tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48713065611834110542024-10-04T22:23:11.022-05:00A college student's odyssey into the world of boat building.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-67003448525627631432011-08-08T17:53:00.001-05:002011-08-08T21:46:25.269-05:00

I've decided to do away with even trying to count days/weeks at this point because, to be honest, I'm not very punctual about updating so it kind of loses its point. So after finishing up all the exterior seams, it was time to set sail on my first "adventure" with fiberglass.  If I had stuck to the directions on this, it would've been a fairly painless procedure, but because both Gorman and

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-40314359209354627722011-08-02T16:56:00.000-05:002011-08-02T16:56:48.493-05:00

Okay, so after finally getting out of the 100-grit desert, things have finally gotten interesting!  Once all the strakes and transoms were coated and sanded, it was finally time to start piecing things together. The name for this style of boatbuilding (stitch-and-glue) is quite apropos.  In this case, the "stitching" is done using MANY pieces of copper wire to stitch the strakes in

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-19224958177798994602011-07-19T18:52:00.001-05:002011-07-19T18:52:21.405-05:00

Hello folks!  Took a brief hiatus from boatbuilding last week and headed down to my family's beach house to catch some fish and crabs!  We also took our pet rabbit Dapper with us.  It was his first trip to the beach house, but after the first day or so, he made himself right at home.  Wouldn't you agree? Now to get back on subject.  My love affair with boatbuilding has

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-69206829821900059152011-07-10T16:18:00.000-05:002011-07-10T16:18:01.080-05:00

DAY 2: SANDING After having glued the joints together, the manual said that the next step would be to coat everything in two layers of epoxy.  As I was to discover, there was an evil Step 1.5 that I was blindsided by... Having waited 24 hours for the epoxied joints to harden, I arrived at the shop around 6:30am hoping that I hadn't glued a stray strake to the floor by accident.  To my

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-13245787146060746452011-07-08T23:23:00.000-05:002011-07-08T23:23:49.786-05:00

After a couple weeks of acting like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive, the boat kit arrive last Wednesday, but due to prior plans construction did not officially commence until today!  At some point, I hope to post pictures, but seeing as how I lost my camera cable, the pictures will have to wait for another day (sorry!). So the first step is simply to open everything up and make sure

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-80813217497242699772011-06-23T03:08:00.002-05:002011-06-23T12:23:24.025-05:00

Hello to all my (extremely) faithful fans! After a chaotic academic year, I finally got my undergraduate degree and an MCAT score I can be proud of!  Also in the last year, like an unfinished hull left to the elements, the Makeshift Armada Project fell into disrepair before she even had a chance to set sail on her maiden voyage.  Honestly, even I thought this dream might become dead in

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-28998305961337545902010-04-26T03:38:00.002-05:002010-04-28T22:51:55.494-05:00

Okay, so as I've continued to study lofting, I realized trying to tackle a full description of lofting might be a bit too much to bite off because a) it CAN get really complicated and b) I don't understand all of it.  So I've decided to just go into detail about the portion of lofting that will actually apply to my first project. The Coot is a simple, 8-foot boat with few bells and whistles

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-37541122805514287972010-04-20T01:45:00.000-05:002010-04-20T01:45:24.680-05:00

Before a boat can be built, it has to be lofted.  Lofting is the process of taking a bunch of numbers in an offset table and converting them into full-size diagrams that will be used to construct the actual boat.  For a simple boat like the Coot, this wouldn't seem like too tough a task, especially if compared to something like a cabin cruiser.  Comparatively, that is a correct

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-38229325191687953382010-04-14T02:50:00.000-05:002010-04-14T02:50:28.778-05:00

As alluded to in my last post, I have chosen the boat I will build for my first project.  It is a small, 8-foot dinghy called the Coot.  This is (hopefully) what the finished project will look like. It is broad and slow, but it can seat two people (a request of my "crew") and is a good beginner strip-planking project.  Also, if I am so inclined, it can be modified into a small

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-51240087887798016402010-04-12T04:13:00.000-05:002010-04-12T04:13:30.843-05:00

It's been a bit too long since the captain's log has had a new entry!  As well as school being particularly busy lately, I've been working on how to finance this little venture.  First off, I've added a donate button on the site, so if you feel like donating out of the kindness of your heart, feel free!  Also, I plan on opening a new page on this blog that will feature pieces of "

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-83425066644696044012010-04-04T23:44:00.004-05:002010-04-05T13:37:42.318-05:00

So I finally got to go sailing for the first time, and it was as awesome as I hoped it would be and then some!  I'm hooked.  I sailed out on Travis Lake (TX) with the UT Sailing Club.  It was a beautiful day with a moderate amount of wind... a perfect day to learn how to sail! The first boat I sailed on was a small sailing dinghy called a Sunfish. It is a small, 1-2 person boat

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-55757366084657029182010-03-31T19:22:00.000-05:002010-03-31T19:22:57.079-05:00

There are quite a few techniques to build a boat, but for my project I'm going to focus my sites on strip-planking.  Explained basically, the procedure for strip-planking consists of: 1) building a frame for the hull, 2) applying strips of wood to the frame, 3) using epoxy resin to seal and stabilize the wooden strip, and 4) fiber-glassing the inner and outer surfaces of the hull. 

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-34852587554798476892010-03-29T22:57:00.000-05:002010-03-29T22:57:05.961-05:00

The amount of time I have for this undertaking is fairly limited, so to help me with some of the grunt work, I've decided to recruit a strong back of similar semenship (hehe) as myself.  My brother Zack (also a college student) will be home for the summer, so he has passionately accepted my offer to join this little project!  With his help, meeting my deadline of August 31st should be

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-51537089935933533532010-03-29T00:51:00.000-05:002010-03-29T10:18:36.750-05:00

Without setting checkpoints, I've discovered I never get anything done, so the first order of business is setting a short-term goal.Goal 1:I will complete my first wooden boat by the end of August 2010.Problems to overcome:1. Lack of knowledge. I really need to study up on how to build a boat. I've looked at the basic building techniques, and I think my first project will be a strip-planked

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4871306561183411054.post-33621524173050293052010-03-28T15:33:00.000-05:002010-03-28T23:25:45.772-05:00

This blog will be a journal of my endeavor to learn how to build wooden boats from scratch. As all great (and not-so-great) undertakings do, I have very little to start with. I'm a full-time college student, so that should give you a good idea of where I'm at financially, and as far as woodworking is concerned, I know little more than which side of the saw to cut with.Why wooden boats: I'll

Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13629293919109613690noreply@blogger.com0