Onward! Onward! Part I

   So time to take a big bite into this project.   Have a copy of "Instant Boats" by Payson.  Don't have the full sheet plans, but the book does give enough (in eye squinting type) to get you going BUT it WON'T answer a lot of questions if you've never built a boat before.  If you aren't as cheap as I am (and Payson has a few estimable words for folks like me) buy the plans http://www.instantboats.com/teal.htm.  If nothing else, it'll be the prod you need to keep going and get the boat built.


   Happily, the Bolger design is pretty straight forward and the start is a large scale drafting exercise.

See, all you need is a yardstick and a pencil--anybody can do it!

                                               
    Of course having the circular saw follow those cuts is another proposition....  Still, the pieces did come out the way they were supposed to, and aside from differences in height, were pretty much identical in shape.  Hurrah!  Now for assembly........  The nice thing about the Teal is that most of the hull elements (except the floor) can be cut out of one sheet of plywood--in this case 1/4" Luan.  Nice pretty wood--but the cutout of the sheet requires a sheet that finished on both sides--so the tan color on one side of the Luan sheet is going to wind up on the wrong side for some panels.   Of course that is if the panel come out as mirror images and not identical as I wound up doing.............. oops.

Oh, they look alike, but your looking at the bow on one side and the stern on the other, they are identical and since the hull isn't symmetrical--it just won't work.  Back to the drawing board.

    So what do you do with this sort of mess?   Well, the most practical thing that day was to put up the tools and deal with it tomorrow.   This fun started on a Tuesday and it'll be interesting to see how long it's going to go.

   Well, the next morning it is cool and a bit windy (odd for Missoula).  I need to get a replacement sheet of Luan and so back to Home Depot I go.  Pick it up, get it to the car, amuse a former fisherman from Alaska while trying to tie down a sheet with all the body of wet cardboard, and try to head home.   Well, got a ways when a sudden the panel gets away from my imperfect tie down work and saves me the trouble of trying to cut it down, but cutting itself for me and throwing a piece of itself onto the road.  Happily nobody was injured and a truck behind me didn't see fit the bash the one half of the sheet over my head.  However the reduced size sheet is really easy to tie down now--maybe I should have had Home Depot saw it down for me.

A more creative way to split a sheet of plywood--not recommended.

   Well still have side to rebuilt, don't I.  I think I'll put that off to the next installment, which promises to go a bit better than so far.