Thread: Building an Auk

Hi Richard, I scraped the 5th planks that I buggered up and re did it using the method you recomended and it worked a treat. 2 hours and I had a pair marked out cut and the port plank dry fitted to perfection. I borrowed a staple gun from work and this made it easy to fix the pattern material to the molds and partner plank. The inner stem is starting to like it is surpose to as well. I am now thinking about making a stretched Auk maybe 10ft. The boss is starting to stare daggers at me so I had better go and do what he payes me for.
Thanks for saving my sanity .
Ian L

Originally Posted by wavedancer

Hi Richard, I scraped the 5th planks that I buggered up and re did it using the method you recomended and it worked a treat. 2 hours and I had a pair marked out cut and the port plank dry fitted to perfection. I borrowed a staple gun from work and this made it easy to fix the pattern material to the molds and partner plank. The inner stem is starting to like it is surpose to as well. I am now thinking about making a stretched Auk maybe 10ft. The boss is starting to stare daggers at me so I had better go and do what he payes me for.
Thanks for saving my sanity .
Ian L

Glad it worked for you.

I too have thought of a 10' Auk. Iain has drawn a 10' boat in that same series. The big question though, is why? You're already building the 8 footer.

Richard

Originally Posted by Daddles

Glad it worked for you.

I too have thought of a 10' Auk. Iain has drawn a 10' boat in that same series. The big question though, is why? You're already building the 8 footer.

Richard

Hi Daddles , I can get a bigger esky in a 10ft auk .
I will try and attach some pictures. The huon pine transom was originaly one piece slab I bought on a trip back home to Tassy, to make a nav table for Wavedacer. Trend timbers put it through thier thicknesser and when I cleaned it up it was 20mm to short so I stuck a bit of south african hard wood in the middle which should look alright when it is deks oiled. Not sure what specis of wood the dark stuff is, I bought a great big slab a few years ago to make cockpit seats for the 28ft swanson I had, but then "Wavedancer" appeared on the mooring beside "Sirocco Two" with a for sale sign attached so bye bye swanson hello Tassy motor sailer. The SA hard wood is as hard as the hobs of hell so I used that as the skeg on the Auk. If the pictures work you should see how I stuffed up the inner stem.
Ian L

Hi guys, advice on fitting the rubbing strips on the Auk please. The curve on the bow is so tight I can't even fit a 10 x10 oregan battern around it with out breaking it let alone the kapur strip. Is it possible to turn over the hull (leaving in some moulds with temp screws) and then laminate the rubbing strake onto the hull bit by bit. I am thinking that it would be easier to check the sheer line ( sorry still haven't come to grips with the jargon yet).The spirit level is something I know how to use. Also not working upside down would have to be better on the old diesel fitters dodgy back.
Ian L

Having used kapur on Sixpence for just that job, I advise against it. Why? Kapur isn't a particularly stable timber in thick lumps apparently, great for laminating but not for a solid lump like that. How do I know? One of my rubbing strips let go during a heatwave. The above answer was the one given to me when I asked my old boat building teacher about it.

Use oregon mate ... and if you can't get it to do the curve, laminate it or make it out of plywood like those on Redback (who also suffers from very tight vertical and horizontal curves).

Richard

Hi Richard, bought a 300x75x3500 slab of oregon from the local recylers last week for the mast ( all the stuff I have on hand was 100mm to short). The stuff I bought looked like it had one side of straight grain but after a ripping it down I found one knot so looks like I will be laminating the mast after all.

Fitted plank 7 last weekend so now I am starting to worry about getting the sheer right (fair ?).

Can anyone tell me what the term close grain means? I am geussing it refers to the growth rings and has nothing to do with straight down the lenght of timber and do I really have to worry about it.

I am going os for a while and it would be nice to read from some other old or young guns that have built a little Auk when I get back.

As you said Richard, the boat doesn't exsist until the pics are seen, well the pics are there so over to you guys.
Ian L "Wavedancer"

Originally Posted by wavedancer

Hi Richard, havent been able to do any photos of the auk yet but if I have done it right there should be a picture of "Wavedacer". This photo was taken at Mooloolaba Sept 2008, which was a stop over on the way down from Hervey Bay after I had Bought her back from the guy I sold her too 2006. As previously stated I am looking for her history.

Hi guys, just got back from a few weeks in Europe and was all fired up to turn the Auk over, but after a disaster on the weekend the little boat will be pushed to the side of the shed to make room to rebuild the engine of the big boat.

For some reason the oil pump stopped pumping and it looks like I have a 3/4 seized 4108 perkins. So if any one has a good 4108 perkins lying around I would love to hear from you.
Ian L

Originally Posted by wavedancer

Hi guys, just got back from a few weeks in Europe and was all fired up to turn the Auk over, but after a disaster on the weekend the little boat will be pushed to the side of the shed to make room to rebuild the engine of the big boat.

For some reason the oil pump stopped pumping and it looks like I have a 3/4 seized 4108 perkins. So if any one has a good 4108 perkins lying around I would love to hear from you.
Ian L

So the stinkpot has gone the way of all good stinkpots and you're now free to work on the real boat ...

Just teasing. Bummer.
Are you one of those who enjoys repairing this sort of things themselves or is this a 'throw lots of money at someone else so they can have all the fun' job?
While the motor is out, have a look around for other jobs you can do. Although we get all excited about new builds, sometimes all you need is an old build that has lots of stuff you can do to it (it's not 'maintenance', it's 'fun')

Richard

Hi Richard, I am surpose to be a Navy trained Diesel Fitter, all be it some 35 years ago. The big issues are logistict and money, bit hard to park a 32ft motor sailer in the garage. Crane barges in Sydney start at $200 an hour. Might even be cheaper to "float test " the old donk and start again. Re other jobs I allready have a list as long as my arm as all owners of large 30 year old wooden boat have, but once again $$$$$$$.
Re "stink pot" we call them stink boats up here and "Wave dancer" is not in that class.

Hi Guys, I turned the Auk over the other day and it didn't fall apart. I will try and attach some photos. I was on this forum the other day on the home computer and noticed that all the photos were allready "open" and everyone had sexy little pictures with their the name but when I use the laptop everything was like normal,why?

The auk is still way down on the things to do list as the engine out of the big boat is still in bits in the back yard.
Ian L

She's a lovely little tub, I should have built that instead of the lump that is Redback.

I've still got my plans here, I wonder what would happen if I stretched it out just a bit further ... (then you wonder why you don't just build the 12' boat the Iain did design )

Hove you climbed inside for a pretend sail? How much room do you have?

Richard

No test sail yet Daddles as I followed the instructions for a change and left some moulds in so no room to sit in "Ripplejumper" yet. Even with the moulds in she looks very beamy and plenty of room for a little esky. I lashed out and bought a heat gun and it makes it so easy to clean the excess glue off the interior, but I have noticed it is still posible to take some of the veneer off so still a case of slowly slowly. Fixing the big boat is still the priority as far as dollars go so I spent last week end machining up what ever decent timber I could find, looks like the little boat will have a lot more oregon than I planed.
On a positve note I made contact with the son of a prevouis owner of WD in Hobart (got his E address out of the Afloat mag) and he has indicated that he might be able to provide the history of the old girl.

Howdy Ian,

The bottle tells the whole story.

Bear with me as I go through the tough stuff first and lighten up later ...

First it does not say the glue is waterproof.
Second it says the fits between the surfaces need to be tight
Third it says the clamping pressures have to be high.

For the average amateur built boat number 1 is not too important as the boat is not kept in the water.

But number 2 and three are critical. The other glues before epoxy were resorcinol and urea formaldehyde. They were waterproof but also requiring tight fits (not gap filling) and high clamping pressures.

There were many fine boats built by professionals during that era, but you just need to poke round inside an old Hartley or wooden race dinghy of the era to know just how poorly the glue held.

When I was racing small boats we used the older glues and the boats did start breaking down after a couple of years. Glass tape on the chines helped a bit as it could be replaced every two or three seasons.

When epoxy entered on the scene almost all the problems disappeared as it is truly gap filling. So it is tolerant of amateur building and basically is what makes amateur clinker/lapstrake boatbuilding workable. It is perhaps too obvious to say that almost all professionals would choose an epoxy for the job as well.

The modern non gap filling glues are a little bit more tolerant than the older ones, but don't come into the same class as epoxy does.

In the USA there is a big trend toward more disposable type boats, built of the cheapest materials possible including the newer non gap filling glues - many of the PDRacers are built that way for example.

However, while the boats last a few years fine they do show deterioration around the 3 or 4 year mark, much like we found in raceboats in the 60s and 70s. Some will go on very nicely for a longer time, but it is not a statistic you can rely apon.

Recently I have been relenting a bit on this attitude and think with boats that are not kept in the water that you can use the modern non-gap filling glues for areas where fits are really close and tight and can be clamped with good pressure. For example laminating spars and putting flat surfaced framing onto flat bulkheads - if you have enough clamps to do the job. The enough clamps is the criterion for the job.

Epoxy only needs light clamping so the plasterboard/gyprock screws a lot of us use are adequate. The epoxy has also meant that most permanent fastenings have disappeared from structures.

Best wishes
Michael

Thanks for the advice Micheal. I have been useing the purbond for sticking bits of wood onto the old Fiberglass tender just to keep it in one piece, untill the Auk is finnished. I have not posted for a while because as previously stated I have to save my pocket money to fix the the engine in the big boat. A bit of progress has been made on the Auk using oregan to make floor beams and aft seat beams but I am not happy with the quality of this timber so I might bite the bullet and cut down the last bit of kapur I have and just use the oregan as templates and then scrap it.
Can anyone shed some light on why Iain O recomends not glueing down the aft seatsheets, I thought by permanetly fixing the seatsheets that it would add strenght to the transom. I can understand why the floor boards should be removable but where do I get the wood srew insert (brass) for the thumb screws. I have the old brass rudder shaft that was removed from my Swanson which I could machine up but this would be very time consuming. The timber mob at Windsor NSW has some mahogany 140x10mm that they reckon would be alright for the floor boards and seatsheets but it very exspensive at $190 plus, any thoughts on this guys.
Ian L "Wavedancer"