I began this project June 2001. I had ordered the plans and the book during the winter and had virtually memorized Harold Paysons excellent book. Click on the cover to go to his site. You can't order on line but the wait is worth it. Excellent plans and a very enjoyable book to read. Be sure to click on the pictures for a closer view.
Closing Her In
One of my goals was to use locally available lumber. This meant that I used good one side 1/4" plywood and spruce framing lumber for the solid wood parts and the mast. I've had some misgivings about that since the building (finishing) would have been easier with marine ply since there is no bad or good side and hopefully no knots. Using local spruce lumber also had it problems. I ended up buying more lumber than I needed since I couldn't find a totally clear piece of spruce. This meant buying 2x10's instead of 2x6's for the mast and cutting out the best part. In the picture below you can see where the plywood broke. I had already glued the bilge panel in place so I just had to fix it.
I'm sure this wouldn't have happened with five ply marine plywood. I didn't buy a digital camera until I was well into the project so I have no pictures of the making of the panels. Even when I was making the panels I had some problems due to not reading the plans properly. I ended up with a couple of wasted sheets of plywood. At $23.00 per sheet I guess this is just part of the cost of learning. I butted two sheets of ply together for each of the panels. That's a total of eight sheets for the sides, bilges and the bottom. I laid out the panels as per Paysons instructions. One thing I have found out is to read his book carefully, all the information is there.
Closed In
Stem Nicely Filled In
It took me about a month to get this far. At this stage I have filled in the gaps between panels using West System Epoxy and Colodial Silica. This worked quite well. This is excellent epoxy.
I used wire to pull the edges of the bilges the bottom and sides together. You can also see the cheap ply splitting near the stem. I should have used marine ply. Marenti plywood sells for about $50.00 per sheet plus shipping.
Outside Taped
Inside Seams Taped