Whilst procrastinating over what colour to paint the hull, I spent some time building a jig for cutting the birdsmouth profile in the strakes of Oregon that will be used to make my masts. The back of the fence on my Triton workbench is set at 45 degrees, with a lip at the base to support timber before and after it touches the saw blade. Reversing the fence, so that the diagonal side comes up against the blade gave me an easy way to make the 45 degree cuts needed in one edge of the strake.
A finger board made of some ply and a welding clamp provided enough pressure to keep the strips of wood down onto the saw blade. A couple of passes to experiment with the depth of the cut, and I now have the process ready to go, once I commit to cutting my two lovely lengths of Oregon into strips… In the photo of the eight pieces joined there is another cut, which won’t be in the final version. This was just from passing the same timber through the saw a few times, to get the measurements right.
The rub rails have been oiled in Deks Olje, and hung up out of the way, ready for reinstalling once the hull has been painted.
The centreboard has been coated in fibreglass cloth, and the final coats of epoxy added.
Last weekend, I started cutting and gluing the plywood that will be used as the base of the five hatches that need to be built. These hatches will be water-tight covers for the lockers, and also provide drainage channels for any water that comes to rest on the side seats.
Whilst procrastinating over what colour to paint the hull, I spent some time building a jig for cutting the birdsmouth profile in the strakes of Oregon that will be used to make my masts. The back of the fence on my Triton workbench is set at 45 degrees, with a lip at the base to support timber before and after it touches the saw blade. Reversing the fence, so that the diagonal side comes up against the blade gave me an easy way to make the 45 degree cuts needed in one edge of the strake.
