Frames Installed in February

Hull sides are filleted and taped to the hull bottom.

The big mistake here was we decided to glue both sides and the back of the boat in one go.  It took seven hours of Josie and Meredith mixing epoxy with me applying it as fast as possible to prevent it from getting too hard to move to the next step.

Current view looking aft.

Current view looking forward.

All frames are installed which requires several steps.  First one needs to accurately position the frame.  For the most of the frames (18, 53.5, 89, 169.5, and 214) we (Josie, Meredith, and I) used a string and plumb-bob to place several marks on the hull bottom and sides then connected the dots.  For the two frames that support the keel (110 and 124) I used a laser from the overhead of the garage to connect three  points of reference (each side at the shear and a plumb-bob mark at the hull centerline.  Mounting each frame consisted of applying epoxy to wet-out the the joint, clamping it in place with as few wire-ties as necessary to allow epoxy to cure.  They are then reinforced with epoxy-microbollon fillets and 6 oz,  4" wide biaxial S-glass.  No wonder I haven't updated the blog! 

In addition to installing the frames we've fabricated the plywood reinforcements for the keel box, shaped the stem (bow), and scarfed together two nineteen foot long 3/4" x 1" pieces of douglas fir for the shear (the piece of wood at the hull side to deck joint). 

We've been published. Checkout page 24 of the February edition of SpinSheet magazine. http://tinyurl.com/SpinSheet-021611  Also, to our surprise the article was posted the Scuttlebut website on Feb 16th.

The goals for March are to finish reinforcing the keel box area, install the shear and stem, and begin adding the bunk support/hull stringers.  Wait to see the chainplates I've been imaging.