Thread: MSD Rowboat built in Maine - Compass Project

Howdy,

It occurred to me over the last few days that the plywood will take a very different angle at the stem with and without the gunwales attached.

The extreme local deformation adjacent to the stem in the Compass project might be a result of not having enough stiffness along the sheer by simply clamping the gunwale in place while the glue sets up. Or the temporary gunwales were removed for the photo (the extra length may have been unwieldy with the Governor wandering around

Just checked .. the plans do say to do that ... perhaps the gunwales were removed for the photo in the article.

I did check the bevels for the stem and they do look right. Maybe there needs to be a temporary bulkhead or a couple of temp struts between the stem and bhd #1. Any thoughts Clint?

You can check the expected shape of the bottom by holding the bottom panel up. If it is wider at the front end then there might be something wrong elsewhere or just not enough support from the temporary gunwale fitting or the number of bulkheads.

MIK

These pictures are about a week old, but the second one shows the s-turn we've been talking about. We made a new stem with the same molded width but sided about 3mm wides so the bevel more closely matches what the ply wants to do. No rail would fix the problem. The new stem without too much tightening of the screws at the stem and with the rails clamped on looks fine as does the bevel at the transom, which also needed a little tweaking. This is normal with the designs I've built. It further suggest the importance of doing a dry fit, for those new to building boats. DO A DRY FIT!!!

The boat is now glued together (they did it this morning and I will post a picture when I get one). It looks fantastic. This is going to be a strikingly handsome and FAST boat, I could tell already.

Cheers,
Clint

Quote "strikingly handsome and FAST boat"

A pleasure to hear your enthusiasm on seeing Rowboat come alive into 3D. Nice that Raid41 and Rowboat are progressing so well and offering lots of fun and pleasure in the season ahead.

More pictures asap.

Brian.

Boat is now glued together.

You'll see a student post soon. It is tricky to sort it out, but a few will post.

Clint

From that angle it really does have a "Son of Goat" feeling!!

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

From that angle it really does have a "Son of Goat" feeling!!

MIK

I was thinking the same thing. It's almost as if the same canny, watery wisdom informed both designs, eh? I'm really looking forward to seeing how she fulfills her mission. I expect good things


"Knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested" -- African proverb

The kids rocked out today and planed the chine logs down. Over on the bench a couple are getting ready to glue the butt strap on the bottom. Two are cutting out oars. Another couple are prepping a skiff for a nice paint job, commissioned by the Governor of our state, Maine!

Wed they'll glue rails, glue the buttstrap, 4 side the oar looms and start to make the mold for carbon oar blades.

Howdy Clint,

I think making the moulds and doing some carbon moulding is a very interesting process to add to building a simple plywood boat.

Big moulding projects can seem a bit disorienting and pointless because you have to go backward and forward so many times that the students get lost in the process.

Building the ply boat is so procedural with some setup and then suddenly it looks like a boat. While the mouldmaking and lamination shows the detail of that approach without getting bogged down.

Great!

MIK

Your are absolutely correct Mik, and it goes not only for students but I am drawn to that process b/c in the little time I can dedicate to my personal projects I can see results in shorter time with the plywood boat, but can also do some fun smaller associated projects that, to me, won't make the project overwhelming. The procedural approach is great and allows the artistic aspects to shine through as well. It is a nice blend. It is also awesome to be able to give kids a section to read in the plans! That is a first because we don't have time to train them on reading blueprint style plans.

We are crankin' on the MSD. She is going together nicely and the kids are doing a great job, don't you think!?

The oar mold is for the carbon blades. The looms that Hannah is shaving are spruce. A few issues with not totally cured epoxy but the students have been great fixing that problem and are really aware of the problem solving process that is boatbuilding. They are a great first group for this project, we're lucky.

Cheers,
Clint

Nice work by the kids, Clinton. She's very Goat-like, dontcha think?

But gee ... she is such a BABY ... so tiny. Wow.

Looks like your corrected stem worked well .. look forward to your list of edits to the plan!

MIK

Interesting how this profile, especially the middle drawing, morphs



to this shapely thing in 3D, or at least 2d pic of 3D. Probably even nicer in "real life"



looks great,

Brian

ps just realised the rear tank top "hides" the narrow stern in the drawing . At first I thought the built boat had much more transom flare than the drawing, but realised the transom does not show clearly in the drawings.

You know it's funny...I've built some pretty complicated boats, glued-lap, cold-molded, strip, stitch-and-glue, but in a way this rowboat is the most complex. The curvature at the first station is wild! I mean the vertical curvature bending the wood. It was tricky really knowing if we were getting things right. While the final lines are fair and do the design a lot of justice, in hindsight I wonder if putting in the first frame and really developing that curvature there, before glueing in the rails, would have made the planks fair into the stem better. All is fair, but there are many variables in even a "simple" boat like this skiff.

By the way, I used the plywood-bar clamp trick to clamp some seat cleats in place on another boat we are doing and the technique works beautifully...I had never used it before!


Clint