Arctic Tern Build

May 1, 2017

It has been awhile since I last posted an update on my Arctic Tern build.  I have accomplished a number of steps since then which include the planning down of the laminated inner and outer stems, beveling the stems in preparation for planking, cutting the centerboard slot in the keelson, mounting and epoxying the keelson and stems onto the building frame, and fairing the keelson and stems to form the inner backbone of the boat.

Once both inner and outer stems were laminated I then cleaned up the majority of epoxy that accumulated on the edges with my power hand planner.  Then I set up my surface planner and began feeding them through, taking off a little bit of material on each pass, alternating sides until they were the correct thickness of 1 ½”. 

 

 

 

 

I put the two outer stems aside as they will not be incorporated into the boat until the planking is complete. 

Then using dimensions from the drawings I marked off the centerline on both inner stems along with the amount of material that had to be beveled off of the edges of the stems.  I used my power hand planner and slowly beveled the edges to the specified dimension.  Once complete I used a ¼” round over bit on the inside edges of each stem as it was suggested in the video series on OCH since these edges will be visible on the inside of the boat. 

My next step was to prepare the keelson.  I was able to purchase a 3 ½” wide x ¾” thick x 14’ long board so I didn’t have to do any cutting to width or thickness.  I only needed 12’ 5 ½” but I intended to cut off the extra once fitted on the boat.  I carefully measured out the position of the center board slot and used my circular saw to cut out the slot.  I finished up the cuts using my Japanese Pull Saw and a chisel.  Once cut, I sanded and filed to make sure all corners were square and smooth.  It is not perfect but pretty close to the required dimensions.

 

While working on these various steps I ordered the Okoume Plywood that I would be using for the planking as well as some bulkheads and possibly decks on the bulkheads.  After looking around for the best price and delivery on the Okoume, I ended up ordering everything from Boat Builder Central in Florida.  I would highly recommend them as they had the best pricing along with the most excellent service.  They packaged and shipped everything in a timely manner and provided me with updates as to tracking and delivery information.  I would definitely buy from them again.  They also have a forum and tech support portion to their website just for boat builders.  http://boatbuildercentral.com  

 

The stems were then placed and clamped on the building frame making sure to line up the proper positions in regards to the building stations and top of the building frame.  I then placed the keelson in position and was able to determine the location of the cut of each stem to align with each end of the keelson.  I found that making a flat cut on each stem was more difficult than I thought.  I used my circular saw to make the initial cut and then used the bench sander to square everything up.  Clamped everything in place and prepared to epoxy them together.

I used a good mix of epoxy and filler and as suggested in the OCH video I put two temporary screws into each to secure the joint between the stems and the keelson.  I let these epoxy joints cure for a few days before moving on to the next step.

 

 

Next step was to fair the keelson to the curve of the stems.  Using my belt sander I carefully began removing material until I could begin to see the curve taking a nice fair shape.  I finished up with using a sanding board and then to check the curve I clamped the outer stem to check on the fairness of my curve.  I found that I could easily see some high spots using this method which helped me in obtaining the fairest transitional curve between the stems and the keelson. 

My next step will be to begin beveling the keelson to the correct angle for the fitting of the garboard plank.  I have to admit that I am somewhat apprehensive about doing this as I see this as a very critical step in preparing for the epoxying of the garboard.  I will have to just take my time and be patient so that I don’t remove too much material.