Pico Boating: Templates to Frames

Honestly, I’m not much of one to do work around the house.  I find it unsatisfying and boring.  For me there’s only modest joy in repairing a leaking sink, other than to think I saved a few hundred dollars by doing it myself.   But I do it because it is the right thing to do.   It’s my part of the contract in marriage. 😉  So, I spent the morning repairing the lattice on the fence, shopping for groceries, replacing the trap in the sink in the kitchen, and mowing the front yard.

The afternoon was mine.   Within a couple of hours I’d arranged the frame templates on the sheets of plywood in such as a way as to minimize waste.  After tracing, I cut out all three frames and both the bow and stern transoms.

The bow transom:

And this is the next frame back, Frame A.  It will have access hatches to the space between A and the transom.

Next is Frame B, which will have most of the center of it cut out for the “living space” inside.  In order to fit the frame onto a sheet of plywood with splicing I left the cabin section off.   I dont think I’ll need it, but if I do for the build I’ll just screw a panel on the extend what’s there.

Frame C will be at my back as I sit in the cabin.  I’ll need to butt splice the bottom of the frame on, since the frame is too big for a sheet of plywood.

And finally, the Aft Transom.

I couldn’t resist layout out  of a few of the pieces.. center beam, and the two transoms.

 

I’ll slant the upper cabin house sides in later.  I just cut them vertically for now.  The plans call for a 5% slant, but I didn’t have the tools to do that down at the cabin in Manzanita.

I’ve completed a couple of boats.. my Escargot and a 3 Meter Sailboat.  I’ve had a couple of incomplete boats as well.   And while the boats I completed, especially the Escargot, saw an amazing amount of use, I’ve never been totally happy with the quality of my work.  I’ll cut myself a great deal of slack, as my son had a large number of challenges, especially medically, that took a great deal of time and emotional energy.  I also had a work situation that was very challenging.  Boat building was fit into the spaces in-between those demands.

I’ve always marveled at the amazingly clean boat building skills of a few projects I’ve seen online.   I’m very pragmatic, read that to mean rather more interested in getting things done than in being able to see my reflection in the absolute perfection of my bilge boards.  But I’m going to do all I can to enjoy the build process, to see the task as the build itself instead of getting it all done as soon as I can.

I’ll try.

For now.

 

Originally posted 2013-06-01 21:16:00.

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Author: Bryan Lowe

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