Good news at Last.

I apologize for not posting in some time, and am sure after my last post many of you might have thought that I'd never post again and would be enjoying a roaring bonfire in the yard as what was once my steam boat dream went up in smoke. But for you fans out there, be of good cheer, progress, and substantial progress at that, has finally been made. If things go well, and I have no reason at this juncture to expect otherwise, the bottom of the boat will be done in the next few days. And when I say done, I mean planked, primed, caulked and painted. I mean flip ready.

When we last left off, I was just about to bend on the new chine logs after a complete rebuild of the bow. That was successfully done. I had enough eucalyptus left to complete the bendy parts and I used a nice piece of 5/4 white oak for the straight part amidships.

Now when I redesigned the bow, I gave up a lot of curviness that I really liked, but was not quite skilled enough to pull off. What I didn't give up was the sharp radius where the keel meets the stem. The front of the boat is very nearly vertical and turns to horizontal around a ten inch radius. I really like it, but no matter how I tried to manage it, I couldn't get the wood to be bendy enough to fit it. I realize now that had I designed the keel slightly differently it would have worked nicely. I kind of knew it when I was first putting it together but of course I was too cheap and tried to do it with the least amount of wood. 17.5 board feet of white oak in the burn box latter... well that's where I was. So instead of bringing the planks to the bow, after consulting with the Earl, I decided to bring the bow to the planks. using some 4/4 and 8/4 oak scraps I had, I epoxied up two bull noses that I then shaped to fit the bow as I wanted it. (The Earl actually did most of the shaping) Then I cut a notch in the rear of them for the planks to mate into. I'll take pictures when I get a chance. The end result is I get to keep my shape and the planks get to not bend in unnatural ways.

Wait a minute, you say, what's all this about planks?! The last we heard you has said plywood! Yes I had said that, but that was before I had actually priced it out. A sheet of 1/2 in. marine plywood goes for about $70 a sheet. That's nearly $2 per square foot. The bottom alone is about 90 square feet. $180 dollars in plywood, right? It would be if the boat was square and flat and had sides in multiples of 4. But a boat is non of those things, at least no boat I would want to build, and so there is some waste where the wood is cut to match the shape of the boat. Quite a bit a waste actually. It would have taken 6 sheets to to the bottom alone. That's $420 right there. Then I would need to seal it up with fiberglass and resin and that stuff is far from inexpensive. All told it would have been nearly $800 just to do the bottom, forget about the sides and the deck! So I found a supply of 1/2 inch clear oak (red this time) for pretty cheap, and it turns out to be a lot let expensive to do it that way. Actually about half the price. As some of you may realize, I had originally planned to plank it in oak, but I had gone away from it because, yep you guessed it, I was too cheap. Several hundred dollars in the burn pile latter...

So good news so far. A little behind schedule and slightly over budget but I'm planning to make it up. I have a new boiler design that will not only make it easier to build but be cheaper too. I wonder how long it will take for me to learn my lesson this time. Until then...