With the need for additional heat and three trips since Thanksgiving I haven't made any progess on the boat.  While holiday shopping I finally found a supplemental heater that should get the temperature high enough to allow me to finish the boat and also allow the epoxy to cure in reasonable time !!!! I should have the heater ready to go tomorrow. The next step in construction is building the plank.

Our family also grew by one recently. We adopted another dog from a rescue group. She ( Jamie) is a two year old Greman Wirehaired Pointer. She joins us and Jaxson our other rescue German Shorthair Pointer. Jamie is the cutie with a pink collar.

A couple things kept me away from the boat and blog recently. First I've been following Walt Wards boat build and ignoring mine and second a bunch of family members came for the holiday. I also needed a re-education from Jack regarding plank construction !

This afternoon I finally epoxied all the foam and plywood pieces that comprise the mast step support. It's not a rocket science job but with all those pieces and their specific place in the assembly and a bunch of workspace used to precoat the parts it did take some time to complete the job. Tomorrow I'll fasten he angle plate to station 2 and drill the steering tube hole and get some prep work done prior to placing the top deck. more later, ed.c

Jack and I discussed and agreed on the best path forward to repair the construction error I had made and discussed in the previous post. I very happy that Jack noticed the error prior to my completly covering the hull with upper and lower skins.

I used a router and cut away the lower skin to expose the area between the nose block and midway between bulkheads 2 and 3. Using the router again a pocket was cut into the nose block to accept the splice and the terminal end of the lower keel stringer was prepared for a splice. A new piece of wood was rough cut to extend the the keel stringer from the nose back into the existing keel stringer. It took some rough planeing and sanding to get a good fit and finally a first coat of epoxy was applied followed by a thickened coat and some rocks from the garden to appy weight during the cure. Today I'll apply a new skin to the repair area.

From this misadventure I suggest to everyone building a J boat : read and re-read the plans and instructions and "measure twice, cut once".  ed.c

Well I'm off to see Jack today and figure out the best path to correct a construction error I made. when I was making/installing to two center stringers that support the mast step I got all concerned with the design changes regarding width and ply/foam laminates but forgot to extend the stringers into the noseblock. Somehow I had convinced myself that they ran into bulkhead 2 and ended there. fortunatly Jack caught the error while looking at the blog entry. I can make a new stringer for the top but the bottom stringer is epoxied in place with the lower outer skin. I'm guessing I'll have to cut the skin and do some form of splice. I'm sure Jack will have a plan. Stay tuned for before/after pictures of the repair. ed.c

Well after reading that Walt Ward has teamed with Jack and Lola I've also decided to take on additional team members. Below are some pics of Frances trying out the seating and Jaxson our dog. The other mug is me. Tomorrow they'll both be working with me to epoxy the bottom skin. I had planned to do the skin today but the kayak rescue from yesterday took some time. We got to the river and someone had pulled one kayak out and emptied the water from it so we went and found th esecond kayak and pulled it free from over the bridge on the opposite side of the river, drained it and hauled it back to the truck and home. The girls plan to kayak the Boardman once every month this winter.

Turkeys anyone ? ed.c

How do tools walk away or disappear ? How does a four foot ruller somehow get lost or a five pound hammer ? I understand how a small phillips driver bit falls between the crack or behind the bench but a four foot ruler !!!

Today began with house chores before boat work and this is where the walking tools scenario began. I needed a caulking gun, I own a least four and couldn't find one. After tearing he shop apart and going into a frantic state where you cannot see anything I eventually found one. It must have walked back into sight while I was tearing the shop apart. Next I needed my very small tack hammer to repair a picture frame and it was never found, it's probably still walking. It continued. Couldn't find a file I needed and who knows where my small block plane is.

Gave up and took my wife and her two friend kayaking on the Boardman river this afternoon. Luck continued and one of them tipped followed by another and we now have two kayaks full of water sitting in a deadfall on the opposite shore of the river, tomorrows recovery.

So for the boat, I plan to fasten the bottom outer skin tomorrow. If I can find my camera I'll post some picures, maybe of the kayak recovery also. ed.c

We visited my wifes son at the University of Pittsburgh this weekend and almost blew the JX budget ! There's this economic theory that for every hug you give the kid on a visit you spend $100 dollars. Well that kid must have gotten a lot of hugs because we came home broke ! Actually a great trip and it's neat to see a kid do well in college and have plans in place for after graduation.

Work on the JX continues tomorrow afternoon.

ed.c

Today I sanded the cutouts in the seat back and said " it's time, glue it in place". In the picture below it appears the bottom of the seat is no even with the hull bottom but it is overhanging the table and actually is flush. I also fired up the supplemental heat as the temp. is hovering at about 50F and that is a bit slow for epoxy to cure. I attached a few pictures of the progress including the final fitting prior to mast step assembly into the hull and my attempts to keep the hull square and plumb. Next week it's time for the hull bottom and mast step to be completed.

Tomorrow I get the opportunity to help set up a JX at the Jacobs workshop and this will be a great education since the only thing I've assembled is a borrowed Skimmer last winter. I also need to secretly capture some measurements from that trick hull !!!!!

We're headed to Pittsburgh Thursday for a long weekend with my wifes son. He's in his last year at U of Pittsburgh and planning to spend a couple years in teach America prior to grad. school. At the top left of the Blog is a picture of my wife Frances taken last winter at Elk Lake.

Well the hull sideboards, bulkheads, noseblock and lower stringers went together fine. I've been working on the foam/ply mast step pieces that go between bulkheads 3 and 7. These are taking a little longer then expected to fit and bond together and then fit the assembly in place. The thickness increases with the addition of epoxy.I also finished the setback weight saving holes/design and did the cutouts. this was preventing me from fitting and epoxying the seat back in place. That will be done tomorrow morning. I'll prefit the steering linkage then also. I've began collecting some hardware needed to assemble the hull, springboard and plank along with runner and steering materials. Next purchase is the plank and springboard lumber.

I'l post some new pictures tomorrow.

ed.c

Yesterday I completed the final fit up of all the bulkheads and seatback. This afternoon I epoxy glued all the bulkheads in place by first coating the bond areas with an epoxy mix then recoating with a thicken mix and clamping in place. As things cure everything looks square and aligned. Tomorrow I'll epoxy the seatback, lower side and center mast stringers followed by the foam/ply. laminates and upper center mast stringer and side stringers. I plan to have the lower outer skin fitted and attached by the weekend. I'll post some pictures then.

I plan to hold off on the top outer skin until I complete the plank and springboard so everything can be fitted with the mating hardware prior to covering. I'm still shoppping for steering hardware and need to get that done soon.

more later, ed.c

Yesterday I planed the sideboards to final thickness. They look much better after all the squeeze out epoxy is removed from the edge glueing job required to get the needed heigth. The nose block and all the bulkheads are now fitted to the sideboard stringers and center mast step stringer. The seatback is close for final fit-up also. I'm still debating on how the fasten the seat back and I'll discuss that with Jack tomorrow.

Next is the fitting of the foam/ply. laminates to support the mast step and fitting and rough cutting of the bottom plywood panel. After that is completed it's preperation for the big glue up !

And yes I know winter is on the way, I winterized the powerboat Sunday.

ed.c

Today was a little slow. I'm a volunteer dog walker at the Cherryland Humane Society and was called in to sub for someone so I got a late start. The nose block was laminated up and is curing. I think the supplemental heat will be needed soon as the epoxy takes a long time to cure in this low heat. The shop is around the low 50's. I cut the two long board that runs from station #2 to #9 and form the upper and lower mast step stringer and have all the ply/foam rough cut so I'll be trimming the bulkheads and mast step materials to conform to the side board profiles tomorrow or Saturday and I'll also notch the bulkheads for the stringers.

The seat back is now cut to the finish profile but I'm debating about epoxying it to the ends of the sideboards or routing a slot in each sideboard and sliding the seatback in place to fit and epoxying. I've also figured out a neat lightening hole plan for the seatback while I'll keep a secret until it's done at a later date.

I got to visit Jack soon and get more plywood for the hull bottom and pick his brain a little regarding plank construction. I'll have more photos posted Sunday, check back then.

ed.c

Things are progressing. Yesterday the seat back was laminated. I cheated and didn't make the jig but used my workmate to bend the panels to the correct radius and I also double checked setup to confirm the cord was correct based on a 24" wide panel being bent at a 24"radius. The panels are light but that epoxy sure adds weight. I can understand the need to remove any excess epoxy to save weight plus it makes for a cleaner final product.

The hull is now dimensionally correct having been plotted to the bulkhead heights and widths. Using the prefabed bulkhead panels I was suprised to see how the bulkheads fit the sideboards based on Jack's plots. I did cut all the bulkheads and mast step components a little tall so they can be faired to the hull profile. The final hul profile was done using a router and a long flexable board aligned to the hull profile plots. This allow me to make a rough cut and then one final cut and get both sideboards identical. I deviated slightly at the seat back profile by running the sideboards a little higher at the very end to get more upswept look and yes a slight weight gain.

The next effort is to finish cut the seat back and fit to the sideboards, notch the bulkheads for the hull stringers and upper/lower mast step, rough cut the hull bottom plywood an fit noseblock.

check back Thursday, ed

I've always had a facination for fast vehicles to include cars, powerboats, airplane and motorcycles and have operated all and owned all but an airplane. Now just because they're fast doesn't necessarly mean I approached the limits of these vehicles, maybe in my mind but not in reality. The other hang up I've had is owning multiples of the species which really gets one in trouble. There was a time when I owned a number of Spanish motorcycles that are no longer made, friends suggest I could open a museum. Except for the powerboat I'm now beyond the other stuff.

In a 1996 issue of Wooden Boat magazine ( yea, wooden boats also ) there was a story on building DN iceboats. I knew of DN's and had a supressed need for one but that article lit the flame. I ordered a set of plans from Goodwin, then another set of plans from Norton and a third set from Boston reviewed them, did materials list and dreamed and the plans all stayed rolled up in a tube because my life entered a rocky period that had no time for projects.

So fast forward to 2006, Frances and I met got married a year later, we sold two house, we both retired and bought a home in Traverse City. Since the area is a iceboating hotbed I unrolled those plans and decided to get going immediatly by buying a used boat vs. building. I jumped in with both feet and bid/bought a old DN on EBAY which turned out to be an education on buying things on EBAY sight unseen. Basically I was stuck with a junk hull with considerable damage. The Sawzall got a good workout on it. What remains is a wood mast and boom, very good sail and a set of runners that need help which I'll try to sell soon.

Somehow I fould Jack and Kelly's web site and also the Skimmer site. Family friends lent us a Skimmer their kids had run for years on Lake Lelanau and we finally did get an opportunity to bring it to Elk Lake for one afternoon and further get the bug. That afternoon convinced me a J-14/JX was the boat for me. It is a great looking hull ( read fast ) and VERY comfortable compared to a DN.

I've had some visits with Jack, made notes bought some lumber, West Systems and it begins. The hull side boards have been edge glued and cut to the rough profile. All the bulkheads are rough cut and the mast step components are all cut both plywood and foam. Today I replotted the hull profile and did a finish cut using a flexable rail and my router. Tomorrow I plan to laminate the seatback and may get the sideboards planed to final thickness.

I'm looking forward to updating this blog a couple time each week to include progress, mishaps and other adventures. I should be loading some photos Tuesday. I hope you'll enjoy my adventure.

ed.c