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Even though the skiff is now fit to be sailed, there's more bits and pieces to make for
rowing and sailing. I've decided to build my own mast, spars, rudder, sail and oars.
Date |
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| 22-Aug-01 |
Stop by Welbeck and pick up 2
carriage bolts, threaded inserts and galvanised mending plates to use as thole pins as
well as 2 barrel bolts to use as pintles and gudgeons for the rudder. |
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7.39 |
24-Aug-01
Stern Wheel for transporting
Thole Pin Installation |
Fabricate and install the
thole pin and stern wheel. The stern wheel is just a caster that I've added to the
notch on the aft end of the skeg to allow the boat to be dragged along pavement etc.
I've decided to use thole pins rather than standard oar-locks. To make them,
I drilled a hole in the centre of the galvanised mending plates, making it a bit oblong so
that the carriage bolts can go through at an angle. Set the plates in place about
31" from the stern, and mark the holes for drilling. I drilled first for the
carriage bolts and made the hole big enough to put a threaded insert into. The holes
were also drilled parallel to the outside of the gunwales so the thole pins will actually
lean out slightly. Fill all the holes with silicone sealant, thread in the inserts,
put the plates in place with the thole pin (carriage bolt) threaded in and fasten the
plates in place to the gunwales.
I chose this method since first off, I rather liked the idea of thole pins. I used
the steel plate and the threaded insert to provide strength inside the poplar gunwale as
well as to allow me the remove the thole pins when they are not in use. Possibly I
can use these holes to attach my lee-boards later as well. This method also allowed
me to attach the thole pins without adding blocks for the oar-locks.
Note: During the launch, I found that the thole pins should have been mounted much
farther aft. Hopefully I can use these holes for a lee-board. |
1.5 |
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26-Aug-01
Sprit Pole
Rough Looking Oars |
Fabricate a dowel for the
sprit pole and start work on the oars. Since I couldn't find any 6 1/2' long 3/4" dowels, I decided to make
one out of spruce. To do this, first I ripped a 3/4" X 3/4" piece of
spruce on the table saw. Then I set my say to 22 1/2° and ran the piece through
several more times, rounding it off. Sanding it then made it fairly smooth.
The oars were a bit more complicated.
The plans for the oars call for hand-shaping the oar handles and then using some of
the scrap 1/4" plywood for blades. Other plans I have found call for using 2X6
lumber and cutting the oar of that. This would be fairly expensive and waste a lot
of wood. What I did instead was:
- Rip out two 1 1/2" square pieces from a single spruce 2X4.
-Mark off 21" from the end to keep square for the oar blades.
-Similar to making the sprit pole, I set the saw at 22 1/2° and the rip guide at 1"
and cut off the outside edges, stopping at my 21" mark. I wasn't able to get
all my cuts down to the 21" mark, but it was close.
- Using left-over epoxy thickened with silica to glue two 21" long 3" wide (left
over from the sprit pole) pieces of spruce to the square part of the oars.
Now I need to let it dry and then I should
be able to finish shaping the handles by hand. I haven't decided yet if I'll do the
blades by hand as well. |
2 |
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| 3-Sep-01 |
Cut out two outside pieces
for the rudder and trim the existing piece so that the rudder blade is sandwiched between
the pieces. The centre piece is left higher than the sides for attaching the tiller.
Set my table saw blade to 10° and maximum height and trim off the sides of the oar
blades. By adjusting the fence, holding the cut side to the fence, and getting some
help to run them through I was able to do both sides of the blades. |
1.5 |
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7-15-Sep-01
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Use the circular saw to cut
the oar shape. With my new bench-top belt sander, sand the end taper on the oars and
work on smoothing the handles. Since this was taking too much material off, I
switched to my palm sander for the handles. Set the table saw at 1/4" and the
fence at 6" and nibble off material to shape the handles. Spend 1/5 hour applying 1 coat of epoxy to the oars. I'll
apply spar varnish later.
Note: at 7 1/2' long, these oars
are much longer than the plans call for and didn't work. I'll need to make another
set of shorter ones since I can't bear to cut these down. I'll just have to build
another boat that fits them. |
2.5 |
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Total |
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30.5 |
$153.40 |
  
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