Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

OK, we ordered the plans for the FB11 a while ago and the plywood and epoxy and other things are on the way. In preparation, and to brush up on wood work, I made a pair of oars, a test stitch and glue box, and the "Ditty Bag" described in The Sailmaker's Apprentice.

The ultimate aim is to build the FB11 as a warm-up project for a VG20 or VG23. And store it nested as a tender for the VG23 in future if we can fit that boat build in the garage.

Here are a few pics.








Never done any epoxy work before so I decided to epoxy the oars (the hand grips are left unfinished) It wasn't perfect and messier than I imagined to start with. And I screwed up the painting (spray enamel) but after a lot of sanding, I'm more or less happy with the oars and the leathers.

Looking forward to getting cracking on the boat itself.

Mick

You will do fine. While it is nice to have someone teach you epoxy tricks the best way to learn is by doing. Good news is a sander can fix almost all screw ups. Bad news is you have to run the sander

Fuzz wrote: ↑Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:27 pm You will do fine. While it is nice to have someone teach you epoxy tricks the best way to learn is by doing. Good news is a sander can fix almost all screw ups. Bad news is you have to run the sander

Thanks for the positive words. Yes, I'm looking forward to it. Like you say, the best way to learn is by doing, and making your own mistakes once, and then hopefully not repeating them too many times afterwards!

Mick

In preparation for the plywood arriving, I built a scale model of the FB11 from paper, with a few planned changes to the original design. This was mainly to check how the boat would look when nested with the changes. These included

Added 10cm / 4" to the freeboard
Covered fore-deck (with storage under) - not sure how deep just yet.
Possible short boom - will test-sail first before any decision to add a jib.

Was only supposed to be a quick model from paper but I got a bit carried away.



But looks good nested.



Took a couple of hours and just before I got finished, the plywood arrived - all in good shape.

Time to start joining the ply and actually building the real thing.

Mick

Did my first butt joint, and it was mostly successful. A couple of very small places where the epoxy didn't bond perfectly, or I didn't wet out sufficiently (white spots), but overall I was happy. I did an "over the knee test" on a small portion of scrap 6mm ply and it broke well away from the butt joint, so I'm resonably confident it has worked out as planned. After the joint cured for 24 hours I used a thin strip of wood as a batten and marked out the curves of the bottom panels and am ready for cutting these tomorrow (after I've checked the dimensions for the third time!).



The second butt joint is curing now and I'm hoping to have the main hull shape formed up by the end of the weekend.

Mick

FB11 hull after stitching together. A few places where my cutting ran out and and the pieces didn't align perfectly (should have practiced more with the new mini circular saw before jumping in) , but all in all I'm very happy with it up to now. The diagonals are bang on so I must be doing something right. Bending the ply to shape was a real challenge at the bow and I used steel wire to hold things together in a couple of places after the copper kept snapping under strain. I used 3/8 ply for the bow "transom" but the rest is 1/4 inch. After this photo was taken I put in some putty fillets in a few places to stiffen things up and will flip the boat tomorrow to start on the bottom.

I haven't decided on whether to put in a sloping foredeck so the bow "transom" still needs cutting down either flat or to a shallow point and the stern transom needs a nice curve shape also. After raising the freeboard, I need to somehow test if the middle seat needs lowering slightly for comfortable rowing.

Looking forward to seeing how things progress over the next week.

Nice!

Love those oars and the boat's coming together nicely!

VT_Jeff wrote: ↑Mon Feb 28, 2022 11:50 am Love those oars and the boat's coming together nicely!

Yep, all good. Yesterday I made a rudder and daggerboard out of some 8" wide mahogany (actually 7 1/4 inch) - I'd been worried about this part but it went quicker than I imagined. Here they are ready for a first coat of epoxy which should bring the colour out nicely I hope. I ordered pintles and gudgeons too.



Today I glued pieces of 1/4 inch ply together to make 1/2 inch thick seats and I also finished filleting the seams and removed all the copper wire from the hull. I will hopefully be able to start on taping the inside seams tomorrow.

Mick

I sanded the numerous drips and splashes off the ouside of the hull and then lightly planed the lines with a block plane and then taped the three long bottom joints...long job and I almost certainly used too much resin (boat is noticably heavier than when I started!), but it seems to be a decent tape-to-wood bond. At least I'm becoming a little less messy with practice.



Mick