Bless my Sole

 Chris and Gerard came round this morning to give me a hand with putting the jig together.

I hadn't sanded the tabs down, and it took us a while.

It was a huge help, having two extra pairs of hands sanding, then holding bits, and two extra brains interpreting the 3d jigsaw puzzle of pieces. 

I think we got it right. And square, and level. It is  very solid structure. And you start to get an idea of the dimensions of the boat.

After Chris and Gerard left I spent the afternoon doubling up screws and adding some cleats to screw the sole onto. And, after a huge amount of fussing, measuring, and remeasuring, I finally screwed some holes through the bottom and fixed the sole to the jig. I am very happy with the day's progress.

So, I have completed "Stage 1" of the build manual. Howard Rice, who has probably built more SCAMPS and sailed further in a SCAMP than anyone, very kindly gave me a zoom tour of the two Scamps he is currently completing in Japan, and gave me lots of good advice on how to proceed. Meanwhile the centreboard, my least favourite task so far, has received its first fibreglass coat, and bushings and graphite powder to complete the centreboard structure are on order.

I have been really touched by the amount of assistance I have received so far on the build. I really feel like the force is with me for this one.

Silly old luggers

 WBA Sailing Day on Sunday last, and the four boats on the water were all luggers.  Now that might be a first. 

Krzyztof was there with his lovely "Delores", a Salmo 15-s, a Polish design a which reminded me a bit of the Ilur, with its straight stem and full front section. A fine looking craft indeed.   Gavan came along with "Tosh", an Oughtred Little Tern, and Kelvin and Palz were there with "Lily", a Nick Atkins design.    Unfortnuately we didn't get all four luggers in the one frame at the one time, would have been a great shot.

It was a lovely gentle sailing day, just enough wind to keep you motivated.  Something about a newly launched boat that seems to bring out a special smile in the builder.

Taking it to a new level

 I found yesterday's epoxying bits down at floor level hard going. Today I got a pair of cheap folding saw horse frames from Bunnings. Much better. Less surface to epoxy today too, as you don't epoxy the other side of the sole nor the inside of the centreboard case at this stage.

Much better! 

The centreboard is a monster and far from perfect shapewise, but just so long as I avoid sailing with other SCAMPS I will never know. I am sure this one will be moderately effective so it will do.And maybe one day I can make a proper NACA one. Tomorrow I will make a frame so I can put the first covering of fibreglass on. 

Meanwhile the roofers appeared today. By Friday I hope to have some more space so I can put the jig together.

A ripper of a day.

 

The SCAMP manual suggests you have 40 feet of 20x30 mm cleat/scantling clear stock ripped for the first stage of the build. Harald up the road gave me a lovely chunk of oregon, and Campbell very kindly offered to rip it for me.  So yesterday morning we took the beam around and used Campbell's industrial scale table saw, dust extractor and skill to produce 6 lovely pieces. I really would have struggled with my cheapo table saw and with managing the weight of the beam to get the cutting done.  It was a real boost to get this job done, and so nicely too!

Energised by this early win, I came home and started what I am sure is going to be a long epoxying journey.  I put a coat on one side of  the bits I need for the first step. The novelty wore of remarkably quickly, and I made fairly heavy weather of it. My estimating of the amounts required I hope will get better, I wound up having to mix three batches of epoxy to cover the pieces.  I figure that I am 25% of the way through the epoxying for the first stage /// minus the sanding.  Sigh.

An annoying moth refused to move from the side plank.  He was gone this morning thank heavens, I can fill that bit in next coating.

Today's good news is that the roof plumbers have arrived.  Burly tradies are clumping around on the roof, and if the rain holds off, I might get some extra covered dry space to work under. Yay.

First the exam, then the lesson

 

The CNC cut kit has puzzle joints to scarf together side planks and hull bottom panel, plus some other critical bits.  My experience with scarfing ply on other boat, using 5:1 scarf joints, has not been fantastic- always a bit dubious and bumpy. 

The SCAMP manual says, in large font: " Don't try to test fit the puzzle joints". In other words, you only get one shot at this. First the exam, then the lesson.

I set up to join the side planks, six joints. Lots of plastic. Lots of anxious sanding and fussing. It actually went pretty well, tho I needed a mallet to tap down a few of the fingers. And my batch of epoxy went off before I finished, I was taking so long. 

Next day I could sand back and bingo I have the side planks done. The best scarf joints I have ever done and I don't have to worry whether I have aligned the ends right. I like this cnc caper.

Encouraged, I did the bottom sheet yesterday. 

Meanwhile rain was forecast so I put together the base legs for the jig, so I could get the mdf pieces up off the ground.

The manual suggests building the centreboard first so you can tailor the centreboard case to fit. So, the centreboard epic continues. I laminated one out of various hardwoods, which I happened to have around. Not surprisingly it is extremely hard to work. Routing out a cavity for the lead was a workout. I got a roll lead sheet from Bunnings, poured epoxy round it, and I have been topping the gap up with left over epoxy as I go. 

I am not super confident this will work but I can always make one out of ply if it doesn't.

I can see some serious sanding I my future.

Sail and build

 

My plan for this year is to sail on the good sailing days and build the SCAMP on the not so good days. Well, get out least once a week with luck. So far so good. On Tuesday I met Andrew with his laser down at AYC. He had opened the club house, got the keys for the gate, then lost his door card. I called Sandra who lives locally, she came down, and opened the building again.

I asked if she wanted a sail, and what do you know, she had a set of sailing clothes on her car. Got to admire that for style. The wind was gusting well over 15 knots, probably not the best day to introduce someone to a new boat, new rig and push pull tiller, but she is a natural sailor and took it all in her stride. A good blast over to Williamstown Beach and back, a really good outing.

Andrew found his card the next day, hiding in the long grass. He suggested another sail, one on which he could relax and enjoy sailing without worrying where the card might have got to. We got out on Thursday, a beautiful autumn day, with almost no wind. I like those days, the reflections on the water are mesmerising. I rowed most of the way out to the reef marker. The water was super clear,and I  enjoyed the slow glide back in at about 1.5 knots, watching the underwater world slip past.

Jim who has been doing the cnc cutting called saying the kit was ready to collect. I also collected fibreglass, epoxy and screws.

I spent a happy few hours today cutting the tabs to free the pieces and sanding the fluff round the edges.  It is time consuming but I am heartily glad I got the cnc file!  I learned after my first rush to carefully identify each piece in the manual and write that in pencil on the piece ... it would not be good to confuse the plank pieces. I found my Japanese saw the best tool for cutting tabs. 

On the way back from Ozzie's walk this morning I bumped into a neighbour up the street who has his house for sale. Via the neighbourhood network he had heard of my boat building and he had a bunch of wood he wants to get rid of. I got some nice and some ok Oregon, with another nice big piece waiting to be extracted from his pile, all for a slab of VB. I feel like the force is with me!

Flat pack

 

The ply arrived. Can it turn into a boat? Ozzie is extremely sceptical.

I have taken it and some incredibly heavy mdf sheets round to Jim at the Dinghy shop who has a cnc cutting machine. Hopefully next week they return with the 70 plus parts precision cut into them. 

The manual says to make the centreboard first so I have been working away on that.  I had no ply, and thought I would try a lamination. This is left over Oregon, Tas ash, and Messmate. It is heavy and hard, and sure takes a while to shape. My technique with using the router and a jig is getting better. I mananaged to run the router through the wall of the jig a few times but I have worked it out now. Proving the maxim that you have the skills when you finish a job that ideally you should have had when you started. Oh well. I think it will work.

Meanwhile my theoretical approach is I will get out on the water on the nice days, and build on the not so nice days. Lovely day earlier this week, autumn on the Bay is magic.

And maybe a glimpse of the past and the future from Dale Simonson, who took this lovely photo of Derry sailing next to Mat Conboy's Salty Dog the Scamp off Simpson's point.