Until I made the first plank, I felt I was dancing around the idea of building a boat. Most of the spars have been made. Pieces like the rudder head have been cut. Aprons and stems have been created. Even the backbone with its moulds and fretted battens (I’ve moved them countless times) hadn’t mentally convinced me I was building this boat.

Before shear batten was adjusted.

That all changed yesterday when the garboard planks were lain on the moulds for a test fit. I am pleased with the result and the technique. Those steps are as follows:

• 2 sheets of the 6mm okoume ply were ripped down the length to 12″ wide panels. The finished plank was almost 10″ at its widest and this width worked (by happenstance?).
• These were stacked and tapered to a 8:1 scarf for joining.

Scarfing of 2 stern ends. Previously had done 4 for middle joints.

• With wax paper on my Black & Decker Workmate, the panels were joined. “Wet” epoxy on the scarfs were followed by thickened epoxy.

• I used a small nail through the panels to prevent epoxy slide in the joint. Small wedges under the clamped joint batten help snug it all down uniformly.
• 24 hrs later one panel was ready. A heat gun and scraper readily removed the excess. (Thanks Ross Lillistone).

Stacked planks with tracings from the spiling truss.

• Since I let the bow end run wild for final shaping, I was not convinced I had enough panel once joined so I added 8″ from what was to be cut off at the stern end.

Added 8″.

• The trussed batten ladder from the moulds worked like a charm. The finer ends do need extra cross pieces to hold the joined battens in place.

Garboard planks resting.

Planks landed on their marks.

Some slight trimming of a couple moulds will be required.

All in all the work went fine and much better than expected. There will be some twist in the fine ends to the planks, but that is expected. I likely could have done without the 8″ scabbed piece. This part will be painted and nobody will know. I’ve heard some complain about wielding the long planks, but I had no problems and thankfully … they fit!

For some reason that first coat of varnish has given me the notion that I have the beginnings of a boat. The molds didn’t. Stems haven’t, but these parts have. I finished sanding the birdsmouth spars today and gave them a thinned coat of varnish. This includes both main and mizzen masts as well as the yard. Both booms and boomkin will be solid as the weight savings is negligible that low in the boat and there are likely many fastenings (blocks, cleats, etc.) that will benefit from solid material to screw into.

Sanding drum chucked into drill.

Drum after good use.

An  old wire spool with adaptations served well for rolling the sanding belts. I went through several failed attempts to provide enough friction to roll the belt however. An old bike inner tube glued to the shaft kept creeping. Rubber bands worked great, but only for a few revolutions. Finally I spun sash cord on the drum and that worked fine until it would wear out after 30 minutes use. That was about one complete sanding of a spar. Why does the first time doing anything take twice as long? Discovery and experimentation. Edison’s light bulb took a few tries. This old Craftsman drill has been through countless projects. The cord is needing replacement, but I’m not worried yet. It seems to work just fine standing in water.

Sanding block.

Final sanding was done by hand with 150 paper. I spray mounted the paper to a block of minicell foam. Worked great.

Drywall screws for spar support on manning benches.

Manning bench.

The drywall support idea I grabbed from Off Center Harbor. It is a cool site of helpful videos on all things wooden boat. There also a series of vids in progress on the building a Caledonia Yawl.












This first coat of spar varnish was thinned and liberally applied.

Now I need a boat for these sticks.

3 spars

Plug detail.

In preparation for spar sanding, I decided to cut the openings for the mast sheaves. I pulled the Delrin sheaves from a pair of old Schaefer blocks I found in the shed (don’t know what boat they came from). Both are approximately 3/16″ short of the mast tips and will work just fine for the halyards.

spar and drill press on bench.

successive borings.

Sheave test fit.

I jigged the spars level on the open bench, chocked them in place, and bore holes for the sheave slots. A Forstner bit did quick work of it.

A chisel and utility knife roughed the edges to shape. Filing completed the needed slot width.

In racing to get some work on the boat done before a busy week, I neglected to take many pictures. The weather was fantastic. Cool and bright today.

What I did accomplish:

• Keelson shaping-
  • with “witness” saw cuts every 1.5″ a chisel readily removed a majority of the wood. The handplane got closer and will be fine tuned prior to setting the garboard planks.
• New battens-
  • the previous set were so fraught with breaks and twists that they had to go.
  • new strong yellow pine battens were scarfed and placed on the forms. YP was from the kayak build. Save those scraps. They will be useful somewhere.
  • some tweaking of the battens has been made over 2 days as different views seem to reveal slight “hard” spots in the curves. No dramatic changes, but 1/8″ movements here and there.

• Garboard plank template-
  • I will use the “ladder” technique to form a template from the battens.
  • a batten will have to be placed on the previous plank to make the successive template. We’ll see how that goes.

• Cut birdsmouth staves for main mast-
  • all 8 came from a 5/4x6x18′ plank cut into 4 pieces which were then split vertically.
  • using a jack plane the staves were tapered. Hand planing smoothed the final result.

Familiar set up. See kayak build.

Multiple finger boards for ripping with kerf blade.

Planing taper to ganged staves.

Outdoor shop.

Awning study. Looking for a simple tent design with low windage.

In reality there are no drawings for the Sooty. It is a stretched version of Oughtred’s “Arctic Tern” by 18″. The moulds are pushed further apart and the shear is adjusted up maybe 1/4″. So, you purchase the Arctic plans and a Sooty “supplement” which includes a lines plan and offsets. All other detail is derived from studying the Arctic plans seen here:

Made a stack of “clothes pin” clamps (32)

The building platform.

1/2″ OSB painted light grey for moulds.

Moulds cut and mounted.

Battens for plank alignment.

Aft stem & keelson added. Note mould bracing.

Not so fine platform extension for stem.

Aft stem formwork.

Formwork close up.

Inner stem or apron glued up.

Outer stem glue up.

Since I do not have enough long reaching clamps, I waited for inner stem to dry to use it as the form for the outer. Make sure to add clear plastic tape or plastic between the two!

While I waited for the plywood order, I began the spars. I’ll allow Duckworks to explain the particulars.
These too are of douglas fir. The preferred sitka spruce proved too dear by a cost factor of seven! I reality the weight savings is negligible in birdsmouth construction and I like the amber tones of fir better. Fir also shows some strength advantages. I questioned the 33#/cubic foot weight typically specified, so I weighed a 2x4x12′ board and interpolated to #/cu. ft. I got 33.4#/cf.
The Duckworks calculators are very helpful. There are calcs for proper diameter and stave thicknesses based on a solid spar. The main mast is specified as a 3″ diameter spar. The calcs add 15% for a 3.33″ diameter  or just more than 1/4″. Thus far I have constructed the mizzen mast and yard. The booms will be made solid due to their weight is low and all the blocking for cleats, pulleys, etc. would fill the hollow spar. I also thought a more bullet proof spar here would be desirable.

CADD drawings of spar and a cut off portion.

16 sided spar and cherry plug.

Mizzen mast base with slot as a weep.

Open bench allows spar clamping and shavings to fall.

The open bench is 20′ long. I saw this great arrangement on Andy Kane’s photo collection. I built mine from a discarded pallet and four 10′ 2x4s. The reuse makes one feel you are cheating the expense. The stack of clamps were made from scraps left over from my SOF kayak frames. Having the bench outside keeps the dust outside too.

Other parts I’ve started are the rudder head faces. These are from cherry boards which I lugged from city to city and house to house from Houston to Virginia. I knew one day I’d find a project to do the boards justice. I enlarged the rudder drawing, plotted sheets (8.5×11), taped them and made an OSB template. The cherry was just shy of the needed width, so I epoxied a joint where the faces will hold a solid piece inside.

Rudder layout.

Layout on cherry.

Rudder head template.

Lastly, I’ll show a screw up. Despite my efforts to place the birds mouth yard in a jig to keep it true, in tightening the zip ties I must have pushed/pulled too hard and put a crook in the spar’s end. I was ready to make another when cooler heads prevailed. I realized the spar was straight on one axis. A delicate slice along 4′ of the crooked axis allowed for realignment and work to go on. In an odd way I’m proud of the small scar left in the spar

Zip tie waste.

Saw surgery along curved stave.

Slice before epoxy.

I’ll photo the finished spar later. A second boom and the main mast need to be built, but we have the hang of it now.