Floor Joists

July 5, 2015  Hours spent building to date: 1,186

A very short week on the Tardis due to some crazy sort of national holiday and preparation for the annual Boatbuilding Workshop at the Connecticut River Museum.  Our kit builder for the modified Bevins skiffs we build went out of business, so we decided to get the plywood parts cut by Connecticut Light Craft on a CLC machine and make all the rest of the parts ourselves.  “Ourselves”  has turned out to be “moi” with much-needed help from Ray and Al Monkovich.   I had no idea how much work this would be or I might have told the CRM to find an alternate kit-builder.  At least given my shop rate of $0 we are making a lot of money on this deal to fund future projects.

I managed to work in some bonding, of course, and painted up all the fiberglass parts in the dressing area and head with tie-coat.  That meant I could put in the floor joists in this area.  This is a big step because it will relieve so many big steps — having real floors down will be much easier on my aged knees than stepping over all the frames 20 times per day.  I mounted the joists in saddles to make them removable up until the time all the plumbing is done, since there is likely a bilge pump and considerable head piping in this area to come.

Floor joists looking forward

Floor joists looking aft