We'll continue to follow Roberta's progress on her Super Spartan build as posted on our Forum. If you'd like to read the first blog post, you can read it here.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

This morning I installed the floor battens, the next step in the order of business. I struggled a bit trying to come up with a good plan for getting these on. On the Zip (my previous build), the battens are attached to the frames and the planking placed over them. On the Super Spartan you basically have to attach them directly to the bottom plank.

Sounds simple and it is, but you also need to be able to work from both sides to spread glue and then get to the screws on the other side. You also need to make sure the battens stay in place and are not rigidly clamped so they can slide a bit to fit into the curve of the plank induced by the runner chines.

To do this I made a small holding fixture from some scrap wood. The fixture's purpose was to hold the forward end of the batten in place and still allow the batten to move fore and aft while the anchor screw was set in the aft end and to allow some movement while the rest of the screws are set.

With the fixture in place and the forward end of the batten tucked in, I set the aft position and clamped it. Then a hole was drilled into the batten at the aft end from below for the anchor screw. Then I unclamped the batten and applied glue to the mating surfaces on the batten and plank. The batten was replaced into the fixture, reclamped at the aft end and the anchor screw set. The clamp was removed and the assembly inverted to set the rest of the attaching screws.

I worked my way forward from the aft end to make sure the batten conformed to the curve in the bottom and there would be no bubbles in the plank as the batten was pulled down by the screws. The holes were drilled in to the battens through the predrilled holes in the bottom plank. The process was repeated for all three battens. Excess resin was cleaned up and the floor area got a partial encapsulation coat in the process.

Friday, November 18, 2011

The thought occurred to me today that you all might be thinking I'm building a stone boat. Looking at the bottom planking and the battens and runner chines, it does resemble one. Trust me it is a hydro!!

Today I fit up the chines and frame two. A notch needs to be cut in the chines to allow the frame to pass through them. The notch is somewhat critical as the position needs to be precise so the frame fits snuggly and it doesn't throw off the positions of all the components since the frame nestles into the bottom plank and runner chines, so a little dry fitup is necessary.

Once the fitup was done, I checked the fit and positon for the side planks. The side planks get attached to the chines and the edges get beveled to match the bevel cut into the chine so the plank is flush with the bottom of the chine.

I marked off the screw hole positions on the side planks I cut earlier and drilled the holes. Then I clamped the chine to my work table to make sure they were straight and flat. When making these assemblies remember to make a left and a right one.

Several locator holes were drilled in each chine so when I glued them up, I could easily secure them in the correct position. Once glued up and secured to the chines, I just needed to drill the rest of the holes into the chine and run in the screws. These will sit until the next work session when I will be able to sand the bevel in the planks so they are even with the bottom.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Today I beveled the side planks to the chines for the fit onto the bottom plank. Then I dry fitted the assemblies to the bottom and set the # 2 frame in to make sure everything fit properly, marked the location of the chines, and drill locator holes. Then I disassemled everything for gluing, applied the epoxy, reset the chines, and set the locator screws. Now I could flip the assembly over and drill and set the rest of the screws that hold the chines in place.

I really like building this boat. It is a lot of fun and would be a great project to share with kids. I like the fact that I can flip the build around and get at everything very easily. I also like that I can do this boat in the basement shop and not have to be heating the hangar.

To see comments and the most recent posts, see Roberta's updates on the Forum. Enjoy!