Arctic Tern - "Edith"

After finishing my first Cedar Strip Canoe I decided to build another boat that would expand my knowledge of boat building as well as provide me with additional boat building skills,

I looked at a number of different designs.  Many featured by Wooden Boat Magazine and Wooden Boat Store.  Initially I purchased the study plans for a Penobscot 14 designed by Arch Davis.  The boat had nice lines and I enjoyed viewing many different blogs of others that had built the Penobscot 14.  Overall a nice looking boat but I was still not convinced that that was the boat that I wanted to build.

After additional research, I found the designs of Iain Oughtred and really fell in love with his double ender designs.  Reviewing specifications of a number of Iain's designs I made the decision to build the Arctic Tern. 

In describing the Arctic Tern I am using a description that I found on one of the blogs.  It goes as follows.

The Arctic Tern Design is one in a series of shapely double enders by Scottish Designer Iain Oughtred.  Influenced by the traditional workboats of the Shetland Islands especially the Ness Yoles and Sixerns.  Unlike the workboats, which are rather heavy and burdensome, Iain's designs take advantage of modern materials and this are lighter and lean toward performance, windward sailing ability, and general handiness.

Although this design can be built by traditional methods, the specified technique is called "glued lap strake" (or clinker).  The planking is high quality marine plywood glued together at the seams by epoxy.  This results in a boat that is lighter, stronger, transportable and far less vulnerable to varying weather conditions.

The Arctic Tern is 18' 2" overall with a beam of 5' 4 1/2" and weighs 240 -300 pounds.  Depending on the rig, she carries 100 - 120 sq-ft of sail.

 

I decided to name my boat "Edith" in memory and recognition of my mother.

I am estimating that building the Arctic Tern will be a 2 year project with building the boat, making the spars, out fitting, etc.

October 20, 2016
The first step was to order a set of plans from Iain Oughtred.  I ordered the plans on October 20, 2016.  They arrived via US Mail a couple of weeks later (November 9, 2016).

December 31, 2016

I began tracing the outlines of the forms onto the 1/2" plywood.  I added an additional 2" to the bottom of each form in order to provide more working room during planking.
 

January 3, 2017

After cutting all of the forms out and checking dimensions I added the stringers at the bottom of each form. 

 

January 9, 2017

After purchasing all of the lumber that I would need for the building frame I decided to make a clip board type holder to keep the drawings neat and organized. 

January 15, 2017

Building frames 

Using 2" x 6" lumber I had to butt join two lengths together in order to obtain the 17' 8 1/4" overall length for each of the building frame rails.  I used a level along with some wood wedges to insure that the two boards were level and straight prior to screwing everything together.

Once both side rails were complete I tied everything together with cross beams.  Next step was to put temporary feet on with clamps.  I cut all of the legs 21" in height to insure that I would have enough clearance  to easily access the inside of the hull during the planking process. 
 

Next step will be to locate the building frame in the shop and level everything and secure each of the legs in position with screws and cross bracing. 

January 17, 2017

I cleared out 1/3 of my shop to make room for the building frame.  The location is in line with one single garage door which I use to bring materials, etc. into the shop.  This location also allows the rest of the shop to be open for other projects that will come along. 

January 21, 2017

Today I was able to accomplish quite a lot.  I first leveled the building frame.  I found it much more difficult than I thought due to having 8 legs in which to level both lengthwise and side to side.  After about an hour and many adjustments to the height of the legs I secured each leg to the building frame with multiple screws.  I also marked the location of each leg on the concrete floor to provide me a reference should the building frame get moved during the build process.

I ran a line down the middle of the building frame providing me with a center line to line up each of the forms.

Next step was to temporarily attach each of the 7 forms to the building frame.  Keeping all forms centered using the center line string for reference. Once lined up in the proper position I began the process of squaring each form and bracing and cross bracing making sure that all distances remained the same from form to form as called out on the drawings.

Completed bracing and cross bracing all forms.

January 31, 2017

Worked on making the plywood clamps and wedges that will be needed once I get to planking the hull.

February 1, 2017

Began tracing out the stems on a piece of plywood.  Then made blocks to mount to form the curve of both the bow and stern stems. 

February 2, 2017

Purchased the wood for use on the bow and stern stems.  I had to settle for clear yellow pine.  I was trying to obtain some Douglas Fir, but there was nothing available locally.  Iain had indicated either Douglas Fir or Yellow Pine so I feel good about the selection. 

February 5, 2017

Today I ripped the strips for the fore and aft stems.  I started with a 5/4 x 6" Yellow Pine boards and ripped them into 1 5/8" pieces.  The required finish size of the stems will ultimately be 1 1/2" but I plan to run them thru the thickness planer once laminated together to get them down to the required final dimension. 

 

Once I had the 1 5/8" pieces cut, I then ripped them into the individual strips to a thickness of 3/16"+.  My plan is to run all of the strips thru the thickness planer to end up with all of the strips close to 3/16" thick.  The thickness planer will guarantee that all of the surfaces will be smooth and flat.

Hopefully I have ripped enough pieces.  I will know better once I send all of the strips thru the thickness planer and take some final measurements.