Building the Glen-L Yukon

by Wayne Milner

Page 3

Building the Transom, Frames, and Stem

The plans I bought included full-size patterns for the transom, frames, and stem. The plans called for the transom to be made of two sheets of 12-foot marine-grade 3/4-inch plywood laminated together. Instead, I used five layers of 1/2-inch exterior-grade Douglas fir plywood, 8 feet long with one good side. I laminated these together with stainless-steel screws and epoxy. (Four layers would probably have been enough.)

I used the same type of plywood in varying thicknesses for the whole project. I ended up with a transom a little over 2 inches thick. I assumed that the extra thickness would make up for the fact that there are probably more voids in the plywood I used than in marine grade, and for the fact that there are joints in the layers of plywood as a result of using 8 foot sheets.

I transferred the transom pattern to the laminated plywood, and cut out the shape with a circular saw set to the proper bevels. The circular saw easily cut the required curves.

I used kiln-dried Douglas fir for the frames, since I was familiar with its properties, and there was a good source locally. It was, however, fairly expensive at $4.80 Canadian per board foot. (All wood used in the epoxy-encapsulation method must be kiln dried.) The plans called for the framing to be made of 2 inch nominal thickness lumber. I bought it rough, cut the frame pieces to length, and planed them on my 8 inch jointer. This is where a thickness planer would have come in handy. I planed only enough to remove the fuzz from the lumber. By using this method, I ended up with frames at least 1-7/8 inch thick, rather than the usual 1-5/8 or 1-1/2 inch dressed size.

I found some 2x10 nominal-size kiln-dried Douglas fir lumber to use for the keel. The material had some knots, but the price was only about half the $4.80 mentioned above. The actual dimensions of the lumber were 1-1/2 x 9-1/4 inches. I decided to use three layers of this material instead of the two layers of 2x8 called for in the plans. My rationale was that, with three layers, there would be two good layers anywhere there were knots in the third one, and the extra width would be further compensation.

Continued