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.

More paint plus progress on the rudder

It's funny how progress seems to be slow slow slow...until you start putting paint on things and the project seems to speed up!  I was going to start on the coamings this week, but I'm expecting to take a look at some nice white oak this Monday so I decided to put it off and keep painting and working on the rudder/tiller/centerboard/etc.

First coat of finish paint on the interior and deck.  It looks awfully green right now!   Once the floorboards, seats, and coamings are in place, actually not much paint will really be visible.  Still, a nice grey/green IMHO.  Notice that the centerboard top is not in place yet.  I'm hoping to have an offcut from making the coamings for that.  That way they'll match nicely.

Another view.  The deck paint is a semi-gloss white with just a smidgeon (OK, an ounce) of the grey-green mixed in.

Here's the aft well...only needs the drain holes now.  See previous post for why there are holes in the bottom cleats...

The rudder hardware is a mix of Dyer gudgeons and upper hanger and a shop-made lower hanger.  I'm about to clean up the lower hanger (which has just been fabricated) and fit it to the end of the skeg.   

I used a router (with a pattern) to inset the upper hanger into the transom.   Here I'm doing a test fit.  I'll have another photo of the final rudder and hardware in place later.  You can see the grain of the Western Red Cedar in this photo.  A couple of more coats of varnish and a couple of summers in the sun and this should "deepen" further into a nice glow.  At least that's what happened on the W.R.C. seats of my previous daysailer.

A quick test-fit of the roughed-out rudder.  I've got it covered in Dynel below the W.L.(actually 1" above the W.L.)  and I"ll be epoxy-coating it above the W.L.  Still to come are the cheeks and tiller.  (The white circle near the bottom is a hole that I'll fill with lead and epoxy to keep the rudder from floating too much.)  Note that I've gone with a simple one-piece rudder rather than the more usual kick-up rudder...I'll discuss this more later.

OK that's it for now, so long!