Making templates

Taking a lesson from pro builders, I thought the production work with the good plywood would go faster with a router and templates. Another benefit will be using the templates to visually plan our cuts on the expensive ply so there is as little waste as possible and if we ever want to build a sister-ship, we'll have a head start.

Earlier in the week I carefully marked out the measurements for the bulkheads and beams on cheap 1/4" ply using a 4 foot drywall square. This was a lot of fun and you start to get a sense of the scale of the boat.

Tonight Cam came over and we used a scrap of plywood as a batten to draw the curved sides and tops. Admittedly, plywood is not the best batten material, but it worked out ok. Then it was time to finally make some sawdust.

Here Cam is cutting one of the bulkhead edges with a circular saw set just a bit deeper than the plywood thickness to make following the curve easier.

With all six bulkheads roughly cut it was starting to get dark. We set up the bench sander and got one template finalized by flashlight before the mosquitoes and darkness got the better of us. Of course, we still don't have anything that will be part of the actual boat but it feels good to have finally started.

Friday evening: finish the templates
Weekend: pick up the marine ply, cut bulkheads and hull sides and start epoxy coating.