Putting in bolts for aft thwart

April 23, 2011
Yesterday I started sanding the inside of the dory.  According to the manual, every inch needs to be sanded to a cloudy gray in order for the varnish to stick to it. Today, I continued sanding, but also decided to put in the bolts in the aft bulkhead.  This thwart is designed to be removable to make it easier to row.  The bolt is a lag screw on one end and a machine screw on the other.  One end is embedded in the bulkhead and the other is used for a threaded knob to make it easy to put the thwart on and off.  Once I finally found a 5/16" drill bit, I drilled a hole in the bulkhead, and then used the syringe to fill the hole with plain epoxy and screwed the lag screw end into the bulkhead.  I did the same thing on the other end of the bulkhead. 

A 5/16" hole is drilled into the rear bulkhead.

The hole is filled with unthickened epoxy and the bolt screwed in place.

Buying a trailer

April 18, 2011
Each step brings me closer to the day that I can put the dory in the water and I've been thinking about how I'm going to move it.  At first I thought I could just put it on a roof rack but every time we flip it, it gets heavier, and I don't think that solution will work.  I've been looking at trailers and hated to spend another $1,000+ for the trailer that CLC recommends.  I called the marina in town and they recommended a light weight Karavan galvanized trailer, which was a couple hundred dollars less. While I was thinking about that possibility I found a used one on Craigslist a couple days ago.  The fellow called me back today and said that if I wanted it I needed to come today because he was going to bring it to a dealer to sell it. He said he would even knock $50 off his asking price to make it worth my while to come get it.  Tim agreed to lend me his truck and I went to Derry, NH to get it.   Not that I know much about the subject, but it looked good to me.  It was a small 2010 Karavan just like what I was thinking about buying.  I was impressed that it was  light weight and all galvanized construction, even the wheels. The fellow helped me hook it up and I drove it home.  I even stopped in Keene on the way and used it to bring home the vinyl siding we ordered for the house. 

Unfortunately, backing up a trailer is much more difficult than it looks.  I spent about half an hour trying to back it into the yard.  Tim's truck finally gave up, overheated, and blew out bunch of antifreeze.  That was the end of that maneuvering--I stopped and just let the truck cool off over night.  The next morning, I filled the radiator and brought the truck back, and left the trailer where it was for now.

I think it is light enough that I should be able to tow it with my car.  With Tim's truck, I didn't even know it was there.

Shaping and sanding stern seat

April 17, 2011
I sanded and rounded off the boards for the stern seat and sanded all the thwarts to get them ready for epoxy and varnish.  I rounded off both the top and bottom of the front edge of the seat and the top and bottom of the sides where they touched the hull.  The rounding here seemed to make them fit better with the curve of the hull.  Because the manual did not say anything about gluing the pieces together to make one big seat, I've left them separate for now.

I rounded off both the top and bottom of the front edge of the stern seat as well the sides.

 I also sanded all the thwarts again to smooth them out and get them ready to glue the flotation blocks to the bottom of them.

Cut out the foam to put under the stern seat

I cut out three pieces of foam to fit under the seat.

April 9, 2011 Put another coat of epoxy on the flotation blocks, and put epoxy on the wood supports for the thwarts.  Also, I cut out three pieces of foam to fit under the stern seat.  It was such an odd shape, I couldn't make them fit as tight as I wanted with the piece of foam that I had left.

Shaping flotation blocks

Flotation blocks are shaped and have their first coat of epoxy.

With the orbital sander, I smoothed and shaped the flotation blocks and then put on the first coat of epoxy.  I used a router to put a chamfer or beveled edge where it will fit under the thwart.  I think I need to do the same with the thwart.  As with the rest of the dory, the manual calls for three coats of epoxy and then painting the blocks.  Unfortunately I forgot about the triangles of foam that I need to put under the stern seat, and didn't have it ready to epoxy.  I also forgot to put epoxy on the small wooden support blocks for the thwarts--will have to get them when I do the next coat of epoxy.

Gluing the flotation block pairs

April 3, 2011
Since I was out of foam insulation I thought I was stuck.  I thought it would take only one 2'x8' sheet but I needed a little more.  Fortunately, I discovered that I had some pieces in the attic that I could use. I cut out the blocks around the mast step and then glued all the pairs together.  The manual says to glue strips of foam together first and then cut them out, which is probably a better way to go. I have them roughly cut out but will still need to shape them a little more, and then sand them and put epoxy on them.  Since I had only four clamps that were big enough, I squeezed them all together at the same time.  I'm a little concerned about the blocks that I had to cut in half to go around the daggerboard trunk because I'm not sure I have enough pressure on them. 

Gluing all the blocks at the same time was the only way I make use of the few clamps that I had.

Floatation blocks

April 1, 2011
We're getting a heavy, wet snow today, which makes it a good day for boat building. I worked on the foam flotation blocks that will be glued under the thwarts. I wish I had thought to trace the bulkheads before I started--it would have been so easy to get the correct shape for the blocks if I had a pattern.  Instead, I took a piece of newspaper and traced the shape of the bulkhead, cut it out and then transferred it to a piece of cardboard.  After cutting out the cardboard, I had a rough pattern that I could transfer to the 2" rigid foam insulation board that I bought to make the blocks. 

Cardboard pattern to make the flotation block for thwart 2.

I had a little detour while cutting out the blocks.  The insulation comes in a sheet 2'x8'x2" and I needed to cut it into a six inch strip for the flotation blocks. After cutting two strips, my table saw wasn't working right.  I discovered that the pulleys had slid sideways on their shafts and that the one under the table was bent.  It must have rubbed against one of the bolts supporting the table saw.  Anyway, I made a trip to the hardware store in town and bought a new pulley.  Fortunately, I was able to find the woodruff key in the sawdust under table and put everything back together.

Of course, each bulkhead is a different size. I was able to use my cardboard pattern for thwart 2 but had to adjust the length for thwart 3.  For thwart 1 I had to abandon it completely and had to figure out the new shape and size.  Because of the sailing parts for my dory I had also work around the mast step and dagger board trunk to shape the flotation blocks.

Rough cut foam flotation block

Fitting and shaping the flotation blocks to the bulkhead.

Checking to make sure the flotation blocks will fit under the thwart.