Progress

Well I have slowed down a lot, as per my wife's request, but I'm still creeping along. I got all of the hull panels sanded down to the line. Now, all that I'm waiting on is the sheerstringers, keels, stems, and sternposts. I should be able to cut all of these fairly quickly. Tomorrow I will be picking up and cutting the lumber for the sheerstringers and keels. I got a sweet circular saw off of Craigslist last week for ripping. Monday, I plan on picking up the sheet of 18mm ply for my stems and sternposts. Our epoxy is also scheduled to arrive early next week. I decided to go with Raka epoxy out of Florida after talking to several other Tiki owners who have used it with good results. If all goes well, I should have everything ready for stitching by the end of next week. I may wait to stitch it all up until Grace gets back, but I am for sure waiting on her to push in the bulkheads. That step, in my mind, is sort of a monumental step in the build. You get to see everything in 3D for the first time, and it should serve as a great justification of all the work I have been doing with a bunch of flat pieces of plywood. Once she gets back, we will be working much harder than I am now, so the blog won't be as sluggish.

Still Cutting

I have been cutting a lot. The hull panels and bulkheads alone equal up to twelve full sheets of plywood. That's a lot of jigsaw and belt sander use. Today I got the holes for the bunk area cut into all of the bulkheads (6 total). The other three bulkheads will remain solid. The Tiki 21 has buoyancy chambers in the bow and stern of each hull. This makes the boat "unsinkable". At least if the main cabin fills with water, or we capsize, these chambers should keep us afloat. There is another storage area forward of the bunk that is accessable from outside the hull. This provides another sealed area in the case of a hole in the boat. Basically, each hull is a giant sea kayak. I finished sanding all four bow panels down to the pencil line as well today. All I have to do tomorrow is sand three middle and three stern sections down. Then I can move on to the stem, sternpost, keel, and sheerstringers............then I can stitch it all up and see what this boat is going to look like for real.

This is the way I drew out the curves for the hole in each bulkhead. I measured the distance on the ply strip first. Then hammered it into the bulkhead. Then used the other nail as a pencil to mark the line.

 Here are the holes for the bunk sections. Bulkheads are in line with each other in the picture.

More Cutting

Today I took the belt sander to all of the cut out parts and sanded down to the pencil line on all of them. This took a while. I then got the midde and stern sections cut out as well as the last bulkhead. Now I have templates for everything. I no longer have to loft the lines onto the plywood. I can just use the templates as a guide. This will be MUCH faster, and I plan to have all of the bulkheads and hull panels cut out by tomorrow. That way I can start working on the keel and sheerstringers. I have to go pick up a sheet of 18mm ply for the stem, sternpost, and rudders. Anyways, here are the pics...............

                                                       I can finally get a feel for the size

Everything lines up well!

The bulkheads (minus one) The stock plans call for a three inch drop from the inboard to outboard edge of the top of the bulkheads. I am pretty tall, so I changed this to a one inch drop instead. It will give Grace and me a little more room without altering the lines of the boat too much. Every bit of room counts in a Tiki 21. Tomorrow I will cut the holes for the bunks out of the middle three bulkheads pictured here.

Cutting hull parts

Well this morning I ended up running errands for the house. I then got very hot due to the fact that my truck has no a/c. As a result, I spent most of the day at the river swimming around and hanging out. I got a few hours in tonight after I got back, but I stopped cutting around eight o'clock. I don't want to be that guy in the neighborhood keeping everyone up with power tools all night. I got one bow section cut, three out of four butt blocks, and five out of six bulkheads. I cut right outside the line, and tomorrow I will use a belt sander to smooth down all of the cuts right to the pencil line. I also remeasured everything once again before cutting. I measured in five inch increments from the middle of the curve on the bulkheads to make sure both sides were even. I then checked these measurements against the other side of the bulkhead to check for symmetry. I also cut pretty far outside the lines so that I can (safely) get a feel for how aggressive the belt sander is. My wife is returning soon, so I'm getting pretty stoked to have a good bit of work done for her to see upon arrival. I'm also stoked to see her, of course!

   My buddy ended up with obligations tomorrow, so I ended up using a wooden batten bent around nails to draw out the curves of the bulkheads and the hull.

                    There's no better way to end the day than a big ole half gallon of Tang.

Lofting

I finished lofting up the hull panels, butt blocks, and bulkheads yesterday afternoon. The use of a giant square made things go pretty smoothly. I need to stop being so particular on measuring everything out ten times. Three or four checks should be more than plenty! My wife is deployed right now, so I have a buddy coming over tomorrow to help hold the batten for drawing out the smooth curves of the hulls and bulkheads.

                                                                  My lofting room

                                            

I found this extra crisp Asym Spinnaker from an old boat of mine in storage. The luff is 22', which should work with the Tiki. Free Kite=Sweet

This is my workshop area. It feels strange to me to be renting a full size house, but all of the climate controlled workspace is a great justification! The garage is 23' deep and around 16' wide. This means I can build both hulls at the same time, which should cut down on build time (hopefully).

Starting Out

This blog is intended to follow my wife and me during the process of building a Tiki 21, designed by James Wharram. I have been wanting to build this boat for the past two years, and things have finally aligned so that I may begin. We are new to blogging, so bear with us until we get it all figured out!

                                          This is what we are eventually going for...