Dingy Building, Part 1

This is the dingy I decided to build for the Lady J.  It is a 10 foot Nuthatch Pram, designed by Warren Messer.  I chose this design from others that I found at duckworksmagazine.com, an online boating magazine that specializes in amateur built small craft.  Warren provides for free a scale model of this boat that prints on a regular sheet of paper.  After glueing it to card stock, you can cut out the panels and tape them together.  This is essentially how the real boat is built, using a technique called "stitch & glue".

I ordered the plans, which came on line and downloaded them to my computer.  The first step was to make a building platform.  Three sets of saw horses with 10' 2x6s screwed down made a sturdy and level platform.

Building a 10 foot boat from 8 foot plywood requires some extra work.  I had sold my panel stretcher along with my former tools, so I had to lengthen the panels the old fashioned way.  How to add 2 feet to a panel?  For maximum strength and style points, scarfing is the recommended way.  The scarf has to be a 12 to 1 ratio, so for a 1/4 inch panel, I needed 3 inches of scarf.  I placed two full size sheets and two 27 inch panels together, matching good and bad sides, with a 3 inch overlap between each piece.  Everything was held in place with a few drywall screws.  The narrow strip at the top was a guide piece to keep the proper angle.  After sharpening the blade of the plane, I proceeded to shave away the excess wood.

Three hours later, the job was complete.  The lines from the various plies helped keep things in line and even.  I felt like some old world master craftsman.

I think Norm Abrams would be proud of me.  The scarfs were then properly aligned, then glued and clamped together with West System epoxy and allowed to set for two days.  The panels were atop one another, separated by wax paper to keep things from sticking together.

The scarfed panels were then placed on the work table, good side to good side. With marine grade plywood, "bad" is a relative term.  My wood was A/B grade, meaning one side was clean, and the other had a few patches in it.  You can see a patch just below the plans in this picture.  With the panels aligned, it was time to transfer the measurements from the plans to the panels.  Grid marks were made on the sides every 12 inches, then "tick" marks were made down from the edge.

I clamped a 4 foot rule for accuracy, and double checked each mark.  I placed drywall screws outside the lines of the panels into the work platform to keep everything aligned.

All the "tick" marks represent curves.  I drove small finishing nails into each mark, then clamped a long batten to them.  The batten will conform to a smooth curve. There are always small errors in measuring the marks from the plans.  So some nails are adjusted to match the curve of the batten, and then the line is drawn.

When I was satisfied with the lines, it was time to cut the parts out.  I bought a new blade for the saw, set the depth to just below the wood, and carefully cut the outside of the line.  The 2x6s below the panels allow for this.  After cutting, I finished up with the plane and sander to true up the cuts.

Here is where the "stitch" comes to  play.  I am working on the bottom panels, still atop one another.  Holes are drilled every foot or so along the edge that will become the centerline of the boat. Wire is place through the holes, and tightened.  The screwdriver allows a gap and prevents over-tightening. 

With a small fanfare, the panels are opened up and spread apart.  The curve at the front force the pieces up as it spreads out.  I placed short 1/4 inch bolts and washers here and there to maintain the gap between the panels, as the curves wanted to overlap each other.  

The side and end panels were stitched in place the same way.  The cross beam was screwed in place to maintain the proper shape through out construction.  I spent some time adjusting the bow piece after  this was taken to make a better fit.  Grandson Miles said "Papa, it looks like a boat!"  I guess I'm on the right track.

When I got the panels aligned to my satisfaction, I leveled and stabilized the boat with bracing from the platform.  Now came the Glue part of construction.  Clear packing tape was placed along the outside of each seam.  Epoxy is thickened to a peanut butter consistency and spread in the gaps between the wires and bolts.  Then it is spread to make a smooth radius.  Excess epoxy is cleaned up right away since it is easier to scrape up now before it sets.  After this batch has set, the wires and screws are removed, and the remaining gaps filled and smoothed.  The next step will be sanding, then covering the seams with fiberglass tape.

The Beginning of a Dinghy

I eluded to the fact in a past post that Mike is building us a dinghy.  My first thought was isn’t one of us dinghys enough?  Yeah, yeah I know we need one that floats and will get us back and forth from the Lady J to the dock.  I float but refuse to haul things in the water.  So Mike has started building the Lady J’s dinghy.  

Now let’s put this all into perspective.  First we live in Ohio, second we sold our wonderful house which had an enormous workshop over the garage.  We now have a very small one car garage attached to our apartment.  And let me remind you again, we live in OHIO.  Where currently the temperatures are in the single digits and getting colder.  There is no heat in said garage only a very hard working kerosene heater and an even harder working man.  

Mike has been working steadily on this project between working part time at the airport doing snow removal (which often times is a 12 hour day when there is snowfall) and giving me an occasional hand with our 6 month old grandson.  Part of this week we had both grandsons.  It was wonderful having them both here at the same time.  Come to think of it Mike periodically would slip out to the garage to work when things where a bit, well shall we say “hectic” with the boys.  Hmmm good tactics sir.  Well I digress.

I don’t know all the technical terms and exactly what all this project entails so I will leave the specifics up to Mike to tell you about in a later post. I will though share some of the photos I have been able to take on how things are coming along.  To quote our 3 year old grandson “It’s looking like a boat Papa”.  Mike is doing an amazing job.   

It is amazing what he can do in such a small space.

It is starting to look like a dingy.

Panic attack!! Isn’t there a drug for that, oh wait I am already on it.

I was out this evening with my daughter, we’ve been diligently trying to go walk at the mall in the evenings after she gets home from work.  Exercise is needed to help with these winter doldrums. 

We occasionally talk about the plans of Mike and I leaving this summer.  Nothing too serious just discussing how she will handle our mail, our banking, what things she wants to use of ours while we are gone, you know things like that.  Tonight though we touched on the subject of who is going to miss whom first.  And I think we both decided it will be me.  Yes I am going to win that one hands down.  Not only miss her, but all our family and friends and of course those grandsons.  Don’t get me started on them.  Still trying to figure out how we can stow them aboard.  (Just kidding) 

I have to admit there have been a couple of nights I wake up in a panic thinking “what the

heck are we doing?” (yeah I cleaned that up a bit.)  As confident as Mike and I are of taking this journey there are no doubtably days where those second thoughts creep in our heads.  I mean think about it.  We sold our home that we both dearly loved and literally fixed up with our own blood, sweat and tears.  Sold more than half of our belongings, bought a boat that is almost older than I am and spent 2-1/2 years fixing her up.  And have poured the proceeds from the aforementioned sale of belongings into the boat.  We will have no home “on land” to come back to and will be leaving everyone we know and love behind.  Who the heck wouldn’t suffer the occasional panic attack.  

But then I remember that this is something Mike and I have been talking about for years and have spent the past 5 years working towards this journey.  After living on the boat most of last summer and cruising we know that we get along in “small quarters”, we can handle the boat and have more than figured out a lot of her quirks.  We have a few loose ends to tie up here but for the most part we are ready to go.  Even more ready after working our way through one more Ohio winter.  Being a snow bird is looking more and more appealing.  It is nice to know too that I (first mate) am not the only one who every once in a while has an “Oh shit what the hell are we doing” moment.  We also have some friends (Jeff and Sandy) that are also going through all of this too.  So at least we have someone to bank our anxiety off of. Okay it’s probably us women that are more anxious about this than the gentlemen. 

What I have to keep remembering is that we are not moving out of the country, we are literally either a car or plane ride away.  They rent apartments every day, plus we have friends and family that would put us up for at least a night or two.

 

Jacob (5 months)

Miles (3 years)

When it comes to the kids and grandsons well there is Skype, Facetime, visit’s back to Columbus and don’t they say you don’t really form memories until you are about 5.  So for those little guys we are good for a year or two.  But that doesn’t mean I (and Mike) won’t miss those two.

To our family and friends, know that yes we have those occasional “Oh my God are we doing the right thing” moments but in our hearts we know that this is what we want to do . Know that your love and support throughout all of this is what gets us through those unsure moments.  

Mike's side of the family

Jana's side of the family