Week Four

Stringing it together

I think in the past week, we've had the bulkheads on and off the strongback three times, and a couple yet to go.  The first was to double check alignment for all the base blocks and to correct a small hog in the strongback itself.  
While the frames were off, we cut the chine stringer notches, and marked where the rest.  Then back on the strongback to clamp the bottom chine stringers, and make sure the rest would lie fair before letting them into the bulkheads.
Favorite tool
Once we were satisfied with the stringer placement, it was time to take it all down again, cut out the notches, set it all back up and check it - again.






The other big decision to be made at this point was "where does the deck go..."  The original Skoota design is a blue water cruiser, designed to be out in waves, to have a cabin, and has very different above water design goals than a boat that has no cabin and will likely never see water with more than 12" of chop (and rarely that).  The original hull depth from gunwhale to keel was something on the order of 24" (after scaling), which was a bit more windage than we need for flatwater.  After playing with numbers, talking through options, we realized that the final position was really driven by where the motor needed to go.  And the cleanest, easiest mount for the motor told us to make the deck 14" above the water, giving us 10" in the tunnel at design waterline.
 That also makes a height kids/athletes can crawl up on without difficulty in case they do go for a swim!

This week is all about framing in the bulkheads, finalizing cuts, and fairing the bow and stern.  The stern was left to the builder's discretion in any case, and we let it 'find itself', adding a little bit of a whaleback drop to the deckline, and a 15 degree reverse overhang on the transoms.  (pictures on Saturday).
As we frame out the bulkheads, we're also adding limber holes, reinforcements for deck attachments, etc.  And we're doing both sets of bulkheads at the same time, so the port hull should go together *much* faster.  We'll do the same when we take off patterns for the hull planking too. 
 


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