Rudder Fabrication

For my rudder fabrication, I engaged Peter Kerr, a highly experienced professional boatbuilder who owns and operates Deagon Slipways north of Brisbane. I'm really pleased I engaged Peter, as he was able to share valuable knowledge on foil design and how they perform under different conditions.

The plywood kit includes a rudder template, and I originally intended to laminate 5-6 layers of plywood to create the rudder. Peter instead recommended that we fabricate the rudder out of solid timber to ensure it's more robust. Peter also recommended combining two different types of timber to achieve the best balance between strength and weight. The leading and trailing edge and the centre are thus "crows ash" (light colour timber), which is stronger and offers better impact resistance, and the rest is cedar, which is also renowned as an excellent boatbuilding timber.

The fabrication process involved laminating the timber sections into a single block, tracing the rudder template on the laminated block and a lot of shaping to get the right teardrop profile. Watching Peter shape the timber into a foil shape with a hand plane was like watching an artist at work. I was able to "apprentice" and observe at his workshop for a few days, which was also a really cool learning experience, and his tradesmen shared many useful tips on how to get the various jobs done as efficiently as possible. We finished off the rudded by using an epoxy-based timber sealant, fiberglassing it with quadraxial fiberglass cloth and fairing.

Planking the Hull

I planked the hull between October 2021 and January 2022. From memory, I was doing some part-time work during this period, so I likely spent about 2-3 days per week working on the boat. Most of the hard work was done in October and November. I recall December being a really sweltering hot month, which meant I often worked in short bursts to cope with the suffocating humidity of summer in Brisbane. My friend Ian White helped me a lot during this stage.

I planked the hull from the bottom to the top. Remember, at this stage, the boat was still on the strongback jig upside down. The plywood for hull planking in the kit comes in several sections, which were joined with butt blocks. I installed the first hull side by attaching individual plywood pieces to the frames. Then I crawled inside the boat and glued the butt joint panels in place. While this approach allowed me to do the work by myself since the individual panels were of size  I could physically handle, this proved to be a bit cumbersome method.

For most of the remaining panel sections, I pre-assembled entire panel sections from stern to bow with butt blocks epoxied in place. I also pre-drilled holes where the screws needed to go. I enlisted the help of my friend Ian and a few other people (thank you, Annika, Thommo & Jeremy). With extra pairs of hands, we lifted the entire panel section, aligned them with the frames and stringers, and while the assistants held them in place, I went around with a power drill to install screws. This approach worked really well when people were available to help and for relatively flat hull sections. I also needed to consider the time it took before mixing epoxy and completing panel installation as the ambient temperature in Brisbane is often around 30°C or even hotter, so that means a short working time of 20-30 minutes even with an extra slow hardener.

The bottom chine panels towards the bow, which needed to be twisted, were still installed as a single individual piece as it was easier to bend them this way and use clamps to ensure they conformed to the nice hull shape towards the bottom of the bow stem. For chine panels at the stern we also placed heavy weight blocks on top (attached with ropes).

Once all the panels were epoxied on the frames and stringers it was again time to pick up a plane and sanding blocks to shave off excess plywood and round the corners prior to taping the joins.

Stringers

Good god, what can I say - I'm finalising this post more than a year after I worked on the stringers part of the boat build. In hindsight, I can say this was the most nerve-racking stage for me as an amateur boat builder. I worked on stringers between August and October 2021.

This is the part of the boat build where you really need to take your time and not rush it. Once the stringers are epoxied on the frames, that's it - you have your boat shape, and you want it to be true to the plans and symmetrical. 

I made a mistake with the first set of stringers I installed because I did not notch them into the frames enough. Thankfully a few experienced boatbuilders highlighted the problem for me and I was able to correct it early.

I recommend using a laser level if you can—even if you buy a cheap one online. A laser level on a tripod really helped me ensure that all the frames remained correctly aligned on the centreline while I was fitting the stringers.

Installing the stringers can be quite frustrating at times as nothing fits quite right naturally and your job is to make it fit. You may need to cut into the frames to, use wood rasps and other power tools to shave off timber at an angle that will make the stringers closely hug the frames and create a boat shape. The tools I used were: multitool with a variety of blades, hand saw, wood rasp... lots of swearing... some kind of magic or brute force.

You will need clamps, lots of clamps... there's never too many clamps. You will also need rope, quite a bit of it. The rope is very handy for this part as you can tie around the matching port and starboard stringers and, with a bit of cleverness, use the rope in a pulley system to bring the stringers in a very symmetrical fashion. This approach helped me keep the frames in alignment. If you're only trying to fit stringers on one side of the boat, you will find out that the forces of bending tend to shift frames out of alignment.

I started with the thin 30x22 stringers, as they are easiest to bend, followed by 50x22 strings on the chine line. With the bottom stringers, it was quite tricky to get them to sit nicely on the floor beams; you have to cut them down to a point where they join the bow knee. Lastly, I installed the 70x22 shearstrake (toerail) stringers.

Setting Frames on the Jig

I started building the jig in June 2020 and had it mostly constructed within a few days. It took me another couple of weeks to complete a bunch of other tasks before my frames were ready. It was August when I was finally ready to set the frames on the jig.

The waterline isn't marked on all frames, at least not on both sides. So I first drew waterline and centreline on all frames on both fore and aft sides. This allowed me to use a laser level to position the frames very accurately. I started at the bow and then moved aft. Some frames are not "see through" so you need to make sure you have the frames in front of it positioned at the right height and centred before you move back. I started with the stem, then moved back and positioned frames E, D and D1.

Frames B & C don't have their own support posts so I skipped them and moved aft to position frame A. I then had to figure out how to wrangle bunk sides into place and when I finally managed to do it I realised I had to take it apart again, because you need to thread frame C through the bunk sides BEFORE you fit it. This is another step in the process where assistance from a friend or two is really helpful. When my friends weren't around I used a ladder and some rope to support the bunk sides. Once the bunk sides are installed you can pretty much be certain that you have the spacing between frames A to D1 correct. Last I installed transom frame. The challenge with this frame is that it sits above the waterline so you can't use that to confirm height is correct. At this stage, I installed cockpit side panels and that can somewhat help with height adjustment.

Lastly, I installed the knee between frame E and the stem. I had to remove some material around the base that slots into the notch in frame E so it fits nicely.

It's worthwhile double-checking everything at this stage as this step is critical and if the frames are misaligned the whole boat will later be twisted, lopsided or otherwise banana-shaped. A laser level on an adjustable tripod is really helpful. I had a really tall tripod that allowed me to position it above the boat facing downwards so I could double-check the centreline and I also double-checked height or waterline from different angles. Jim Schofield also recommended I mark the waterline on the walls for later use but I found that really impractical in my shed since the walls are rough and it's next to impossible to draw anything on the bricks. I also used a spirit level to confirm that all frames were indeed still plumb.