August 4th, 2006 Posted in Sarah's boat
With all the panels cut, it’s time to start stitching the boat together (yes, I said “stitching”). Here you see the hull sides, bow and stern transoms stitched together using nylon zip ties threaded through holes drilled along the edges of the panels (and the proud skipper-to-be inspecting the work so far. She was concerned about the lack of a bottom!). After the hull, bottom, and internal frames have all been stitched into place with zip ties, it’ll be time to move on to epoxy and fiberglass, which is what really holds all the pieces to gether. That’s right… I’m NOT sending my daughter into the water in a boat held together with zip ties alone.
After a bit of wrestling with the plywood to get it to bend in the right directions, I got the bottom stitched to the hull, and all the internal frames installed (the frames add stiffness and support the seats, mast step, and centerboard case. More on those later on in the building process). It’s really starting to look like a boat now! Sarah was relieved to see a bottom on the boat, and also informed me that I was making very good progress. It’s good to get kudos from senior management every once in a while!
Here’s a close-up shot of the bow, with the boat flipped upside down. You can see the zip ties that hold the whole thing together at this stage of the process. coming next: Adventures with Epoxy.