Herkimer & Perkins: Building Backyard Boats in Buffalo, NY

My Backyard Boats:

The Piccup Squared

It looks a lot like a boat now

20 May 03: Yesterday, I trimmed the transoms and bulkheads, and transferred the lines for these pieces from one side piece to the other. I found a few slight errors when I transferred the lines that locate these pieces.

Today I assembled the hull sides to the bow, stern, and bulkheads. I had an error in depth of 1/4 inches on the sides; rather than worry overmuch about the extra, since it was uniform, I decided to build up the bulkheads that are short in height by that amount. I used a batten to see what it would look like to reduce the sides to the heights of the bulkheads, but the curve was no longer fair.

Next step is to install the gunwales and chines, then the bottom.

Time spent so far: Add 4 hours for trimming pieces to get ready to assemble the hull and 6 hours for nailing and gluing sides to bow, stern, and bulkheads, for a total so far of 36 hours.

Cost so far: Holding at $127.38.

Piccup Squared building log index

Yesterday was warm and sunny; I assembled the parts for the hull -- various chines and clamps, the pile of transoms and bulkheads, and the two side pieces. I used the 4-footx10-foot trolley that I made out of 2x4s for the Harmonica as a big table on top of the workbench. It made the hull work easier.
Wood sticks and clamps line up the two side pieces to ensure accuracy in transferring the location lines for the transoms and bulkheads.
After the lines were in place, I clamps the sides together and trimmed the ends and bottoms to match.
Today was rainy; we are to have a week of such weather now. Pic shows the temporary form in place with the sides, at the widest point of the boat. The yellow presence at the top of the pic is the Quark, now hanging form the rafters. I have three finished boats and one a-building in my shop space.
Bulkhead 2.5 sits ahead of the temporary form, with rope to pull in the sides showing at the top of the forming hull. The sheer line is largely as shown. The tendency of bc pine to warp played in my favor, since each side warped in the shape it would take permanently. The sticks I cut the other day for chines and clamps are warping nicely, too.
Ropes in place at stern and bow, and all pieces in place except for the bow transom.
The hull job is done; all pieces in place. A 10-year-old neighbor stopped by at about this point and informed me that I was building a native canoe because he had a picture in a book that said so and because my boat, which I tried to explain was a sailboat, was the same as the one in his book.
Another view of the finished hull job.
I decided that I no longer needed the services of the 4-footx10-foot trolley frame that I had put atop the workbench. Since I work alone, it took some rope work to get the hull raised so I could pull out the trolley and set it on its side along the edge of the work space.