Unicorn, a small electric fantail launch

The Whiskey Stick The last piece of planking on a wooden hull is sometimes called the Whiskey Stick because it is tradition to celebrate "closing in" the hull with a toast of whiskey. (I don't drink, but I indulged in a tiny sip of Hot Damn Cinnamon Schnapps!) On a bead-and-cove strip planked boat like Unicorn or practically every strip built kayak or canoe, the whiskey stick is almost always a very thin piece that must be fitted into the final slot where the last strips come together. Here are some pics leading up to the installation of the Whiskey Stick on Unicorn. This is the last slot on the port side. It was filled with one long multi-tapered strip that took some creative clamping to hold it in place. The starboard side was similar but took 2 strips to completely fill. Left picture in the Port side, right is the Starboard side. That block of wood in the right picture is very strategically placed to push on the thin strip with just the right pressure to hold it in pla...

The Breast Hook The savvy wood worker will notice that this piece of red oak is quite special, made even more so because I bought it at my local Home Depot. I was looking thru the selection of oak boards just to see what sizes were available and doing cost comparisons. I pushed an 8x12 (11 1/4" wide and 8' long) board over to the side of the stack and low and behold this piece was there. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it but I could not believe what I was looking at. What makes it so special? It is what as known as "quarter sawn". Quarter sawn boards are special because the grain, as can be seen in the photo above, is not only perfectly straight and knot-free, the grain is also straight through the board. It is far more expensive to make quarter sawn boards because they are take more setup time in the lumber mill to produce. The left picture below is how most lumber is cut. It is fast and easy to cut boards off the log with this layout. The picture on th...

 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 ...