More Progress on the Goose
January 23-24, 2015

It's hard to take progress pictures during a build where you are more or less designing on the fly. That, plus the fact I get epoxy all over my gloves and can't take pictures. Then, of course, there isn't much interest in pictures of stacks of plywood or cut up bits of wood.

On Friday, I worked at attaching chines and gunnels to the sides - dull stuff, just glue and screws. Let's pick up what action there was on Saturday, OK?

This is the goal: A scow 12' long and 4' wide, flying an 89sqft sail and sporting an external leeboard on the starboard side - in case I ever get to take her to the Texas 200 where the wind always blows from the starboard quarter. You don't want your leeboard on the leeward side. Ain't sailor talk fun?

The sides have that funky reversed sheer to make it comfortable for rowing - rowing ergonomics is both simple and complex.

That little domed over cabin is giving me fits. It'd be so much easier to just lop it off, but then I wouldn't learn anything and where's the fun in that?

Saturday was gorgeous on the coast. There was a nice layer of fog drifting through the forested hills and the water was as calm as glass. Of course, I went inside the Boathouse and didn't come back out until it was time for me to go home.

Geoff was there, and got busy removing screws from the chines and gunnels. There were a lot of screws, and each hole needed filled with a toothpick dipped in glue.

NOTE: I have learned the toothpick dipped in glue trick is probably not the best. If the end of the toothpick ever gets exposed to water, it'll wick it up into the wood making access for rot. Knowing that, and evaluating it against other methods with regard to cost and expediency, I am willing to still use it.

I agonized over how to attach the bow and stern transoms to the sides - for no reason. I ended up doing it the same way I did it on every PDR I have built.

We clamped the sides together and did the final shaping, trying to get them perfectly matched. The Goose plans had a lovely curve in them. I fear our final curve is a few millimeters off.

Our final task for the day was to do a Payson Butt Joint for the bottom. We'll see how it came out next week.

That's it for this week. Come back by next week and maybe we'll have gone 3D.