BUILDING A SKERRY

Day 81 - 85

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Days 1 - 5 : Order, Instructions, Clean garage, Glue panel scarfs

Days 6 - 10 : Glue outwale sections, Sand scarfs, Measure for frames, Drill wire holes, Sand & taper outwales

Days 11 - 15 : Cut gains, More wire holes, Wire Panels, Insert frames

Days 16 - 20 : Fix "gap" problem, Glue Mast Scarf,  Sprit Scarf, Skeg Halves, and  Centerboard Handles, "Tab" Glue Seams

Days 21 - 25 : Remove Wires, Glue Seams, Clean up Seams,  Shape Stem and Stern

Days 26 - 30 : Glassing and coating the exterior

Days 31 - 35 : Breast Hooks, Rails

Days 36 - 40 : Rails (cont.), Skeg

Days 41 - 45: More epoxy, Fiberglass & coat interior

Days 46 - 50: Install Seats and Centerboard Box

Days 51 - 55: Still doing the  Seats and Centerboard Box

Day 56: Making it rowable

Shakedown Period

Day 57 - 60: Sanding the fillets, Making Spars, Figuring out the rudder

Day 61 - 65: Rudder and Dagger Board

Day 66 - 70: Rudder (cont.)

Day 70 - 75: Dagger Board Slots, Partner "Adapter", Install Mast Step

Day 76 - 80: Sewing the Sail, Adding Lead to Daggerboard, Floorboards

Day 81 - 85: Floorboards (cont.)

Day 86 - 90: Floorboards (cont.). Foot Braces, Sanding, sanding, sanding,...

Day 91 - 95: Finishing

Day 96 - 98: ...and more Finishing, Rigging

The Finished Product

Launch Day

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Rays Skerry

Day 81 (1/31/04) - 3Hrs:  After putting about another 2 hours into the floorboards, I have come to the conclusion that I need to stop and reconsider my "design".  One of the things I love about the Skerry is the flair of the garboards. It looks so much nicer that a "hard chine" (i.e. sand box). Unfortunately, as I knew it would, this provides a bit of a challenge for making floorboards.

I was hoping to get off easy and be able to keep the ends of the bottom cross sections square. However, I have conceded to the notion that this is not the case and that I will need to shape the cross section ends to match the curve of the garboard.

So, I took apart the floorboards that I had started, measured for new cross sections and cut to size.  I have found that the best way to shape the ends is to measure for the bottom (in this case, the length of the section being replaced) and the top (where it will hit the garboard, and then shape by eye, using the ROS.  Sounds easier than it actually is.

Day 82 (2/5/04) - 3Hrs:  After finishing the cross sections (recently learned that these are called cross cleats), for the aft half of the boat, I reused the boards from the first attempt and screwed them to the cleats.  The next step will be to shape edge boards to follow the lines of the garboard.

Day 83 (2/7/04) - 5Hrs:  Finished cutting and fitting the pieces for the aft floorboard (will sand, shape, glue , and coat with epoxy later).  Then, began work on the forward floorboards.

Day 84 (2/12/04) - 3Hrs:  I now have the forward floor nearly completely pieced together.   It would actually be complete except that I don't like the shape of the outside planks.  I am going to go back and replace these.

Day 85 (2/14/04) - 1 Hr:  Replaced the outer planks on the forward floor to improve the shape of the floor.  It is definitely better than it was, but there is still something awkward looking about it.   I just can't pinpoint what it is.   I'll have to enlist the eyes of the other Skerry Builders.  However, it's tough to get a wide angle picture of the hull that doesn't look distorted (and is a poor representation of how it really looks).