Design vs. Build

I did quite a bit of work on my plans this last week, but I also made one reasonably important discovery:  once I really looked at the stern of the boat "in real life" I wasn't all that happy with the shape of the transom as I originally drew it.  So I decided to change it on the boat.  At first I hesitated, but then I reminded myself that's it's my design... I don't think Captain Nat is going to spin in his grave! There's a photo of the process below, but basically what happened is I cut one side of the transom roughly to shape and used battens to fair it into the setup until I was happy with the shape.  Next week, I'll modify my original transom pattern to the new shape then use the pattern to cut other side of the transom.  Finally, I'll note the revised shape--I already have waterlines and buttocks marked on the back side of the transom so taking off the new measurements will be easy--and revise the plans and Table of Offsets.

Originally, I was going to go with a simple painted transom, but I found some Western Red Cedar 1/8" veneers and decided to laminate them to the 3/4" plywood transom.  Here's the glue up.

I started fairing the setup using 16' battens made from straight-grained fir (no carbon this time!) about 1/2"x 1".

I'm hoping to make the planking and bottom from two sheets of 3/8" meranti plywood scarfed together (shown here) plus two sheets of 1/4".  The 3/8" will be used for the bottom and garboards, the 1/4" for the rest of the planking.  I was hoping to use only domestic woods in the boat, but it's tough to find decent marine fir plywood these days so I decided to go with the meranti.  It is heavier than occume, but it has the reputation of being more rot-resitant.  And cheaper.

Here's the transom mounted to the setup.  What I ended up doing is using my transom pattern on only one side of the transom, leaving the other side uncut.  After running battens through the aft section of the boat, I wasn't 100% happy with the shape of the transom as drawn.  So what I'm doing here is shaping one side of the transom until I like it.  Once that's done, I'll transfer the shape back to my pattern and cut the other side.  Also, note the change on the plans and Table of Offsets.

I also cut the inner stem to length and mounted it to the setup.  Yet to come is to bevel the edges so that the planking can be screwed and glued to the stem.