Beams and the beam jig

This shows the deck beams tightened down and waiting for the glue to set up. I used Titebond 2 glue.  On the leftThis shows the deck beams tightened down and waiting for the glue to set up. I used Titebond 2 glue.  On the left of the jig are the deck beams for the Stateroom and the beams forward of the Galley. The Pilot house and Galley beams, are being laminated on the other side of the beam jig. With this set up, I could laminate two beams a night. As George says its fun but it's a messy process. Waxed paper would be placed between the mold and the glued beam to prevent sticking to the mold. Once set the beam would br run through the planer till smooth and then a few coats of Tongue Oil

The Deck Beams

Most people start the deck beams somewhere after the keel and in the middle of the frame construction. The deck beams where the first thing I built. My boat shed was not started, winter was approaching and I wanted to get started on the project. I could build the beams in my garage so it seemed logical to start with them, ( logical may be a word that should not be used when taking on a boat building project), but that's still up in the air in my mind! This is a picture of the jig I made to bend the 5/4" by 3" eastern red cedar. It consists of two 2"x12" cut to the specified crown glued together and mounted on a 2"x8" which will hold the rods I'm placing every 6" on both sides of the 2bys. Once the rods are in place I made 5" cap blocks out of old oak hardwood flooring which would set over the cedar planks to be laminated and eventually tightened down. More of this in the next post.

The plans

The first thing we did was to come up with a plan. My thoughts where it would be nice to have a movable home.  A place where you could live and pick up and leave if you didn't like the spot you where at. Always liked the water and hate driving, so a boat was the obvious choice. We talked to Herb Smith, a world navigator up in Maine, who we go sailing with when we visit Boothbay Harbor.  He asked a few questions of how we would like to travel on the water and then he recommended looking up George Beuhler and his Diesel Duck troller yachts designs on the internet. http://www.georgebuehler.com/  We did and fell in love with the whole concept and design of his boats.

After considering all the options we decided on a wooden  44' Diesel Duck troller. Wood because that's what I work with and by using standard lumber the cost would be lower than traditional wooden boat construction. This picture above is that of Marlene and Benno Klopfer 41' Diesel Duck who's travels and adventures can be followed on: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/dieselduck

How It starts

This is how it starts: Lofting the entire boat on a lofting table. I used Tyvek  House Wrap for paper. Its strong and rolls up nice. Rather than use pieces this was one big pattern of the boat. Lofting is the actual transfer of the dimension of a boat to make actual patterns of the keel and frames from the offsets found on the plans of the boat. Shows the chine ,sheer and raised sheer as well as the rabbet.This boat is 44' long with a 13'8" beam. Draft will be about 6' and it's heavy.