The 12 1/2 frames have been wrestled into shape… at last!
You may recall the pile of broken frames from last week… well the frames finally decided that it was useless to resist.
(photo: Warren Barker)
They've all been bent on to their molds now,
(photo: Warren Barker)
and the students can get on with the next task. For now, that's riveting the floors to the frames and fairing everything in.
Here, Warren Barker works with a second year student on how best to arrive at the proper bevel angles for the floors.
One of the realities of this profession is that there is rarely one and only one right way to do things. This is particularly true when working out frame and floor bevels from the lofting. Warren makes a point of showing at least two ways of doing this with the students.
The stem is done now, the keel will attach at that notch soon.
At the other end of the boat… the transom is built and ready to be fastened to the keel as well.
The quartersawn oak used for the transom has some beautiful ray fleck patterns. It's going to look incredible with some varnish on it.
There is visible progress over on the Gar Wood… at last!
The transom frame has been completed,
(photo: Warren Barker)
and it's looking good.
Yeah, I'll drink to that. For a production boat, this frame looks like a piece of furniture. The curve is particularly nice.
The crew has finished up a number of frames and set them in place.
That light colored one sticking up in the air… it's was just sitting sideways in the boat.
Many other frames are in process.
The construction of the power boats is very different from that of most sailboats. The primary strength of the sailboat's structure lies in the solid attachment of the frames to the keel, with the sheer clamp and planking tying everything together. These power boats are built mostly on a platform made up of the keel and two longitudinal beams. Here, you can see one of those (red) beams being positioned in the boat.
The bottom of the hull will be primarily supported by the frames, which in turn will bear on the beams.
If you took the sides of the boat away, you would essentially have a v-bottomed sled.
Up forward, the hull is supported by smaller half-frames that seat in sockets in the chine (the chine is the original wood strip on the right)
and will rest on top of the smaller pawn-shaped wood parts that rest on… you guessed it, the longitudinal beam. These half frames are just there to help transmit the load on the hull as the boat pounds through the water down to the beams. It really is simplicity itself.
The Chris Craft uses the same type of construction as the Gar Wood, only a little smaller. The long beams aren't installed yet, but you can see them in this early photo of the boat.
Most of the frames are done and set in place.
Ok, except this one.
The keel is installed as well.
Over in Beetle cat land, the backbones are almost finished.
They look like viking ships siting there.
While everyone is close to the same stage of progress, there's always a range. Some folks are cutting the transition rabbet between the stem and keel.
Some are just finishing up their transoms. Here's one particularly beautiful one that will be finished bright.
Some are just carrying their backbones around trying to figure out what to do with them.
By next week, we should be seeing backbones installed in just about every boat.