BELLE moved to ground-level shop...plus work on spars and coamings

It's been a while since my last note, in the meantime BELLE has moved!  She's not quite in the water, but at least she's getting closer.  Last week, with much-appreciated help from coworkers, we lowered the boat down from the loft, put her on a trailer, and brought her around to a ground-level shop.  My original plan was to pop her in the water, just to take a look, but the tide wasn't right to launch in the creek next to the shop.  I'll do that in March some time, when it warms up a bit.  My apologies, I do NOT have any photos of BELLE hanging tenuously (actually quite comfortably) from the overhead crane in the shop, I was too nerved up to think of photos!  Still, exciting to see the boat on a trailer and to be able to stand back a bit to take a look at her;  up in the loft, I could never really get a side view from any kind of distance.

Anywho, the coamings are now done and I've moved on to completing the spars (remember those?) and various other bits and pieces:

Here's the last photo from up in the loft!  With the first coat of varnish on the coamings, I made the centerboard cap pieces (Port Orford cedar, left bare), finished off the floorboards (ditto), and temporarily threw in the seats just to take a look. Except for the trim pieces around the foredeck opening, this is pretty much what she's going to look like on launch day.  A couple of months in the sun and  the floorboards and cap will starting turning a nice gray color (like old cedar shingles)  Fun to see BELLE coming together at last...

There are varnished oak trim pieces above the opening;  the side trim pieces will be painted.

After the move:  on a trailer in what we call "Junior's shop".  Next to BELLE is a Castine-class plank-on-frame daysailer in for some winter work.

A quick look at the aft end of the cockpit, with the slatted seats removed.  I've got two coats of varnish on the coamings, at least three more to go.

Meanwhile, back in the loft, I've gotten back to work on the spars.  Here I'm using a little gauge to check the boom as it  is planed and sanded to shape.  (The gauge is made from scrap plywood. A hole saw cut the curve to the right diameter.)

The top end of the mast, shaped to fit the mast band.

That's a nice piece of boat jewelry from Davey.  I'll mount a small block for a flag halyard at the tippy-top of the mast...perhaps I'll use flags to spell out "England expects that ever man will do his duty" on launch day!

That's it for now, until next time.

Coamings coamings coamings...and rudder

After about 10 days off for the holidays, it's good to be back to work on BELLE!  The coamings are now cut & fit, I'll be removing them for sanding and varnishing shortly.  Here's how it went:

With the coamings rough cut to shape/size, I steamed the forward end in a propane-fired steambox.  No need to steam the aft end since there's not much bend there.

The two coamings are clamped in place to "set" overnight.  I first did one side then, about an hour later, did the other side releasing the forward overlapping end about an inch.

I made a pattern for the aft ogee (I guess that's what you'd call it) so I'd be able to accurately reproduce it on both sides.

Next I removed the coamings and, after quite a bit of fussing to get the bevels right, got one side to fit nicely against the temporary 2x4 jig (shown here clamped through the mast hole).  I then made the final oak forward post (back fastened to the deck) and fit the second coaming to that.

Meanwhile, I managed some progress on the rudder.  The tiller will fit through a slot between the cheeks that are here being test-fitted.

This isn't a very good photo--enjoy looking at all those tools on the foredeck!--but it does show the two coaming cut and fitted at last.  I left the post a bit long, so now I'll cut it down before fairing the tops of the coamings.  With all that done...the whole thing comes off!  A coat or two of varnish off the boat, then the coamings are reassembled in place with regular ol' screws and bedding compound.  No epoxy, thank you, a future boat builder will thank me if/when the coamings need repair or replacement!

That's it for now.  Alas, a sad note, wonderful cartoonist Ronald Searle died a few days ago.  Sharp-eyed readers of this blog will have noted a couple of references to the Molesworth books he illustrated (Geoffrey Willans was the author).  He will be missed here at BELLE World Headquarters.

I wish you all a terrific 2012.