Wood Duck 12 - Hull assembly question - the

Builder's Forum
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Hi all, 

I'm building my first Chesapeake Light Craft vessel - a Wood Duck 12, and have a question about assembling the hull panels. 

The first two went together perfectly, the bulkhead and temporary formers went in smoothly - no gaps, all good. I wet out the fore and aft surfaces, kept them wet with a misting bottle for about an hour or so, and they bent into position easily. So far, so good. 

Next, it was the "side panels" (not sure if that is the proper term for them), and I started on one side, in the middle as the instructions state. Joined the tops of them to the formers/ bulkheads as per instructions, started joining the two panels to gether along the seam, working to the back. No problems, all looks good and true. 

I then work my way from the middle forwards, making sure everthing lines up as it should, and when I got to the bow the panel that I was installing was about 1/4" short of the lower hull pieces. What? How could that be? 

I loosen everything, repeated the process and after an hour of making certain, double-certain, that everything was as it should be I ende up with the same result - short on the bow. Okay, these are precision cut panels I tell myself, I must have done somehting wrong. As near as I can tell it's dead on. *I build and fly radio controlled sailplanes, so I know when something is off or correct - at least I think I do..."

After about 10 minutes of scratching my head, wondering how this could be, I open the manual up again and look through it. What do I see??? NO, it can't be, a photograph showing the exact same thing in the manual, the lower hull section protrudes further forward than the upper section!! 

At least I feel a little better, but now I'm really scratching my head wondering how one fairs the two together? If I take off enough of the upper bow (in profile) to align nicely with the sweep of the lowest hull portion, odd wood detailing is going to appear, maybe even some of the filleting material that I will eventually put in the nose. 

All this to say, does anyone have any words of wisdom as to how to proceed? I want this to look as nice as possible, and the thought of painting the hull to hide inconsistencies in wood/epoxy at the nose just doesn't appeal. 

Thanks!

Rob

P.S. Is posting an image here as difficult as it seems? It could be much easier, just a comment. 

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Thanks Lazlo, I guess that I should familiarize myself with the CLC site a little more! I greatly appreciate your help!

Rob

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Okay, so the hull is basically together, and tight enough everywhere. I spent a day going over it with a friend to help fine tune it and then we attacked the deck. So far, so good as it is now loosely assembled and resting in place. A couple of questions for those who wouldn't mind lending some opinions? Thanks!

1. Should I mostly tigthen up the entire deck (and bulkheads/forms) before attaching it to the hull? Then, if needed, loosen up some connections to get the two to go togther nicely? Is it mostly the joint between the deck and hull that needs fine tuning to get them to go together nicely is what I'm asking I guess?

2. As for attaching the deck to the hull, should I go the route of using copper wire or using the stretch-wrap method? The latter looks easier, but I'm not sure how it will work for any fine-tuning that might be needed? Perhaps after using the wires to get everything "just right" the shrink-wrap method might work for subsequent re-attachments? Any advice here is appreciated!

Lazlo - greatly appreciate your site - as for the mounts you installed for the footpegs, where did you get them from, do you recall? Your approach looks very good, and I'd like to do the same when I get to that point in the build.

Thanks all for your help!

Rob

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From CLC, of course :-)

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/boat-gear/kayak-footbraces-rudders/internal-footbrace-mounting-kit.html

They've worked very well for me on multiple boats.

Have fun,

Laszlo

 

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I had a similar problem with the Chesapeak lt 17.  bottom pannels were a bit long.  I just made sure they were tight at the bow, even if a bit long, took a small saw and trimmed a nice line by eye. (had to remove a stitch if i remember correctly) then tied and clamped in back in.  Still a bit off but not much.  glued it from the inside, removed stitches and faired everything once the glue was set.  Looks great now. 

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Thanks all for your advice and suggestions, I'm about to tackle pulling together the bow and stern bits into a hopefully beautiful solution! 

Did anyone wet out the surfaces in order to get them a little more pliable, or is that necessary? I did that to the lower portions of the bow and stern and it sure helped "convince" the wood to go where I wanted/needed it to. 

Thanks again, I'll post updates of my progress. I sure wish that posting pics in this forum were easier! Ah well, thanks for the advice!

Rob

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Hey Lazlo, a question for you if you don't mind, and anyone else who has thoughts on this I'd appreaciate hearing them also!

I noticed on your website that you attached to two upper-hull pieces of wood at the bow prior to fastening the lower and upper hull portions at the chine. How did this work for you? For some reason I thought of doing it the other way around - attach at the chine, then pull the nose together? 

Thanks!

Rob

Learning as I go, with the help of others!

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Rob,

As I recall (and it’s been almost 6 years now), I had tried it the way you mentioned and it wasn’t working. It kept pulling apart. So I decided to try it the other way.

The problem was that I had a very early manual, one printed before it became standard practice to use the wet towels and the wood was resisting torture.

Have fun,

Laszlo

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Sorry for the double-post, I can't figure out how to edit a post that I've already submitted...the paragraph should read...

>At least I feel a little better, but now I'm really scratching my head wondering how one fairs the two together? If I take off enough of the lower bow section (in profile) to align nicely with the sweep of the upper hull portion, odd wood detailing is going to appear, maybe even some of the filleting material that I will eventually put in the nose. 

Thanks again for any and all suggestions!

Rob

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  Morning Rob,

  I don't have an explanation for you but will share what works for me. I start the sides by LOOSLY tieing the tops of the panels to the temp forms and bulkhead. This will keep the splice from straining then I start from the bow and work to the stern stitching the panels in place tightly and alternating sides of the boat so progress is uniform. My experience is ther will be a variation in length at the stern but no big deal - work the sides and stern piece together keeping an eye on the stern piece for 'square' to the hull. Much better to adjust and fair the stern imo. After fillets and tape I take a belt sander to the bottom panels and eliminate the material extending beyond the sides/stern. If you plan to leave the sides bright be careful not to burn them accidentally with the sander.

  I'm assuming you plan to paint the bottom pieces...

  HTH, Bob.

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Rob,

First, you are not alone. Besides this forum there's also the CLC tech support phone number.

Second, don't go cutting wood yet.

Third, the reason this happens is because while the wood may be precision cut, it's still thin sheets of a natural priduct being assembled under varying circumstances (temperature, humidity, etc.) by different people.

The way to fix this without removing wood is lots of patience. Do what Bob says, tie everything loosely. Then go back and adjust the ties one by one, bit by bit. While you're afjusting them watch to see what changes as you tighten and loosen each tie.

Since they are precision cut panels, that extra length is coming and going from somewhere. If you stretch the middle wider, that pulls in the length. Reducing the width will increase the length. The natural variation in wood grain may make the amount different for each panel. All you can do is keep tweaking until it's perfect or you get tired of it.

The good news is that painting the bottom with epoxy/graphite mixture is a good thing for protecting the bottom and it just happens to cover the scars of surgery.

If you haven't run across it yet, check out my WD12 build website (click on the picture to get there) It may answer some of your questions that aren'tin the manual.

Good luck,

Laszlo

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Hey thanks very much Bob and Lazlo for the quick replies! Obviously, it's great to have others who have done this before available to ask questions of -thanks again. 

I know that with a natural product variation occurs, which is part of the beauty of wood in my opinion, and I'm just having to figure this out. Good mental challenge!

I could post a long response here, perhaps much longer than is needed, but suffice it to say that you have both helped very much. Since all of the wood is "tight" to the bulkheads/ formers, I think that my only option to get the length that I'm missing is to slightly narrow the boat by adjusting the upper portion of the bulkheads -resulting in gaining a little length to the wood. As simple as this sounds though I'm thinkning that it might be a bad idea, as I still have the rest of the boat to build (deck) and if the hull has been tweaked in width it my throw other things off down the road that I don't want to have to deal with. Not to mention that I don't really want to take them out yet and have things go awry!? 

I know that i could easily sand the lower portion of the hull, at the bow, and get everything to align well enough. The problem that I see is that if I do this, when I adjust the profile of the bow so that the lower portion aligns with the upper, I will need to fair in the side surfaces of the lower portion to meet at a nice "point" in plan view at the bow, if that makes sense?. Sanding the veneer of the outer surfaces might show the layers of ply- similar to the inside surfaces that pull together at the nose, giving it a look that isn't appealing, to my eye. I'm still hoping to leave the entire hull natural woodd, ... but I guess the idea of the carbon bottom paint would solve this though! It does look nice!

One idea that I have is to possibly -after the side hull pieces are tied to the bottom hull pieces end to end, undo the ties at the bow allowing it to open enough whereby I could sand the profile to suit, adjust the inside mitered surfaces to allow for a "point" at the bow -not having to and the exterior surfaces which may show ply layers, but that's sounding like it might be tricky to do! I do like a challenge though...:)

Lazlo, your site is a wealth of knowledge and you can be sure that I'll be viewing it many times looking for hints!!! I wish that I had seen it before I began! More to come, and thanks again all for your assistance. Greatly appreciated. 

Rob

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I had just the same on my Wood Duckling. I didn't quite perfectly align the joints between bottom and sides around the bow curve, but it all worked out fine in the end.

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?30807-Wood-Duckling-build

For my next build (Shearwater Sport Hybrid) I used more straps and clamps and jiggling, and got a much better result. I think the Shearwater bow was easier to form than the Duck though.

https://forum.fyneboatkits.co.uk/viewtopic.php?id=151

I would recommend the look of a painted hull and bright deck - I prefer the contrast to wood all over.