Feedback: Geronimo
Continued
Here are some additional photos of the boat at different stages of construction.
The interior shots show a variation of the bench seat shown in the plans. I simply made them back to back and walk through. They are plywood construction as the plans call for with mahogany veneer on the sides and T&G douglas-fir for the seat bottom and back. I got the douglas-fir out of an old church that was being demolished 10 years ago and never found a use for it until now. I intend to have cushions made for the seats this winter coming. There are also some shots showing the jump seats I designed for the back. I don't currently have any pictures showing them in their finished state yet.
A couple of photos show the kids helping at different stages of construction, it was a great learning experience for them... as well as for myself. The biggest carpentry project I tackled before this was a corner cupboard for my kitchen.
The picture of the line-up of guys is from flip day... Many thanks to Stephen, Jamie, Steve, Carl and Greg.
There is also a shot looking aft under power that depicts the motor well. I chose to alter the plans and moved the aft bulkhead up to the first frame. I needed to do this to make sure the Merc would clear the bulkhead when tilted. It has resulted in less interior room, but has increased my storage area. I also left the bulkhead uncut and a pleasant side effect of this is that much of the noise from the motor is muffled in the well.
Some gotchyas that I ran into and worked around were:
When I was cutting the frames, I cut the bottom sections in two pieces as the
full-sized patterns showed. I was pretty much done when it occurred to me that
they were supposed to be one piece. I didn't want to chuck the wood away so
I built gussets out of 1/2" fir ply and epoxy glued/screwed them all
together being careful that they were aligned properly. If you look at some of
the interior photos with the floor out you will see them. I figure in the end
it has made the boat that much stronger.
Another issue I had was with the transom dropping between the time it was
attached to the keel and the chines were sprung. Looking back I should have
realized that this would be a problem, but never having built a boat before...
A little creative wood working got everything fair again, but I wanted to
mention this to other first-time boat builders who maybe unaware of this
gotchya.
I still have some deck hardware to install and I am currently sourcing some stainless steel for the rub-rail, but otherwise I am finished. I am going to miss my nightly therapy sessions with my boat, but that has now been replaced with weekend outtings.
I can't say enough nice things about Glen-L. Great plans and great support by way of the Boat builder connection and other sections of the website. I never had to give you a call, but I'm sure you would have been helpful if I had. Taking the boat out is always a great conversation starter... It usually starts out with where did you find that nice old boat? And then the disbelief when I tell them that I built it. I actually got into an mild argument with an old guy at a gas station who said it had to be one of those old Chris Crafts... close, but not quite...
Kirk Bellamy