Marine multi-tasking

Well if you build a boat you'll never be able to say, "there's nothing to do".  We've been carving out more time for boat building in spite of the high temperatures inside the boat shed.  This building design is actually for a green house and I can now vouch for it's effectiveness.  Our industrial strength warehouse fan helps keep it manageable but on those sunny summer days we are working in 90-100 degree temperatures.

We are bouncing back and forth between frame building and keel lamination's.  As I have said, I'm doing the keel in sub-assemblies to keep the clamping pressure manageable.  The sub assemblies are about 4 1/2" thick and approximately 34' long.  They are not that heavy and the block and tackle I have mounted to the ridge beam of the boat shed is able lift them with no problem.

All of the sub-assemblies for the lower keel are now complete or in clamps.  The next glue up will make them one, 12" thick beam that will act as the lower keel assembly.

We ripped a straight edge on one side of each plank and then those straight edges are all stacked together with the edges flush.  This gives us a good reference to insure that the keel is as straight as possible.  Once the entire keel is glued up and bolted we'll even everything out with a power planer.

As we alternate between gluing up the various keel components we continue to build frames. Nothing that special that has not already been covered, except for the fact that stations 22 and 24 have their gussets cut flush to the frames.  

Stations 22 and 24 are nearly perfectly amidships and frame in our engine room.  This is also the location of our two 325 gallon diesel tanks.  The gussets are cut flush to the frames to maximize the available space for the tanks.  I did it just as the plans indicate but it just doesn't look that strong.  I may add some intermediate frames in the engine room to beef up the support in that area.

Cutting the flush gussets is the same as the other regular size gussets.  I use some scrap cardboard to create a template and then trace the outline out on to the 3/4" BCX plywood.  My new Milwaukee M18 Fuel circular saw makes quick work of the cutting.

Then it's just a matter of cutting the angles for the side and bottom pieces, laying them on the lofting with the appropriate setbacks and bolting and gluing them together.  Once assembled the temporary bracing is attached and it's on to the next one.

Once again, I know I am blessed with a great support system for this build.  My crafty mother built a beautiful miniature lighthouse to dress up the landscaping in front of the house as a fathers day gift for me.  The light on top even works!  You can see from it's name that the whole family is on board with building our Diesel Duck dream!

We are going to take a few days off for the 4th of July holiday and head to the lake.  This is my summer vacation week. I'll definitely be coming home early so I can get a few quality days of boat building in.

Check out the Sea Dreamer Project Facebook page if you would like to follow along with our build in real time.  We also include lots of links for all things nautical, excellent eye candy if I do say so myself!