Wilson Launch

currently the foam pices are being measured out for the surper structer adn the cut qand shaped to size. the superstructer needs to be covered in foam. the technique is press the foam aginst the desired sape the cut with a craft knife into the foam instead of using a pen as a pen will mark and damage te foam. once the foam is then cut to size it is time to shape it, this can be done with a tough 40gritt sand paper but is hard work and roughs up the foad, instead a plane can be used for a big job or a craft/ stanley knife to cut away larger pieces. then you need a 40 gritt sand followed by a 100 or 8 gritt to smooth it out. make sure all foam is laybled and stored correctly in the cubbard afterwards. for getting the curved surfaces covered with foam you must cut the foam into thin long strips the cover the mould with plastic so the bog desnto stick to the surface. then put the other bits of foam into place so there is no movement. make sure the foam is not springing up and pulling off the mould as this will be wrong and dstrought during the dry run, it can be pressed down with clamps, wood strips srewed into other areas on window fitting and weights to aviod sprining. then you must mix up a peanut butter texture bog and apply to bog on both tuching surfaces for optiu stick. then leave over night to dry/ cure.

Small Craft (2.5 Meter Dinghy)

today was the first day of building a small craft, the small craft we are building in our group of four is the 2.5 meter dinghy which we all lofted befor we went into drawing. the steps all started today by creating a timeline.

I must say we made up our timeline as we went along today, we didnt relally hve an idea of whct to put in thier apart from 'Mile stones' and we didnt even know our end date of finishing.

we anaged to get alot of other jobs doen today which required doing such as getting our strong back (frame that we bild dinghy on) level and screwed intot he ground. the only job lef to do on the strong back is to put supporting beams along the beam of it at all of the station spacings so the leggs of our frames can be attatche to them, the beams will have to be set back 20mills fromt the line as that is the thickness of the leggs and the frames will have to be set fwd or aft depending on their placing due to the dinghys curve shape on the hull. the center line has been set with a piece of string.

also the wood for the frame has all been dressed and squared, it was a rough sawn pine but now that we have planner thicknessed it and planned the sides of it it has turned out really nocely and seams like a waste to be sing on just a frame which will be destroyed at the end. the prossess for working out how to transfur the lofiting of the stations onto the wood has been figured out. what needs to be done is the body plan is laied ou on the floor with a large sheet of MDF PLY wood underit to help protect the drawing and also the floor. put the timer frsame on the drawing an dthen mark out any lines which are intercepting the wood, then hammer nails on their side on at certian points were you want to see on the wood, then push down on the frome ontop of the nails, we havent pushed the frame ontop of the nails yet so we do not know the outcome, but it according to our trial runs, it should come out with lots of littlwe dents on were you want the lines to join up for the frame.
 

there is talk of further developing the transom and also the stem on the lofting to gain a further knoledge of how to buld the dinghy. that can be done while two guys work on building the frames inorder to save time.

the stem lofting was once again laied out on the floor and the stem was going to be ready to be develpoed. the stem developing involved drawing in the stem and showing the thickness's and placing s witgh the right curves.

once the stem was developed, there came a time to create the stem, this involved stripping the canadian yellow cider down into 8 5mm thick pieces about 1meter long, there was also an un-named hard wood also used as a cap on the inside for looks and protection. when it came to this stage, we had to screw down curved blocks of wood for thecurves and straight blocks of wood ovwer top of the plastic covered lofting which we could clamp the stem around. the stem wouldnt bend enough to fit around the curves we desired so we had to steem the wood, this was an easy prosses as it involved turning the steemer on and leaving the canadian cedier in their for no less than an hour. once the wood was steemed enough, it was bent around the desired shape and then clamped into poistion. this held for over 24hours not only to let the wood gain a new shape butalso to let the moisture dry out of the wood so it wouldnt cause rot or moisture damage problems in the future, when carrying the wood up from the steemer it has to be done quickly so the wood dose not hardern and cool down straight again. then we had to epoxy resin the stem to stick the thing together, we pumped the west systems epoxy and hardener to the 5:1 ratio and added glue powder untill it was at a thick enough level which it would stick really well, the apply the resin to both sides of the wood in even and thick enough paint brush strokes with the brush. then stick them togehter and then clamp back into place, then make sure the joints are not dry by watching the glue squeeze out from the layers of wood. then if not all flat, use a hammer and a piece of wood to flatten them out inline. then tighten fully with the clamps but not too tight to damage the stem which we did on the steeming prosess.

while all of this is going on, the frames are beig completed. once the nail marks were all transfured, then on the sander they were all faired out to the pencil marks which followed the nail marks and the gunwhatle and keelson also the chines were slit witth the band saw for ease of cuttng later. whicle this is being donethe frames are stuck back to back together.

then gussets were stuck on to the pieces wile still stuck together back to back.

then the keelson gussets were added when the frames were spit and then the cross spauls added also,

the legs soon followed

all the legs were to a certain height which ment that the frames would be the same correct height, the legs were made of offcut pine.

the gussets were of cheap crappy ply wood from the marine ply wood delivery for the forklift not damage the good wood. it looked crap but when cut down to a smaller size it was stronger and less flexable which made it ok to use.

all if the joints were nailed together with the aid of PVA glue which made them extra strong.

there were even extra gussets added for the leggs so it wouldnt wobble around.

these frames may look a little rough but the sure do the job.

The frames were re-inforced after much trial and disscusion as they were up for the job just not up for any job, we wanted them to be extra strong as we couldnt afford cock ups to come and if one of the frames came out of line then the whole boat would buggered.

there were many extra cross spauls and timber from frame to frame screwed in for this extra support and after these were all put inplace , ... she could with stand a hurricane.

then we begain cutting out the spaces for the keelson, this was done with hand saws and chizels, this was done by carving out the egsosting outlines which were drawn on frm the lofting plan with the nails earlier. when this was beig done, you would stop when you think youve carved out out .. or just be fore you think youve carved out the area for the chin and put a battern through the areas to see how the chine would fit in.

when these were both done on each side, the frames needed to be faired out to the angle of boats hull, the angles were taken off the lofting and were differant for each station/frame.

while this was being done, the transom was slowly comming to life. the transome was draw out on its ply wood self in pencil from the transom lofting. once all the lines were drawn on such as the LWL and the WL150, then the calculations for the thickness of the transome was needed to be taken inot account, these turned out to be a toatl of 26mm. this was transfured to the transom in the form of lines, then the fasion pieses werre needing to be cut to size and then joined on, the joins used were mortis tennon joints. the fasion pieses are their for future joins needing tobe made and for extra strenght.

The stem was taken out of its clams and the blocks which managd to get expoy rsin on them were bashed of in a calm and colected manner and then put through the speed sander nd the groves for the chine and keelson were also taken out with chizels,

the transom was then cut down within a milimeter or two of the intended transom shape lines with a jig saw. I notced you need tobe very careful using htis machine as you can cut your fingers easy as you cannot see the blade. 



then the fasion piecess were epoy resined into place which were a few mills over the desired transom lines shape. making sure plenty of epoxy was used and their were no dry joints. then there was a piece of ply put on over top and two heavy batteries were used to apply preasur eot the joints as clamping would have damaged the joint.

then after 24 hours to cure, the transome was then fared down on the face sander to the true transom shape.

then began the task of creating the frame for holding the nw transom on its 15 degree angle at the stern of the boat.

the wood transoms frame was tow bits of timber on a 15 degree angle with gusset re-inorcments. the WL150 was also marked on the frame and a timber bit was put in its place to mark up with the WL150 on the transom which was supported by two bits of short timber angled for support on the top fasion pieses.

the frame has nt been put into place yet but should be simple enogh.

the keelson and te chines were being steemed in the stemer for two hours as the chines are quite beefy,. these were then run upstars to the boat and clamped into place before they lost their heat and flexy-ness. the next day the clamps were removed and the timber held its new shape quite well.

the next step was to then glue the keelson and chines in place. the reason the gunwhale was not glued s because it is an outwhale and is on the outside of the topsides. the transome ends were carved out to create a joint for the chines and keelson to join into .

the chines and the gunwhale is clamped into place with a epoxy resin was used to glue it into place, on certain stations there was a block with a screw through it to protect the chines and hold them in. the glue set over night and was ready to be cleaned up in the morning.

the topsides and bottom panels of the boat were ready to be cut out and put into place, we decided to create templates and then oncewe were happy with these we would sketch this onto the ply and then cut it out with a jig saw. this was done with a thin piece of custom wood laied and tacked onto the frames with a center line. then rule a line on each station and measure the distance from either the keelson center to the middle line then from the center line to the chine edge which is from the bottomm, the topside pannels are then measured from the center line to the chine edge or from the centerline tothe sheer line., then this piece of custom wood is laied on a large bit which is then like lofting, nails are placed at all of the ponts and a battern is placed across them to gaint he desired shape. then cut this out on the band saw and then place on the boat to see f all of the curves match up. when they did, trace the template onto the ply and then cut with the jig saw out.

breast hooks

Breast Hook: 'Bow shaped' timbers used to strengthen the bows of a ship, positioned horizontally at different heights across the stem. A breast hook would be located below each deck and the deck planking would be supported by and rabbeted onto this timber.http://www.ageofsail.net/aoshipwd.asp?sletter=breast%20hook;iword=1



the breast hook was created in the same way the stem was.

the topsde pannels were going to have to be a bit linger inorder ito fit the side of the boat. so they needed to be scarffed.

scarfing is were you join two bts of timber together on angles. you need to go to the ratio of 7 :1 for optimum suport.

clamp your ply on a flat surface one on top of each other and one set back a bit at the right measurmnet and start planning on an angle.
make sure you can see all of the layers of ply and they are even, if they arnt even then it is bumpy and nota flat surface.

once these pannels were glued togethe rwith epoxy, they were shaped to the rough shape needed to be, ten once this was done there needed to be scarfed box joint created at the bow of the craft to connect the topsides to the bottom whre the bow gets really steap and goes almost flat.

this was done by finding a point where thetopside and bottom goes really flat and then mark it on each side, then measure and cut down half way of the measurment of the chine so both sidesare 20mm down.

then all of the pannels needed to be glued into place. this was done by putting epoxy on the chines, stem and keelson. the pannels mostly fit properly around the frames apart from one or two places were nails were tacked nto to push it on other than that, the pannels were all tacked onto place with nails to hold it while the glue set.

the bow was planned back inorder for the cap on the hull to be put in place.  timber was glued around the stem and along the keelson and onto the skeg. this hard wood cap was inplace to minimalise damge when pulling it up on a beach or concreate ramp.

the skeg was created also. the skeg is sort of small fin keel that is level on the boat when its in the water. this skeg is also for protection witbh a hard wood cap. itcan also provide stabler motoring and when being towed as it rocks around less and goes in a straighter line.


the hull wAs also covered in epoxy to create more strenght and water tightness.

the thoughts were created which were three pieces of timber which had to be 7 inches from the sheerline, and a forearm with a fist away fron the rowlock.

the thoughts are laminated orogean and mahogany strips running through it.


***

AutoCAD

Auto CAD started off slowly as it took me some getting use to drawing with a mouse on a computer screen. the first task was to draw a house, a simple sqaure house which seamed to look easy, it was hard for only the first few minutes which i was quite suprized at as i tought it was gong to be much much harder and frustrating. after the first few minutes i gained enough koledge to comfortably start working away. so what im trying to say is once you got the hang of it, it was no longer a challenge.

this AUTOCAD was differant to our other class learning experiance as we had to take down our own notes which was fine.

after we designed this house, we were then set the challenge of drawing up a snubbing knob which is the peice on the front of your trailer which your boats bow fits into when being whinched out onto the trailer that stops the boat in its final wind up. this was much more of a challenge as angles and cuircles were involved more and to a difficulter degree. this tested att of our new skills which mainly consised of setting up the page for working on.

i had a bit of a mess about on the AUTOCAD and tried designing soem power boats, i gave it a good crack espesily on an eight meter design with many curves which actully turned out to be a little beauty.

then was the task of drawing out the arn which secures the shaftdrive to the bottom of the hull. this was easy as it eas mostly straight lines with basic curves which was done within minutes.

Day 2 turned out to be much more of a challenge.

we were all given the task of drawing up our oilstone boxs which we had already built. this was good to draw something which we already new about and had experiance dealing with. the oilstone box was easy enough to draw as most of the dimentions were already given to us. the harder parts were the bits were the dimentions were not given as you needed to find the scale of the drawing which was in the tital block and useing a scale rule, measureing out the disatance and changing it acordingly. the newest and challenging part for me was the dotted outline of the stone which was hidden. having to draw a dotted line was meanign i had to go up to the task bar and Turn on the little light next to the dotted line and select the write layer...trust me this took a lot longer to do than it sounds.

The Toolbox was given out as the next task to draw. the toolbox was very simplisticc to draw as most lines were straight and all meet up acordingly. the hard part came when the curve at the top od the back had to be completed. this was dificult due to the amount of practice I have ad at it. first you need to outline a cricle around the sharp point to isolate the little 'V' shape at the end to tell where the lines would keep going if they did. then all that remained was to bring back and shorten the lines up a bit and then put a radius of 20 on it. this was simple as you just click the radius button, type in R 'ENTER' then '20' then select the desired lines and it creates the arc at the right radius. then get rid of that curcle remailing by selecting it the pressing the 'DLE' button which got rid of it. the real hard task was to come. it was time to draw the tool box in isometric. watching the teacher draw a demo on the 'SMARTBOARD' was very confusng and hard to take all in. but once I got under way with it, it wasnt so bad. the hardest part was getting that curve on the back, just like the 2D toolbox. but with the isometric view you needed to create a box and get the mddle point by putting a line through it. then pressing 'EL' 'ENTER' 'L' 'ENTER' on the key board and then calso type '20' twice which made the 40 by 40 square fill up right to the edgeswhich was perfict. then highligt the hole box and circle and click 'M' 'ENTER' and the clicked on the little green shap which comes up and then drag it over the the desired point, the desired point id the top point of the box lining up with the top line on the sqare and then moved over to the left so the other side of the circle was touching also, the copy the sqaure and circle with the copy buttion on the right and copy it over to the nex side. then once its all lined up and you are happy, remove the egisiting lines awy by by using the trim buttion---which i dint undersatnd and it didnt work for me so  jst used the break button which works by selecting two points and then it gets rid on the parts in the middle. this was was quite time consuming which im sure i will try learn a better way tomorro. once the hard part was done most of the box designing involved coping lines and basic line drawings.

we also printed this off and learnd that you cannot always see you mistakes on the computor, like numbers too small, lines not matching and other angled shapes....real jokers stuff.

also itook down many notes which consisted of setting up the printer, new short cuts isometirc work and setting circles up:

today on day three of AutoCAD we were given a drawing with the measurements done incorrectly. it was up to us to re-draw and re-measure this drawing. the drawing was in a 1:1 scake on the origonal paper so all that was needed to be done was use the scale rule which gave me all the crooect measurements needeed to complete the drawing. the drawing was a 1:1 scale of a 'Pindle and Gudgeon' which is used on the rudder and the stern of a sail yacht which is used to pivot the rudder on the center pont of the stern.

 

the next item which needed to be drawn was a rudder...

the rudder consisted of curves and angles which didnt seam to be a problem for me at first, at frist I just used the normal curved method and when t came do re-measuring and checking my creation, it was wrong. the real way to create those curves consisted of drawing many curcles and lineing tem up with already constructed shapes which when you had a grasp on it, it was alot easier, but in the starting prosess it was hard and mistakes were made frequently. the rest of the drawing was quite basic and simple as once you know how to do something, you can apply it in many areas, such as coping boxs and reflecting shapes.

After this rudder we had to put our boay plan on to AutoCAD. this boady plan was from our 7.3M yacht desigh which we had draw out onto paper. this was easy as yu just create a gridd like on the paper from the table of offsetts provied and away you we,nt , just like int he drawing and even lofting. there is a special tool you can use to create the curves on the table of offset points called a spline, this spline was quite useful but also quit confusing if you put a point wrong somewere or on another point.

another challenge which was given was we were all given a table of offsets for a round bilge boat, to go on one side of the drawing and a hard chined boat to go onto the other. then we were told to create a frame around the topsides and hull to make it seam like we were going to build the hull and then had to trim all the extra lines away to crate the frame with all of the cross spaulls, gussits, legs and other things.




body plan, frame of 7.3