Shadows mounted and a few planks laid down

Installing the balsa planks on the foam shadows.

Today we installed the shadows on the building board and lined it up straight and square (I hope!) We also laid down 2 balsa planks on both port and starboard sides on the designed waterline. After laying these 4 planks down, we scored, trimmed and beveled the two planks that run on either side of the center-line.

Check out the detail on the stem, the 2 planks along the center-line meet up snug with the 2 planks on each water line.

This is a view of the stern. You will note that on the center-line planks, the inside is colored with a sharpie so it will be easier to see at later stages of the construction

Cutting out the stations on the scroll saw. The photo doesn't show it, but I am sure my tongue is sticking out.

Cutting stations out of the foam board on the scroll saw. Adult supervision was present and I did not cut my fingers off.

The line drawing pasted to foam backing board for each station.

Setting up building board & cutting out shadows

Today we worked on the building board and we cut out the shadows. The shadows were cut from paper and glued to some foam backing board then cut out on the scroll saw. Should have a few pictures to post soon. Tomorrow will probably not get too much done as a Mardi Gras parade will be rolling. May get the board finished with the shadows lined up and mounted so i can start planking this weekend.

I am #691 reaching from the weather mark to the offset mark. Mad Marvin on my port side and Hew & off my port quarter and Gilbert behind me.

Frostbite!

Got back from Houston after the Frostbite Regatta. What a great time! Hope to start planking my hull this week and will take photos and post them.

Strips cut, Indy and San Diego on the tube! Al's NOUX in the background.

Balsa strips! Some folks say this looks slow!

'The Jig' - Can be used by both right handed people as well as southpaws.

COSTS up to 14 January 2008

So far only $26.41 has been spent on this project, not including the beer and crabs/crawfish it will cost me when Declan comes over from England, to pay him back for getting the Plans for us from SAILSetc. Nor does this include the cost of the mast sections that Hew has obtained for us from Steve.

$8.97 - Michael's - Crazy Glue
$2.49 - Michael's - Blades for Exacto knife
$14.95 - Michael's - 5 sheets of 3/32 x 4"x36" balsa for planks
$26.41 TOTAL TO DATE

PLANS ARRIVED TODAY!

MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2008
The plans FINALLY arrived from England today! We ordered plans of a few different boats (KITE, VEKTOR, ZIG-ZAG & NIMBUS) from SAILSetc in England, http://www.sailsetc.com/ but since they do not have a pay pal option for purchasing items, or any other type of secure website, it has proved a bit difficult to get plans. Luckily, my colleague in London (England) was kind enough to send his “cheque” for the amount of the plans to SAILSetc so we can get the plans as cheaply as possible, avoiding currency conversions, wire transfer fees, e-mailing of credit card numbers, etc. The only problem is that the next time my colleague is in the States I have to buy him beer and crab cakes. As a typical Englishman, he can drink a lot of beer and he loves crab cakes, so this may be a money loosing scheme after all. Will have to wait and see.

Sunday, January 13, 2008
I Went to Al’s house this morning to strip the balsa sheets into planks and to drink Bloody Marys. You see, Al makes the finest Bloody Mary’s I have ever tasted from an old family recipe, and his wife is kind enough to let us turn their attic into a remote control boat yard of sorts. You should see the boat yard! Al put an old television in there so we could watch the football playoffs while we ‘work’ on our Bloody Marys and our boats.
Anyway, I set up a place on the work table to cut my strips of balsa and commenced cutting the strips with an Exacto knife and a straight edge. It seems that my being left handed, uncoordinated and without a lot of skill in such things, the few strips that I did manage to cut came out as curvy as J-Lo’s backside. At this point I recalled reading on the US1M site that a jig can be built to make cutting these strips easier. We epoxied up some scraps of wood and made the jig. It turns out the jig is very helpful in making straight strips of planking material, until the 3rd bloody Mary kicks in! At this point things went haywire! Luckily for me, Al’s 16 year old son came up to the ‘He-Man Women Haters Club’. Reverse psychology was used to manipulate the young man into cutting the remaining 3 sheets of balsa wood into strips. ‘Say dude, check out the jig we made to cut these strips of wood. I don’t think your old enough to use this jig, you could get hurt.’ AND, ‘Duuuuude, I bet you can’t take this jig and cut these 3 sheets of balsa into STRAIGHT strips!’ It worked! I sat back and watched Peyton (Archie Jr.) Manning and the Indianapolis Colts get beat by the Chargers of San Diego, while I sipped my wonderfully spicy bloody Mary while supervising the young man cutting strips with our special strip cutting jig! Life is good!

We are on stand-by now until the plans come in. But this is just as well, as we got to get ready for the Victoria Frostbite Regatta at Clearpoint Model Yacht Club in Houston, TX. This will be the 3rd year we have made this regatta and it is one of the best Victoria Regattas we go to. You can check it out @ http://www.clearpointmyc.org/main/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Saturday, January 12, 2008
Went to Michael’s craft store and purchased some balsa wood sheets and some crazy glue in order to be prepared when our plans do come in. The balsa sheets will be cut into strips to be laid up as the hull form. So far I have spent $26.41 on crazy glue (3 bottles of the brush on type) and five (5) sheets of 3/32 x 4"x36" balsa for planks and some extra blades for the Exacto Knife.