Bowstem

Almost done cutting out the pieces!  Here is the bowstem.  That is the very front part of the boat. It is more complicated than it looks.  The pattern shows all the angles.

Here is the approximate angle it will sit. Pretend there is a boat around it

Looks good.

Add it to the pile with the stringers, shelves, and transom. Soon we can put all these pieces together!

Transom

The transom is the back end of the boat. Here's a picture of the pattern for it:

Cutting it out, putting it together....

Layers put together with epoxy, then screwed to the floor to let the epoxy dry.

Chris cut out a hole at what will be the back bottom of the boat and replaced it with epoxy.  Later, he will cut a plug hole out of that filled part and it will be much smoother and neater than if he cut it out of the plywood and epoxied it afterwards.

The transom:

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!

Finished Project- 15' Tango Skiff

The Build- 15' Tango Skiff

Chris built the boat over the winter of 2012-2013 and finished it in April of that year. The total project took about 150 hours.  Here are some pictures of that build: