Week 27: Leveling Chines

After two weeks away, because of inconveniently rainy weekends, I was able to get back to work, to level the chines.

The general angle of the hull flare is around 16° or so, but I cut the chines, as per the plans, at 18°. Thus I needed to cut down the chine angle to as flat as reasonably possible so that I’ll be able to attach the bottom.

I had worried over the way that the hull sides and the chines and the transom all met, at both the port and starboard corners. I vacillated between (1) knocking down the sides to meet the transom and (2) gluing a shim on the bottom of the transom to meet the chines and sides.

I finally opted for knocking down the chines and sides. With the Shinto rasp that I bought, it turned out to be easier than I imagined.

I just started at the starboard side of the transom and worked my way around the boat. I had the rasp for rough work and then a sanding block with 100 grit for a finer gluing surface, using a straight stick across the boat as a reference for the final angle. It took a few hours, more or less, off and on, but it was satisfying work, producing a lot of shavings and sawdust along the way.

Since I had to clean off all the sawdust, I took the opportunity to clean and straighten the garage workshop. That was quite satisfying, too.

And, lastly, I weighed down the bottom plywood sheet on the hull assembly, since it was bowing and bending a bit from being propped up in the garage in the humidity.

Next steps are to finish laying out the cuts on the bottom plywood panel, then cutting it, and gluing the bow points back on in the right configuration.