Thread: Building an Auk

Ahh, the little Auk. I was looking at them until I got stupid and built something else. Nice little boat. There used to be quite a few photos on the net so a search might do wonders for your enthusiasm levels

Richard

Hi Daddles, I was going to build something simpler (mabey tender behind) but Ted at duckflats sugested that the auk would look good swinging of "Wavedancer's" davits so I bought the plans. As a boat builder I make a good Maintance Fitter, but I am so over working with steel. I have made some mistakes so far, the first one buying 300 x 50X 3000 Kapur plank of Trend Timbers and having it deliverd sight unseen (no fault of trend timbers my dealings with them have been very good). I didn't ask if it was milled and to try and get little straight bits off a piece of rough sawn this big has been quite a chalange. I am now the owner of a brand new 250mm thicknesser. I read somewhere that some blokes build boats to justify buying new tools, so true. Another mistake I have made is to make the inner stem 15mm to wide and it is a real battle to bend and fit the planks around it. What I have been doing is cutting each plank into the inner stem at a angle and overlapping the next over it I am not sure whether this will work but fitting the stem so it looks half decent could be interesting.
I could not get my head around how this was surpose to be done properly and I could not find a clear enough photo in Iain O book or on the net so like most blokes that know everything I threw this bit of the plan out and did my own thing ( yes I know this is a recipe for disaster) but I want to launch "Ripplejumper" at a SYCC Small Yacht Cruising Club, Pittwater NSW club day in October and put it on display along with "Wavedancer" at the RMYC Newport wooden boat show in November.
Any advice to help me with this "little" project would be appreciated
Ian Lehman.

Be thankful you didn't go for the Tender Behind - that's what I built and it was NOT a simple build, nor does it deliver on the promises made for it. The Auk is a much better choice all round.

The thicknesser is a good buy and so is a table saw (I went the Triton route). The ability to machine your own timber is a great liberator and money saver. The earlier you get both, the better.

Be careful with the kapur. I use it and like it, but it suffers one great fault - it's not particularly stable in big lumps. If you search on here for my thread about Sixpence, you'll note I had a rubbing strip come free during an extreme heat wave. Having spoken to the bloke who taught me boat building, he feels this was because the kapur moved and pulled itself free, the cure being a couple of fasterners. It's a great timber for laminating though and if you use it for your outer stems and put a strip along your keel, you'll have a tough little boat. Watch the weight, it's heavy. Looks great when varnished.

Another mistake I have made is to make the inner stem 15mm to wide and it is a real battle to bend and fit the planks around it. What I have been doing is cutting each plank into the inner stem at a angle and overlapping the next over it I am not sure whether this will work but fitting the stem so it looks half decent could be interesting.

I'm not exactly sure what's happening here. Do you mean 'wide' as in across the boat or 'thick' as in along the boat? If it's just too wide, why not plane it down?
I'm guessing the Auk is done the same way as the Yellowtail and if so, the planks glue to the outside of the inner stem and will be fitted so they protrude past it. Once they're in place, you plane the whole lot flush, then fit the outer stem on the outside (thus covering the end grain of the planking). Where the planks overlap each other, you cut a rebate into each plank so they sit flush - the inner stem is left smooth.
Sounds like you're well into the build though. Got some photos?

Richard

Referring to Iain O's book. The following photos show what I'm referring to 5-24, 5-27, 5-34, 5-42, 5-52, 5-53.
This is where you realise that I really am talking about something completely different to your problem

Richard

Hi Richard,
I Made the inner stem is to wide and I just married it ito the keelson ( please excuse me if I get the terminology wrong I am new to all this stuff ,10 years in the R.A.N but the lingo did not go this deep). Thanks for the input I will now taper down the inner keelson as you have sugessted.It is all easy when you know how.I am down to plank 5 which I cut out today using plank 4 as inner template and mearsured outer width off moulds and totaly stuffed it up. these weired angles are going to be my death. As I have said before I am a fitter up, down and across is soooo simple.
Ian l
"wavedancer"

Originally Posted by wavedancer

I am down to plank 5 which I cut out today using plank 4 as inner template and mearsured outer width off moulds and totaly stuffed it up. these weired angles are going to be my death. As I have said before I am a fitter up, down and across is soooo simple.
Ian l
"wavedancer"

Sounds like you might be doing it the hard way

This is how I was taught to make a pattern for your planks (there are a lot of methods but this is dead simple where you can make it work for you).

Get yourself a piece of cheap plywood (3mm is thick enough) big enough to cover an entire plank. You're going to use it to make patterns and if you need to join two lengths together, just butt them together and screw another lump of ply over the joint to hold them together.

Assuming you have one plank already glued to the boat (which you have), nail a batten along the next set of landings ie, the other side of the plank. Screw the big lump of ply to the moulds - it should overlap the existing plank on one side and the batten on the other. More importantly, let it lie naturally and lie against the plank and the batten. Get inside the boat and run a pencil along the edge of the plank and the edge of the batten. You've just drawn the shape of the new plank onto the inside face of your cheap ply and this is your pattern - don't be surprised by the shape, some of those on the Yellowtail were S shaped. Remove the ply and lay it flat on the top of your planking stock ie, the stuff you're making planks from - pencil line up. You now need to transfer those pencil lines onto your planking stock. This can be done by either driving a nail through the ply pattern or by using a very fine drill bit in your electric drill. Remove the ply pattern and you've got your planking stock with a set of holes/dimples/marks that represent the edges of your plank ... only they only represent one side of your plank, the bottom edge, the one marked by the batten and you join these up using a fairing batten. The other edge, the one marked by the existing plank, is accurate to shape but doesn't have the planking overlap - you get this by using a batten that's the same width as the overlap between the two planks. Simply lay your batten along the marks but on the outside of the marks, then draw on the other side of the batten - this automatically gives you the shape of the plank complete with the planking overlap needed in a lapstrake boat.

Put simply, just whack a bloody great big bit of cheap ply onto the boat and draw in the shape of the plank. It's much easier to do than it is to describe. The only trick lies in letting the pattern lie naturally onto the frames ie, don't force it into place any more than is absolutely necessary. You'll also note that you haven't measured a thing - anything that requires a ruler is a fast route to madness.

Rough cut the planks, then screw them together to do the final shaping - this ensures that you produce two planks that are exactly the same shape.

When it comes to marking out the next plank, scrape the pencil lines off your patten by holding a chisel at right angles to the sheet and dragging it along the line - this effectively rubs the pencil line out in no time.

Richard

Thanks Richard, great advice. Would you belive I "borrowed" a great big bit of 3mm ply from work but I got my storeman to cut it into 150mm before I brought it home. I used this to make the first stake using your method except I went to all the trouble of cutting it out and trassing around it which was very time consuming. I have been down and looked at what I have left in 3mm and of course 150mm is not wide enough. it will take me a couple of days to cut and rejoin the planks that I have stuffed up and in the mean time I will see if there is any more 3mm at work. If I can work out how to attach pictures I wil post them so everyone can have a good laugh.
Regards Ian L

MDF works too.

Your 150mm might still work. There's nothing that says you have to join bits together to form a rectangle. The 6m Motor Cruiser we built at TAFE wound up with patterns made of the three or four pieces screwed together in an S shape. The patterns for Redback (less than 8' long) were in two bits and more tadpole shaped than anything else. The pattern for my Yellowtail's coaming is in two bits joined in the middle to form a shallow V.

Some of the ply I had delivered came with two really crap sacrificial sheets on the outside and I used them. They proved to be too floppy but served the purpose. When I got around to buying ply, I could only get 4mm and it proved to be hard to work with on my own but I've still got that ply and have used it for other jobs. It's not something to waste a lot of money on but on the other hand, if you get the wrong stuff it can make life hard - a good surface helps with getting a decent pencil line (guess how I know that one). The reality though, is that unless you're planning more boats, don't waste money on your pattern material.

Richard
still waiting for photos - you do realise that this boat doesn't exist without photos

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.

That's a solid looking boat.
So you divorced her then got lonely and bought her back eh? Has she forgiven you?

Richard

Yes Richard the boat has forgiven me but not my spouse of 28 years.
If you are interested I have written a couple of articals in our club mag. Google small yacht cruising club of pittwater my latest effort might explain why I sold WD also in the Feb issue I wrote about crossing Bass Straight on "Dunno".
Ian L
Wavedancer
PS this might also explain why I need a new tender.

Hi Richard, still can't work out this digital camera stuff yet, my son (the brain surgeon, who asked what the slot in the botom of the boat is for and want it sink) has promised to sort it out for me. I very brieifly looked at this site when I was thinking of building a tender and I am kicking myself that I did not study it properly. I have not been able to take my eyes of it and I could have avoided some of the basic mistakes that I have made so far. If I get my act together in regards to forum protocol and posting pitctures etc, do you think I should start my own thread or what erver you call it in the builders section of this site. I doubt if I could do as good a job as others but I may save some other mugs such as myself from making the same mistakes.
Now for some more dumb questions, can I use purbond on the planking?
Regards Ian l.

Keep using this thread mate

The digital stuff will come ... and then you'll wonder why you found it so hard

Wot's Purbond? (seriously, I've heard of it but can't for the life of me remember what it is).

Richard

Hi Richard, purbond is a single pack waterproof polyurethane adhesive manufactured by boatcraft pacific. I did a desrtruction test on a 300mm length of 6mm ply (same as overlap) and could not break the bond. The ouze felt a bit spongey to me but it cleaned of soooo easy. The manufactures claim that it is compatble with boat cote, which I have been useing so far, so if the joint is sealed with epoxy it might be all right but I have'nt got 50 or so years to to test this theory. Any thoughts?
Rgards Ian L