I have been reading about scarfing plywood for as long as I’ve been building boats, but I’ve never done it. The idea of hand-cutting a square 12:1 edge along a sheet of plywood just seemed impossibly impossible. But today I had no choice. The lay-ups for the rudders for the Tiki 38 are too long…
We met Joe down at the boat-shop today to catch some epoxy work while it was still green and easy to take down with a surform. Catching it while it’s still soft is way way better than waiting till it’s hard enough to grind, because when epoxy is hard enough to grind/sand, it’s really hard!…
I had previously described building this boat as having two distinct steps; the second being the assembly of its parts, and the first being the fabrication of the parts. (Or as Dave put it to his son, “You know how you like to build with Legos? Daddy likes to build with Legos too, but he…
We are building a James Wharram designed Tiki 38, with additional engineering to meet US Coast Guard inspected passenger vessel specifications by John Marples of Searunner designs. What that means is that right now we have a barn filled with just over 100 sheets of BS 1088 marine plywood, 500 board feet of vertical grain…
Some moments of drama and doubt today. When the liftgate went up on the delivery truck, the first thing I noticed is that the protective creates for our precious plywood were all but destroyed. My first thought was “Oh no. How long is it going to take to get a replacement shipment?” But fate was…
Dave and David take a break from cutting bulkheads
We are building Mon Tiki to US Coast Guard Inspected Passenger Vessel specs, and that meant we had to beef up the scantlings, mostly by increasing the per-side stringer count (strakes that run fore and aft on the inside of the hull) from 5 per side to 7 per side, and increase the demension of…
In no particular order: We formed a new company for the build: The Montauk Catamaran Company, LLC We move into our build-space — a barn in Bridgehampton — at the end of the week. We just bought 108 sheets of Hydrotek brand BS1088 rated meranti plywood. We’ve hired our core build crew. We’ve got a…
I am back from the below mentioned trip, and that means our project can begin in earnest! We are hiring a small crew of builders. This is a full-time (40 hours/week) pay, gig; starting December 1st and running into the Spring. Our build-site is in Bridgehampton, NY. Woodworking, construction, and/or fiberglass experience is desired, but…
An FNMOC wind, waves and pressure chart By this time next week I hope to be in Gloucester, Virginia, helping a friend make his CSY 44 ready for our 1500 mile passage to the Virgin Islands. If all goes well, our route will take us out towards Bermuda and then down to the islands. Making…