in the keel and the deck itself. The molding is 4 layers of just over 1/8" thick. Lot's of small challenges with this glue up, and I learned an important lesson (that I knew already but decided to ignore...): Make a jig, glue up the lamination on the jig first, then put it in place. This probably wouldn't have actually worked because the deck is not flat -or symmetric!

The small brass screws are holding little oak blocks under the deck.
The lamination is epoxied and screwed to the blocks and to the edge of the deck.
You can also see one of four tiny brass fender cleats just to port (left) of the ship's wheel.

Here are two pictures of the whole boat, showing everything installed. (The canopy is in a class by itself. No work has been done on it yet.) The rear seats, bow seat, bow footwell floor, table, ballast tank box, ballast tank box cover, ballast tank pump assembly, and battery are all easily removable. This leaves the hull fairly lightweight.



While editing and checking this post, I noticed a rather significant mistake that can be seen in this picture. It has since been corrected. Hint: It has to do with the fender cleats.

On to Sanding and Varnishing!

And designing and making the Canopy!

And making the fenders from rope! The fender's design comes from the "Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Ropework", Copywrite 1939, which my father apparently bought in 1949. Page 206-207 Fig. 15 shows the "Outside Spanish Hitching" which is the type of "hitching" the boat's fenders will be.

And designing and making the chairs! The chairs' seats are from my brother-in-law's canoe that suffered an unfortunate encounter with a rock.

p.s. I've been referring to the boat as Unicorn, but I'm thinking of officially naming it "13 Mistakes". Thoughts?

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