Willie L Bennett by Shepherd - Model Shipways - 1:32 - Chesapeake Bay Skipjack

[Shepherd]

Having just finished the Lowell Grand Banks Dory, I find myself not yet ready to begin a model of the schooner I'm meaning to build in my garage. And so I reached for the second of the two kits I bought in April 2020 before a bunch of other weird stuff happened, the Willie L Bennett Chesapeake Bay Skipjack.

 

It was quite a contrast opening this kit compared to the little dory model! I'd been advised that this was a good beginner kit when I first looked into this, and I must have even read a build log or two on it before deciding it was a good choice, but if so I had forgotten that I would be greeted with more or less a pile of lumber upon opening the box. It was a little intimidating and I considered putting the whole thing back away since it seems like a lot to get into when I have other projects coming along. Then I got started anyways. I found a 1/4" plywood cutoff just a bit larger than the size shown in the plan, left over from when I built my kitchen cabinets. It was a little bowed, so I fastened a cutoff bit of 5/8" OSB to the bottom and that flattened it right out. I pricked holes through the mold plan into the plywood and connected the dots instead of cutting out that part of the plan and gluing it down, then set the mold up using the cutouts as bracing.

I moved on to the keelson tonight. After gluing the three pieces together and sanding it smooth - the laser cutouts weren't quite square, giving it a sawtooth sort of look on end - I sanded an initial bevel into the outer 1/8" strip on each side. I clamped down a straight edge to scribe a cut line, then figured out I could use the straight edge as a guide for an emery board to sand in the rabbet. The keelson sits a bit oddy in the molds, with the forward end sitting quite proud of the notches and the after end recessing in to the point that it will have to be lifted up to fasten the bottom. The next step is going to be some careful measurements and seeing if I need to modify the mold at all.

[Shepherd]

The keelson isn't quite adding up. I made a tick stick first to make sure the sheer was marked correctly on the molds and to move those marks to the centerline for easier comparison of sheer to keelson. Then I marked the tick stick with my best quick approximation of the sheer to the bottom (when right-side up) of the keelson. What I wouldn't give for the complete lines of the hull, as the sheer on the plan is interrupted by all the deck furniture and I had to spring a batten and pencil in my best guess to its location to get two of the marks. I'm not entirely sure I hit the right spots, and am probably going to use the cross sectional lines to get a better idea of where things should lie at each station.

 

What became clear too is the cut-out keelson provided doesn't match the plans. It is flatter and thinner beginning partway along the centerboard cutout. Everything else is built up from the lumber provided so I could just build it to this shape, but changing one line will change much else about the hull shape and without a thorough exercise in lofting I can't be sure it will make for a fair hull. I guess it will be less fair, being flatter in its run.

[Shepherd]

I tried clamping and wetting down the skeg to bend it into shape, but I don't think I wound up making much of an impression on the shape. I decided to roll with it as it is, figuring nothing is more traditional in boatbuilding than the builder deviating from the plans. The hull sides being one piece should help keep some of the lines from deviating which otherwise may have.

 

Once I was finished playing around with the keelson, I added the skeg and the other few pieces below. The cutout for the centerboard wrapped in wax paper proved very helpful for gluing on the centerboard battens. If I'd thought about it I should have cut the skeg a little fuller, as the bottom is not quite a straight line with the different keelson shape. I can add or take away some material later to correct that, even if I'm the only person who will ever notice such a thing.

 

The chine logs didn't wind up lying flush with all the molds, but pressing them down into place resulted in an unfair curve. The wood knows best what shape it wants to be bent into, so I let it do that. I was hoping this boat would be one of the skipjacks in Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft. If I had the full lines or a table of offsets I would be able to puzzle out how to get the chine logs and the molds to meet correctly at each station, but without these things my choices seem to be to encourage the wood to bend into a curve it doesn't like, or let the wood encourage me to let it take the curve it wants to take.

 

I splashed the sides with hot water and clamped them in place overnight before gluing them on. Between sanding the bevels onto the chine logs and then sanding the bevels into the sides, and my reluctance to refresh my sandpaper when I swear it should still be good a while yet, it's been slow going before moving on to the bottom planking.