Fictitious Waterboat by SGraham - Scale 1:30 - SMALL - based on 1871 Gloucester waterboat Aqua Pura - first scratch build

[SGraham]

That she will, J!

[src]

Nice start Steve.

Stay cool and no setting the hills on fire this year!!

Sam

[SGraham]

Thanks Sam! Seriously, 118 degrees here a couple of days ago. 

[src]

I hear you there Steve. Our shop is in Monrovia (about 4 miles from you for our friends across the pond) I have no idea what the temp was out there but the office AC could not keep up. 

Sam

[SGraham]

I had no idea you were so close. Suzie and I lived in Monrovia for several years. What a small world!

[src]

It is!! I have worked in Monrovia since 2006, down the street from the H Depot. There have been a couple of times when I have seen the hills in your neighborhood burning I thought, wow I hope all is well at your place.  

Sam

[michael mott]

Just found your log Steve, I rather like the cat boats so will be following along. You have made a great start.

 

Michael

[SGraham]

Thank you, Michael. I've seen your beautiful work. It's an honor to have you.

 

Thanks for thinking of me, Sam. Yeah, Azusa Canyon is directly behind the hills in front of my house. People go up there and and start fires just about every year. And as I type this, they're just finishing putting out a brush fire at the mouth of the canyon. 

 

Anyways, back to the catboat...

 

Steve

[SGraham]

Today I did some very basic construction on the waterboat's small cockpit. I used maple which will be stained later. The sides are all sticking up high and oversized. I'm planning on sanding them off flush with the subdecking after I install it. The floor of the cockpit will be planked but with the edges of the planks not quite touching, leaving enough room for water to drain out between them, I assume. The planks will sit on narrow risers. 

 

 

I'm thinking of doing the planking of the cockpit sole in sycamore. It has an interesting grain pattern. Here's a photo of it. I'll have to see if the grain pattern is too garish when it's been lightly stained/dyed.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by SGraham

[jct]

Sycamore is an interesting choose, how does the grain compare inscale??

Edited July 14, 2018 by jct

[SGraham]

The more I look at it, the less I think I'm going to use it. I'm trying to think of a boat-building timber that would look even remotely like it and I can't.

 

It might make a nice looking ukulele, though.

Edited July 17, 2018 by SGraham

[SGraham]

I did some fairing of the bulkheads this morning while it was still cool enough to work in the garage. Actually, fairing bulkheads as the sun comes up with a mug of strong coffee on the bench is a nice way to start the day. I recommend it.

 

If you notice, the third bulkhead forward of the transom has pencil marking on it. I need to add a little bit of wood right there on the turn of the bilge to enable the planking to have a place to sit. I cut that corner a bit too lean on the saw.

 

I'm doing the fairing with a flexible batten with a strip of sandpaper attached to it with double-sided tape. Mark Taylor clued me in on that trick on my Shenandoah build.

 

In the background you see a long basswood batten. I'm using that to check the frames for fairness as I go.

I'm going to add a piece of basswood filler material right next to the stem on either side, in order to give the plank ends a secure resting place.

 

I removed some material from the bottoms of the bulkheads that sit right next to the keel to make room for the rabbet, which I think will be the next thing I'll do. 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Steve

 

 

 

[SGraham]

I got a little bit more work done on the waterboat. I covered the aft part of the false keel (not sure what it's called) with some thin maple...

 

...ran up a bunch of maple planking...

 

 

...got out the bending iron I use on instrument sides... 

 

...and started shaping and bending planks. Here are the first three on each side installed.

 

The planks are not completely flush with each other, but I left them pretty thick so there should be plenty of material available to get them nice and fair. At least that's the plan.

 

The bending iron is kind of overkill. It bends the plank ends almost instantly, but it's pretty big and bulky, definitely made for bending bigger stock. I'm wondering what other people use for bending planks.

 

Steve

 

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by SGraham

[src]

Steve,

Getting caught up, planking looks good.

Sam

[SGraham]

Thanks so much, Sam. When it cools down just a bit more, I'll get back at the planking.

 

Steve

[src]

22 hours ago, SGraham said:

Thanks so much, Sam. When it cools down just a bit more, I'll get back at the planking.

 

Steve

We live in the desert Steve, its going to be a while till it cools down. must be time for a cold one.

Sam

 

[SGraham]

Sigh...It must be.

 

[src]

Insert beverage of choice here. 

Sam

[jct]

She's gonna be gorgeous 

[SGraham]

Thanks J!

[michael mott]

The planking is shaping up nicely Steve.

 

Michael

[SGraham]

Thanks Michael!

 

Steve

 

[jct]

Hey Steve,  We haven't seen any updates in a while...hope all is well

[SGraham]

Hi there J and friends! I went and got married, can you believe it? She's a gal I went to high school with just after Noah's Flood. So, there's a new admiral around the shipyard now. The photo I have appended shows me taking her for a spin in the admiral's barge along with the Captain of the Fleet. 

We're approaching the end of a year-long remodel of our home. The last thing to do will be to set the shop back up. It's been used as a storage locker since last April. I hope to be back to working on the waterboat soon. 

 

Steve

 

[jct]

CONGRATS my friend, very happy for you both. great pic

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!

[ccoyle]

I just now noticed the lovely beach-front property in the background of your photo! 

[Roger Pellett]

A Folbot!!  I built one of these years ago for a friend who ultimately gave it to me.  I eventually traded it for a battered Shell Lake wood canvas canoe that I restored.

 

Roger

[SGraham]

Thanks j and Grandpa Phil!

Chris, that is indeed lovely beach-front property in the pic! We were paddling in Monterey Bay. That's Cannery Row and the Monterey Aquarium of the Pacific in the background. Great day last spring with harbor seals and sea otters everywhere.

Roger, I'm a big fan of the old folbots. Ours is an early seventies folding 17 1/2-foot-long Super. How cool that you built one! You live in some prime paddling country, I would imagine.

[Roger Pellett]

I would have built it in about 1974.  It was a 17ft and as I remember there were two types; folding and non-folding.  The one that we built was non-folding.  It came as a kit with cut out bulkheads,wood strips, and the vinyl covers.  It was like building one of the old balsa/ tissue airplanes.  You first erected the bulkheads on a strongback, ran the longitudinal stringers, and covered the whole thing with the vinyl cover.  The cover for the hull was two ply, the second ply being cemented to the first with contact cement.  The deck was single ply.

 

I now have two Old Town wood canvas canoes, a 1915 Charles River and a 1945 OTCA both rescued and rebuilt.  Haven’t paddled either of them lately.

 

Roger