Semi Dory Boat Project Plank Truss Pattern

Here is the truss pattern that I have made up to get the shape for the garboard planks.  I am using 1/4" x 1/2" pine scarfed together for the long battens.  The cross pieces are secured with hot glue.  This may be a mistake but I could not get my staple gun to penetrate this wood with a 1/2"staple.  For the remaining plank patterns, I will need to remove the cross pieces, reposition the battens and glue the cross pieces to the new shape.  I am hopeful this process works.  It appears to be more accurate for hobby boatbuilders than the spiling method.

Turbo Oars

I really like John Murray's ideas on rowing and especially oar design for non-racing type rowboats.  Over the winter I built his Turbo oar design with cedar shafts and a laminated curved oar blade with a carbon fiber surface.  I will be able to try them out soon.  All I need to do is make some oar leathers.

Solid Color Deck Stain and Protecting

On Friday, I had ASAP Painting professionally clean our deck.  They did a great job in preparation work including clearing out all the grooves between boards.  On Saturday, they applied Behr solid color stain in barn red to the deck and it looks great.  This is 10 year protection but ASAP said we could expect 8 years before having to do again.  We will see.  It was a bit expensive but it turned out better than I could have done and they did it very quick.  They completed the staining in 2 hours.  It would have taken me 2 weeks of working small sections at a time.  Also it provided work for a local professional.

Guideboat Deck Modification

Last summer I modified the decks on my Adirondack Guideboat.  I was not happy with the plywood deck and coaming that I had on it after I saw a great adirondack guideboat built by Chris Woodword and documented in the Woodenboat forum.  I removed the old decks and replaced with cedar.  I think the result was much nicer.

New cedar deck:

Original marine plywood deck:

Nez Perce Boat

This is another boatbuilding project that I completed in 2012 but I never published to this blog.  I do have on Flickr.  Nez Perce Boat on Flickr

John Gardner's Car Top Semi Dory Boat

Here is the latest progress picture of a boat I am building.  It is John Gardner's car top semi dory and will be built by glued lapstrake planking using 5mm marine plywood.  I started this boat in Novemember 2013 where I built all the ribs using douglas fir wood.  I was not happy with how those ribs came out as douglas fir is very hard to work with so I started over using baltic birch plywood for the ribs.  The bottom board is 9mm marine plywood.  I will be posting more pictures as I go because the weather is now warming up.  The boat is also taking shape as I recently set up all the ribs and made a backbone structure.  I will be planking using a truss template method.  I hope to get video of this process because I think it will make glued lapstrake building easier for people.

Wooden Bandsaw Completed

I realized that I never published a picture of my completed wooden bandsaw. Here it is.

 

Throw 1 Thing Out A Day

I started something in 2012 when I decided I had too much clutter in the house. I decided to throw out at least 1 item per day. I printed out a calendar and wrote what I threw out that day. It did add up quickly. I stopped in March 2013 as it is easy to forget about it. In January my Dad passed and now we are clearing out his house. It is amazing how much stuff can accumulate over 34 years he was in the house. It has taught me to keep clutter to an absolute minimum. It has also taught me about how much time is spent accumulating things. I spend time researching items and then buying them only to find out they are not really used that much. Now I have to find a way to get rid of them and take a loss too. This is where I am now back to my "Throw 1 Thing Out A Day" plan. I plan to make up for all the months I missed in 2013 which means instead of throwing out 30 items per month, I will throw out around 50 or more. I also have a great reminder from my Dad's house to just not buy things that are really not needed in the first place. It is hard to part with some things since there are family attachments to some items. But if stuff is just out of sight, not used, and collecting dust it becomes just clutter. It does feel good to get rid of unnecessary things. We have a small home and it is good to have lots of space left that does not need to be filled up. Also if we move, it won't be as hard to pack up. Another idea that I use is to create a "30 Day Buy List". If I find I want to buy something, I will put on the list. If after 30 days I still really need it, then I will research it more and get it. If not, it will get crossed off the list as not needed.