Inspiration

June 28, 2015  Hours spent building to date: 1,175

When you are getting close to a year into a project, there’s nothing like a little inspiration to get through the really boring parts (like bonding) and I found it in two places:

The WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport is an annual Mecca-Hermitage-ComicCon for wooden boat builders.  One of my favorite places is the “I Built It Myself” area where I have exhibited my own work.  I have always wondered what a great big, plywood cruiser on a trailer would look like among all the kayaks and rowboats, and this year I walked around the corner and there was “Cody,”  a brawny Tolman Alaskan 22 built by Svein Kopfelt.  He let me crawl all over the boat and I got many valuable ideas.  Cody is a very different concept form Tardis — she cruises at 22 knots — but the build basics are the same: plywood over sawn frames, lots of bonding, lots of glass, efficient shape.  A lot more of Tardis will remain real wood, and she’s more of a cruiser than a go-fast boat, but Cody is a close cousin nevertheless.  I’m really commited to rolling the Tardis up onto that lawn someday myself, and let the canoes and kayaks scatter where they may.

I had to make up time after goofing off at the show, so I was in the shop on Sunday afternoon when I heard a knock and in walked Milan Mikes, a woodworker from Orangeville, Ontario WHO IS BUILDING AN OLGA 28!.  He had been at the WoodenBoat Show and stopped by on the off chance I would be there.  Since Friedbert has stopped posting, I was beginning to think I was the only dodo left, when lo and behold, another flies up.  Milan, his wife and I spent about an hour going through the boat, and I am sending him many suggestions on suppliers, since he is still cutting frames.  Milan is a professional with a big shop (and the Mikes are very nice people), so I am very confident that Tardis will have a sister ship someday.

Building went well this week:  more bonding, added a big bulkhead at Station 5 that defines the forward end of the fore cabin, and built in the “lounge chair” in the dressing area (which also has loads of storage beneath it).  Both were challenging since the boat is so curvy in this area.  The face of the chair looked straight, but the just wouldn’t go in right.  So I patterned it in thin luan plywood, and there is just a hint of a curve where the bottom touches the hull.  A half day gone there.  The bulkhead had to be notched in at an area where the sheer clamp bends up and in toward the bow, and angles out to flair the topsides.  A super-compound cut that just had to be done by measure, guess, handsaw, rasp, file, fit, try again.  Three hours worth.  Also, the boat has grown about a quarter inch bigger versus the plans on either side at this point, so a piece of cherry trim filled the gap.  No one but you will ever know.

Cody

Tardis’s rich, elderly aunt. Family resemblance is clear, though.

Bonding is about halfway back through the deckhouse.

Lounge chair — it’s 30 inches wide and should be quite comfortable.

There’s is a curve there — really.

Station 5 bulkhead.

Don’t tell anybody that’s not in the plans.