I didn't get much done yesterday as I had Kat as a helper, and while she is more than willing, she's still a little young to be around power tools and a working boiler. Today, I had Eleanor for help and the pieces flew together. Here she is posing after a day of hard work. We bolted up all of the keel pieces and put all of the frames on except for 1 and 11. We missed those two mostly because we ran out of daylight, but I also left them until last because they'll need the most custom fitting to get on.
With all of the keel pieces together, you can really get an idea of how big the boat will be. You can't really tell from the picture but it just about fills the barn. (Granted I, designed it to to that, but it's still something else to see it all put together.)
The next move, once the final frames are on, is to put the chine logs on. I'm still a little skeptical that I'll be successful the first time bending them on, so I'll have to plan to both succeed and fail, and be prepared for either outcome. The hard part is the bow where the log must bend in to meet the stem and also twist 90 deg to match the twist in the planking. Stay tuned.
The good news is that tomorrow will be week two of no smoking, and I am finally past the stage of withdrawal signified by blinding rage at everything. Hopefully its all up from here.
Looks pretty good. Have you thought about ballast issues?
ReplyDeleteIn a way, the shape of the hull is in response to ballast issues, as the first design sunk on the drawing board under the weight of the boiler.
ReplyDeleteThe center of gravity is a bit aft of center, but so is the center of buoyancy. I haven't calculated the metacentric point yet, as the mechanical systems are still in flux. I may still have some issues fore and aft, but I'm planning on putting a water tank in the bows that I can keep full or drain into the hot well while using the Lempor exhaust to dump steam.