Some wind for Ellen

Last weekend we had some wind.  The boat handled very well with a single reef in the sail.  The horizontal reef in a sliding gunter doesn't seem to be that well known.  Usually the complaint is that you can't keep the gunter up tight against the mast once the sail has been lowered to take the reef in, but the way I have it set up seems to work well. Later I will post some images on how this works.  For now, here is some video:

Skip to the finish...

Well, numerous other projects overtook working on the Ellen and the hull sat untouched for about a year.  Finally I have found time to finish up and we launched today.   I did not keep up with the photo documentation of the build unfortunately, but I did get a few pictures at the launch.  We had very light winds so the sailing was a little frustrating at times, but the boat seems to behave very well both rowing and sailing.

Bedding the keel and fitting the skeg

Finally getting to attach the keel permanently.  Lots of Dolphinite to bed it in.

Cleaned up after squeeze out.

After a couple of failed attempts, I got the skeg fitted nicely.  I told my wife it was the nicest skeg I've made yet.  She was mildly impressed.

Seat risers and floorboard frames

I've dry fitted the seat risers, floorboard frames and one thwart.  A couple of the floorboard frames did require steaming and the aft most one cracked a little bit.  I'm not yet sure if it need to be replaced.   I'm just about ready to take these parts off (gunwales too) and seal and prime the interior of the hull. 

Glueing frames, riser blocks, and daggerboard trunk

I glued on the daggerboard trunk with 3M 4200 today.  I applied a lot of the glue, then clamped it down with a couple of boards and a bar clamp, turned over, and screwed it in place.

There was a lot of squeeze-out, which is good, but what a lot of waste just to get a waterproof seal.  I would estimate that half of the glue was wasted, but I guess that is what it takes.  I'm pretty sure nothing will be coming up through that joint.

I know, it is a lot of fasteners.  More than needed, but it will be strong.  I will be routing out the rest of the slot with a flush-trim bit once the glue is set.

Looks pretty good all cleaned up.

I also have the riser blocks and half frames glued in at this point.  I decided to go ahead and use epoxy on all of these.  I will also use epoxy on the breasthook and quarter knees.  The gunwales, rails, outer stem and keel will all still be bedded in dolphinite and removable for repair.

I tried to get the trunk as true and straight as possible.  For a while I wore myself out by putting a small level across the trunk cap only to find later that the cap was not sanded true.  I eventually rigged up a device to check the angle coming out of the trunk slot.  It didn't come out perfect once glued up, but I tell myself that the dagger board will never sit perfectly upright in the slot anyway, it wedges to one side or the other when under way.  And, it will look fine, why worry?

Daggerboard Trunk

I have completed a number of tasks lately without taking many photographs.  I have worked on getting the half-frames and riser blocks fitted as well as the breasthook, quarter knees and gunwales.  

Below is the jig for finding the shape of the half-frames.  The riser blocks are scribed with a pencil compass.   I will have photos of frames and blocks in place soon.

The daggerboard trunk is a very nice design.  The daggerboard is angled back and supposedly will keep itself wedged in place rather than floating up.  In any case, it is a cool looking trunk.

Pieces ready for assembly:

Trunk logs and cleats glued on, trunk posts glued to one side only at this point:

Here are several pictures showing a roughly finished trunk in place.  The trunk posts extend down through the keelson to form and very nice, strong fit.  The trunk logs have been very slightly shaped to fit the curve of the keelson.  A seat will fit across the protruding cleat on the aft end of the trunk.  The interior of the trunk is very well sealed and painted.  I will never have access to work on that area again, so I tried to get it well protected before I glued the trunk together.  You can also see a rough mast step sitting in place, as well as the fitted breasthook, quarter knees and gunwales.  Nothing has been glued on yet but the trunk is glued together at this point.