Shelves

Shelves are what Renn Tolman, the guy who designed the boat plans, calls gunnels (or gunwales).  Gunnels are the top edges of the sides of the boat.  I'm learning lots of boat terminology here.  Here is what the pattern in the book looks like:

Chris built a stand and drew out the pattern.

He laid nails on edge along the pattern and used them to cut the LVLs along the curve.

Then he made the long part of the shelves and epoxied the two parts together to make one long piece.

Then he made shallow cuts- kerfs- all along the shelves to give them some flexibility and allow them to be shaped (later).

Want to put the shelves next to each other and see the shape of the future boat?  We did.

Next up: Building the transom.

Cutting Stringers

Chris's first step was cutting out the stringers. Hey, what's a stringer? A stringer is the beam at the bottom of the boat. It looked like it took fancy math and lots of angle changes.

He cut them out of LVLs- that's Laminated Veneer Lumber.  You can see how the curve will help form the bottom of the boat. The cut side is at an angle.

New Boat Project!

Chris sold his Tango Skiff and it is time to start a new project!  He has chosen to build a 22' Tolman Skiff.  He is following one of the designs in this book: Tolman Alaskan Skiffs by Renn Tolman.  He got this book a few years ago and has been looking forward to this project.

He got marine grade plywood of varying widths and some LVL beams.

The project has officially started!