Unicorn, a small electric fantail launch

 Coming Around the Bend Poppy is keeping me company. I've finally stripped down to the point in the stern (the back, or "aft") of the hull where the fantail curves around the sides. On a fantail hull, this is always a tricky part to plank. Using small strips makes it easier, but it still takes a bit of finagling. Here are a few picks of very large planked fantail hulls that I stumbled upon when visiting the Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport this year. (Side note: I had a blast at the show with my sister, brother-in-law, cousin, and cousin-in-law!) This hull shows a very smooth transition from the sides into the rear fantail. Exactly what I'm trying to do.  What's that in the background?!? It's one of the Miss Budweiser (#T3 I think) 3 point Hydroplanes from the 1990's! A bucket list item I didn't know was on my bucket list. This view clearly shows the transition between the planks coming up from the bottom (red) and the planks coming along the side. R...

 Lot's of Clamps These two pics show how I glue on one complete row of strips. This is row 15 from the edge of the plywood. As you can see in the right hand picture, the stern end of the strips is approaching the sharpest bend in the inwale. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to lay the strips in this area. There is a transition point somewhere where these strips, which glue to the bottom of the inwale, meet the strips (not in place yet) coming up from the outside   face of the inwale. And to make matters even more challenging, the two pieces of Ash that I got for the outwale are not long enough to go from the centerline of the stern all the way to the bow. Since they have to go to the bow to tie them to the stem (the front piece of the hull) they will stop somewhere near or short of the sharp bend in the inwale at the stern. This means the strips that go along the outside of the inwale will have to taper to zero so they "disappear", but then what t...

Rear Hull is Stripped! I started at the outer edge of the plywood and went inboard from there. This was the most challenging place to start but I didn't really have much choice since the stips had to align with the edge of the plywood. The final few central strips were tough to put in, requiring much planeing and fitting to get them to fit properly. Even so there are a few "bugs" in the layout where I cut off a little too much and the strips don't quite make it flush to the plywood. Eagle eyed viewers will see that part of the strips seems lighter color. I sanded a little just to see how much works that's going to be. The outer strips should go faster because I can glue more at once. I've learned that I have to wait about 2-3 hours for the glue to set enough so I can remove the clamps and start more rows. I can glue 3 strips at once, but that entails getting glue all over everything. The curve of the fantail requires beveling the ends of the strips to mate wit...

  Short note about holding strips in place while the glue sets. In the last post you can see in the last pic, at the very bottom, there are a string of clamps that clamp the ends of the strips to the keelson. This was relatively easy and fast to do, but it is not possible to use this technique on the other side because the keelson is no longer exposed enough to place the clamps. So I made a couple large frames, tied to the molds, to hold wedges and boards that push hard against the strips to hold them down. I got the idea from others had similar challenges. It works quite well. A view of the whole setup. Wedge pushed under frame to push strip against keelson. Board clamped to frame, then banged on really hard to push it and the strips against the keelson. The C clamp on the right is holding the edges of two strips nearly coplanar. Without it the strips tended to pop out of alignment as they were "tortured" around that compound bend.

I'm back at it! Several "blockers" have been removed: My boat shop is not heated so I can't glue when it's below 45 degrees, I have actual work-work to do which is great because I get paid. 😀 But now it is glorious outside, work has slowed a bit, so voila! As most of you know, I'm not one to follow tradition or "that's the way it's done", and this boat build is no exception. The plans do call for strip built, but the strips are supposed to be 3/4" x 3/4" edge-glued. I am using the more current and slightly higher-tech bead and cove or cove and bead strips that are 1/4" x 3/4" with a, well, bead on one edge and a matching cove on the other. This allows the pieces to be glued together without any fasteners. And, being me, I've decided to take that to the extreme and am not using any  fasteners to hold the hull pieces together. This has proved a bit of a challenge as you can see in the pictures below. My father would be ...

Strongback With the shed extension complete,  I built a strong back out of cheap 1 X 6 lumber 12' long. The strong back is a rigid square beam to which the boat molds are firmly attached.  I had to add an extension on the back of the strong back that was stepped down enough to deal with the height of the fantail. The fantail is not only round, but is tilted up a little to match the rocker of the gunwales. I had to stiffen it by adding a leg (not shown) screwed into the floor. The next step, after lots of pondering about what the next step should be, was to reinforce the curve of the fantail so I could bend the "inwale" around it. The inwale is an inner piece of wood to which the outwale is attached forming the gunwale. The inwale and outwale are made of Ash. The Ash pieces were made custom for me by a boat builder we met at the Wooden Boat Show who is surprisingly located right here in New Hampshire. I was planning on steam bending the wood, but couldn't figure out ho...

Here are a sequence of pics showing the shed extension project. The large door in the end is a bit of a Rube Goldberg setup. This unusual layout required only 6 hinges and 3 lines and some rigging to pull it up in 3 stages. It can't be tightly sealed against the opening completely. That issue combined with the fact that there is only one 15A circuit going to the shed means I can't raise the inside temperature very much above the outside ambient temperature unless I run the electric heater AND a gas heater (for a little while) at the same time. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.