A Good Problem

Obadiah, the Marsh Cat  is gone.  The space she formerly occupied is now filled with the  whaleboat strongback needed to begin the construction of the second Beetle replica whaleboat. There is still not an inch to spare, with four boats, three of them with substantial footprints, filling the shop.  As the sagacious former WoW director, who is now the ISM CEO says, a shop crowded by lots of boats may be a problem, but it is a good problem to have.

While Newt, Carl, and Charles attached a few bits of whaling paraphernalia to whaleboat number one, Bruce worked on shaping a rabbet in the new keel to accept the plank ends.  It is more apparent every day how much we learned from the experience of building the first boat, and how much that helps improving efficiency and quality as we begin the second.  So far, the keel has been cut, including the centerboard slot, tapering is complete, and the rabbet is in place.  Also, one of the stems has been attached to the keel and the other is soon to follow.  

Keel cut and tapered, with centerboard slot also cut.  Strongback is on floor below keel

Bruce works on the keel rabbet with hand plane and chisels

Stem notched and clamped to keel.  Bolts to follow.

Bruce works on spiling a fair  rabbet line at transition from keel to stem.

Each of the stems were made in two parts.  These were attached with Sikaflex, which produces an extremely strong watertight bond, making the two parts of the stem into one.  It works much better than attempting to fill the kerf with bedding, as we did with the first boat.  It is also a much quicker process.

Charles clamps up a stem to allow Sikaflex bond to cure overnight.

Sikaflex squeeze out must be trimmed when stem is removed from clamps.

On the first replica whaleboat, the many small parts that were used on working whaleboats have been fabricated, and most have been attached.  There is lots of cleanup, chamfering of edges, scraping, etc., before painting can begin on the inside.

Newt uses a spokeshave to chamfer a thwart edge.  No yacht finish here!

The mast partner hinge was bedded and bolted.  It is not going anywhere!

The centerboard trunk cap was cut and temporarily fastened  in place.

This bracket at the stern, receives the mast top when the mast is unstepped.

The Chesapeake Light Craft team rowing dory got her first coat of paint over her many coats of epoxy.  Blemishes needed to be filled, and a light sanding done before another coat -- hopefully the final one, can be applied to her outside.

The rowing dory with her first coat of paint.

John sands the hull and fills dents and blemishes before repainting.

With more and more students coming to WoW as part of their school curriculum, Bruce had Jeff working on some very cool torsion box work tables, which can be assembled to a length of over 20 feet, as needed, and disassembled easily when not in use.  

Jeff cuts a big pile of torsion box framing material.

A torsion box takes shape on the shop floor.

Meanwhile, Bob continued his work on the Herreshoff Meadow Lark, Suzy.  The compression post assembly is ready to be installed.  The foredeck has been jacked up more than an inch to its original position, and Bob has fabricated a brace to distribute the weight of the mast to a broad area of foredeck, and down to the keel through the compression post.  A strong boat will be even stronger as a result.

Notched support below foredeck.  Jack post is in position beneath it.