Wednesday, November 9, 2016

First we make a model


When I started studying wooden boat making earlier this year at Livia in Pargas I wanted to make a motorboat. I had a vision of the look and size so I started to study what there is on the market and what kind of drawing would be available. I didn't really find what I was looking for, so I decided to look for some suitable boat design software to start drawing the boat myself. One of the older students had used DELFTShip for his project so I decided to download it and give it a try. After several long evenings and weekends I had produced something I could present to my teacher.  


After some iterations he told me it would be a good idea to start with a 1:10 model of the boat. It would be easier to visualize the shapes of the boat and a good learning on how to build the full scale boat. And a lot cheaper to practice on 1:10 scale than on full scale.

On the autumn break I started to build the model. The idea was to simulate as much as possible the building of the full scale boat. I started with building the stand. I had suitable material from my last strip kayak project. The rest of the material I bought from Levy-Jaati in Turku, 1 and 2 mm plywood. Cutting the frames was easy with a small band saw and the strips with a sharp knife.


 

Next step was to start gluing everything together. A fast tool for this was a hot glue gun, it's fast and you are able to fix if something goes wrong. Just use the hair dryer, auch I never asked if it's ok to take it to the garage.
 


After removing the clams all parts stayed together and the whole skeleton was really stiff.
Now it was already possible to check the shape and fine tune some parts before mounting the boards.
 


A few more steps and we had the inner hull and the deck also mounted. The steering console and the engine I carved from some small pieces of XPS foam from Finnfoam. The seats I made from some small pieces of a yoga mat.


Last step was then to varnish the hull and add some paint on the bottom, engine and steering console. It was difficult to choose the color for the engine as I think all colors are associated with some outboard brand. The matt black color doesn't mean M.....


If you are curious to see the boat live you have your chance this weekend 10-13.11 at Venexpo boat exhibition in Turku at Livias stand C/43. Welcome.

After the exhibition we will continue in full scale.


The stand is ready and so are most of the frames.
 

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The boat is taking shape

We have been building the first boat now for about 6 week and it starts to look like a boat, a bigger boat than I first thought. We have already learned a lot about building a traditional wooden boat and there will be a lot more to learn before it is ready.



As soon as we got the boat turned around on its keel and the first planks fastened we started to impregnate the boat with linseed oil. The last thing every week has been to clean up the boat from all chips and sawdust and then brush on some linseed oil. There will be a lot of oil needed. The linseed oil we get from GVK Coating Technology Oy.  









 
Last week we learned how to make a joint. Now we know how to make a simple one but there will be more variants to learn.


Riveting is also practiced a couple of hundred times, but is still far from perfect.



 

The transom has also started to get its shape. I think it will look great when it will be ready. Slightly bent in standing planking or strips. I don't know when narrow planks will be strips.



To ensure there is enough to do I have been planning my own boat project in the background. The first plans already exist in both digital format and as a paper print-out. Designing a boat on the computer in 3D is something totally new to me and I have used more hours on it than I thought would be needed. Seems that everything needs some practicing.


More interesting pictures of my own boat project will be posted shortly. I have still not any project name for this boat so if you have a good one, please suggest.

I have got feedback that I should post more pictures and more frequently. I'll try to fulfill your wishes.