Day 5: Puzzles

January 22nd, 2013

    Well, today we began assembling the skeleton. I'd hoped to have this done by now but we had to spend the day Sunday helping a brother in the Church. So today I began assembling what we have on the back porch, and I tell ya, it is in a funky position and takes up the whole area!
    We've taken the concept of stitch and glue for its simplicity. In a nutshell, "stitch and glue" is a simple boat building method which uses plywood panels stitched together, usually with copper wire, and glued together with epoxy. This type of construction eliminates the need for frames or ribs.Plywood panels are cut to shape and stitched together to form an accurate hull shape without the need for forms or special tools. This technique is also called "tack and tape", or "stitch and tape". Seams are reinforced with fiberglass tape and thickened epoxy.
    We are taking this process, (which we used in the Katelyn *silent moment of respect*), and using a frame to strengthen it and make it more sea worthy. Basically were going to be stitching the seams together and then nailing the sides to the ribs to make a more stable vessel. We'll probably NOT put fiberglass over it out of principal, but if we decide to later, we can. We will be poly coating everything with clear gloss and resin to keep the natural look of the wood.