Thread: The Northstar GIS Build

Glad to see that you've digested the set back and are moving on. Happens to the best of us. Carry on!

Howdy Northstar,


I'm thinking this through a bit more ... from your photos ... the top of the stem is left open. Was the stem fastened in after this photo?





If so it is safer to fully fastend the stem before putting the bulkheads in place. You need about 6 temporary fastenings per side in the stem before stressing the sides into a curve. Also note putting an oversize backing pad under the screw near the bottom of the stem ... it needs to be big enough to cover the area of the side panel that the chinelog is behind by 25 mm (inch) or so.


There is an easy to fix error. The side arms on the front face of Bhd 2 are flush with the top of the ply to make the tank top easier to fit. Same with Bhd 4. Lop them off. Then the full height ones are fitted to the other face when the seat tops are on.


This will save you a lot of fiddly fit and try work trying to work around the side arms.

The work in general is looking pretty nice.


Best wishes
MIK

The pics are of the dry fit before I moved outside. I was just trying to get a feel for the whole fit and look. I disassembled it and moved it outside. When I tried to start from the bow and work backwards is when things came apart. The new stem is in process now. Jim couldn't stand the idea that his creation had come apart. He is working on one from Locust or American Elm. I will be lucky to get the screws back much less split. A lot of American Elm is so difficult to split that the only way is with a hydraulic splitter and that just shears it off if you have enough power. The only way I have been able to split it by hand is to let it freeze at -20 F and then work around the core. I don't need fire wood that bad. It does rot easily so I will have to make sure the epoxy is intact.

Reducing the length of the bulkhead arms is also one of the reasons for the dry fit so I get it right.

Ok ... that's good.

The locust might cause problems because it will have to be predrilled - softwood is enough. It will mean you have to set things up more carefully than most as between the predrilling and putting the actual fastening in there's some chance of movement.

But with softwood you don't need to predrill.

The splitting was really bad luck only ... the softwoods are fine for the stem.

MIK.

Boat building went down for a week while I went to Dad's for his 93 birthday party. 1,400 miles round trip.

Daughter visited for a week from Virginia so boat building went down the tube for another week. We did float the river and spent two other days on the lakes but not SAILING so there is work to be done.

Stem finished today. It is made of Red Elm which most people have never seen. It is beautiful and could easily be mistaken for the mahogany of the plywood. I hate to cover it up in the stem but maybe I can get Jim to make the knees out of it. That should solve my splitting problem. I'm going to start over on the dry fit tomorrow.

So, your telling me that bulkhead 2 and 4 have a double sidearm, one short and one long? That is easy to remedy.

Don't bother. Your hull has come together fine without the short frame pieces. Like MIK said, you saved some weight! I'm sure if he was concerned about strength, that would have been his first comment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At long last 3-D. Finally getting over the summer time busies so have time to get back at it. This is the dry fit. Should get to the real thing Tuesday or Wednesday of next week when the weather is better. After that, on with the bottom and I will probably move back inside as the weather at this latitude is already beginning to shut down. The prefinishing is making it look better than it is. I will have to use longer screws when I glue it as the bottom screws are pulling out. The Red Elm stem did not pull out.

Looks like a boat. Gotta be good.

My wife says I absolutely cannot paint the outside of the hull. Much too beautiful to cover up.

Suggestion: make wife responsible for maintaining varnish.

Looking really nice Northstar. If it's easy to do now, before it's glued up, you can coat the area above BH#1. There is no side frames at this location. Made the same mistake myself.

Well, we pulled it apart and applied glue and put it back together. No turning back now. I was surprised at how hard that was. The glue made everything slippery and difficult to keep in place until we got some screws in to stabilize things. Not sure we could have done it without ratchet straps. I'm letting it cure a couple of days before tackling the bottom. Once that gets done, it will be coming back inside for the duration. I'm still on schedule to take it to South Carolina this winter.