Getting Tired of the View
I'm tired of this view of the boat and am glad that it is time to move on from the fiberglass. I've got all of the coats of resin on the hull that she's going to get and I'm going to wait awhile to let it completely cure before I start sanding.
In the meantime I'm going to start working on the gunwales. Sitting on the boat is a piece of 1" x 10' cherry that has been waiting patiently on the rack for its chance to shine. I'll rip it to 7/8" wide which will give me a little extra to work with. I need pieces almost 11' long so I'll have to scarf all of the pieces to get the length that I need. The weather is nice enough that I can get outside to do that. I've already got enough sawdust on every surface in the shop.
I should have said that the board that I'm using to make the gunwales is a 1"x6"x10' piece of cherry. I'll make the gunwales with 4 pieces of cherry, 2 on the inside of the hull and 2 on the outside. I ripped all pieces to 7/8" wide by 1" thick. Wood that is sold as 1" thick can be anywhere from 11/16" thick to something over 1". I can't remember where I bought this wood but it wasn't from one of the big box stores and it measures a full 1" thick.
The strips all look and feel big and clunky now but when on the boat the only place that they will be this full size is where I hang the seat. There will be a single seat hung from the inner gunwale just aft of the mid point of the boat. I'll try to explain with pictures when I get to that point but the seat will be hung from the gunwale with 3/16" carriage bolts. More on that later.
The interweb is a wonderful thing. I used a table saw with a scarfing sled to taper the wood to glue two pieces together to get the length I need. I found plans for a sled with an 8:1 ratio which is good for what I'm doing. 3/8" x 16 threaded rod with nuts welded to a piece of angle iron, some wood screws and scrap wood and Bob's your uncle. A scarfing sled.
I used Titebond III to glue the pieces. I've used it enough to be comfortable with it and trust it. The joints won't have much stress on them so almost any glue would work.
