Wa'apa Build - Part 4 (#2 Template, chines, epoxy..)

Still going slowly, lots of little things and prep work getting done before hulls are assembled...soon now.

I know that one day I'd like to extend the wa'apa out to 24 feet by building the middle hull section. I also realize that after the two sections I'm working on now are assembled and finished, it will probably be quite difficult to make more #2 bulkheads for the middle section that are identical to the current ones..bolt holes and all. With that in mind I decided to make a #2 bulkhead template from my current ones that I can use at a later time for building the middle section.

Scrap ply clamped under current #2 bulkhead and bolt holes transferred through.

With bolt holes transferred and bulkhead traced.

All cut and planed to match.

May throw some scrap timber on it and a coat or two of epoxy to keep it safe and stable...then off somewhere safe until the time comes.

I then got the chines glued on to the side panels.

Drywall screws through pieces of scrap ply used to hold chines while glues cures. Note the use of packing tape between, important if you don't want that scrap ply to become permanently attached.

And then the inside faces of the side panels got three coats of epoxy, wet on wet. Figured would be easier to coat and sand flat on the table, rather than later after assembly.

Three coats of epoxy, areas taped off where bulkheads and such will be glued later.

Next up will be getting the gunwales ripped and glued on, along with floor supports. Then some more sanding the epoxy back..fun fun..and the side panes should be done and ready for assembly.

Wa'apa build - Part 3 (Holes, bolts and epoxy)

Purchased some stainless bolts, washers, and nylon lock nuts..and got to work carefully drilling the #2 bulkheads. Turned out well, good fit. Tightening the bolts does crush the timber a bit however, over time this could be a problem. Either need to find some larger washers to help spread the force, or maybe just bond some type of hard point to the timber..piece of stainless or some hard wood perhaps.

Once the sun went down and it cooled off a bit I decided to hit the outside faces of bulkhead #1 with some epoxy, three coats wet on wet, and also put another coat on inside of bulkhead #2 for a total of three there as well.

That's all for now, just a little more prep and will be ready to get the hulls assembled...

Wa'apa build - Part 2 (Plywood & side panels)

Another several days have passed, and work on the wa'apa continues slow but sure.

While deciding what to do about plywood I took care of some small things like cutting the notches for the chines.

After a few days of looking for some kind of decent ply to use, and only finding rubbish I'm not quite willing to waste my time on...I finally decided to just extend my budget a bit and get some good marine plywood. 

In all I purchased 3 sheets of 4mm and 1 sheet of 6mm okoume. Nice stuff and light weight too, totally worth it. I'll use the 4mm for hull sides, decks, and other bits and pieces. The 6mm will be for the hull bottom, and floor of self bailing cockpit I'm thinking of adding. Should be enough to go around, so long as I plan and cut carefully...

A rental truck and several hours driving later...

Wrestled out to my small work area...

With ply in hand I wasted little time getting started. I spent a good while measuring, marking, checking, fixing, etc the points for the side panel on to a sheet of 4mm. After I was certain everything was as it should be I completed marking the panel.

Finishing nails driven into the marked points.

Batten bent around and clamped to nails for tracing curve.

Side panel completely marked and ready to cut.

Several more checks of measurements and correctness and it was time to put saw to wood. A bit tricky since a full panel on the bench leaves very little room to move about.

On top of bench with pull saw..the only way..

Use block plane to carefully work down to the line.

With one side panel cut and trimmed, it was used as a pattern to trace the others, and trim them to match.

Finishing nails placed into finished panel used as pattern for others. Once positioned for tracing the nails are driven through  to the bench, holding the pieces while tracing. After new panel is cut, the nails are placed through the same holes to align and hold panels together again while the new one is planed to match.

After much sweat, 4 identical panels are cut and trimmed.

With some panels ready, I just had to temporarily fit them to bulkheads to get a small glimpse of what I'm working towards.

A look at inside. The horizontal markings indicate where cockpit floor would be.

Well, that's the progress so far. Some little things to do and then maybe get the those hulls assembled real soon...!

Wa'apa build - Part 1

I've wanted to build a boat and go sailing for quite some time. A few years ago now I saw the puddle duck and thought that would be a great boat for getting started with. I bought the oz version plans from Michael Storer, which are very great and informative. Unfortunately fate conspired against me and I was never quite able to make it real.

Later on I came across 'Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes' by Gary Dierking. The whole outrigger / proa thing really appealed to me and I immediately become obsessed with building one. His wa'apa design in particular seemed perfect for me. It is fairly simple to build, and is built in 8 foot sections so I could build and keep it in a small space. However, once again things have kept me from doing anything more than thinking and planning.

Finally I've decided to stop waiting for the right time (is there such a thing?), and just make it happen. So here starts the chronicle of building a 16 foot version of the wa'apa, in a less than ideal space (5x11 patio), keeping costs low as possible, and using what I can find decent locally.

I managed to find some decent 1/4 inch plywood at a nearby home depot. It has five plies, no real voids to speak of, and it survived several days in water and thirty minutes of boiling. Unfortunately they don't have any full size sheets of this stuff currently...but I was able to grab a few off cuts large enough to get the bulkheads out of with leftovers.

Bulkhead panels cut out.

Next I needed to rip some pieces of timber for the bulkhead perimeters, chines, etc. I don't have a table saw, nor the space to run timber through one anyway. Instead I made this simple ripping sled for my circular saw.

Using a couple pieces of half inch scrap to position fence for a 1 inch cu

Some bits of scrap our tacked to the bench to hold the board in place while cutting.

Strips placed left of board after each cut to push it over for the next one.

In short order the chines and enough stock for bulkhead perimeters was all cut.

Next up was cutting, fitting, and gluing on the bulkhead perimeters.

Perimeters all cut and fitted roughly ready for gluing.

Two coats of epoxy were applied to the bulkheads, wet on wet.

Then the goo is spread and everything clamped up. The other two bulkheads were coated on the outside faces, they'll get flipped, coated, and perimeters glued separately..not enough clamps to do them all at once.

All bulkheads coated, perimeters glued, and trimmed for final fit.

The stem pieces I had cut earlier. The stems are slightly concave and need to be beveled 10 degrees. This probably would have been quick and easy with a jig saw set to a 10 degree cut...but I had to do it the hard way. They were marked then cut with my japanese pull saw, and then carefully planed and sanded to the line. Next was to do the beveling, which was done carefully with a block plane.

Edge marked with pencil to help as a guide.

I marked and cut a piece of scrap ply with a 10 degree angle to use as a gauge.

First the straight bit at the top was done.

Then carefully working down the edge, checking carefully every couple passes.

The concave edge means having to hold the plane a little sideways and using just the nose..but was all done fairly quickly and it turned out good.

That's all for now, about 5 or 6 days of work to this point. Not much left to do on these bits except cutting notches for the chines and maybe some sanding & epoxy coating on the timber. Mostly need to find some decent full sheets of ply and see if I can get it 3d soon!