This blog is devoted to my John Welsford designed 15' Navigator yawl Ellie. I built her in my garage over a period of 18 months and launched her in 2011. She sports a sliding gunter main, roller furled jib and sprit-boomed mizzen. Her construction is glued-lapstrake over permanent bulkheads and stringers. This blog is a record of her construction and her voyages here in the Puget Sound area and (hopefully) a useful resource for fellow Navigator builders.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Chapter 3: The rudder

Next I made the rudder. Making the rudder is very similar to making the centerboard.
First, I sorted through my stack of recycled mahogany and selected the lightest and darkest pieces. I ripped them into strips and alternated colors and grain direction to make the blank.
Then I ran the blank through the Wagner Safe-T-Planer to flatten it.
Next I drew the profile from the plans directly onto the blank. I decided to leave the trailing edge straight because the striped mahagony seemed to look better that way. Then I airfoiled the blank with the safe-t-planer like I did the centerboard, except for the fiddly bits around the uphaul and the flat area at the top. For those, I switched from the safe-t-planer to a router bit in the drill press.

Finally I bandsawed out the profile and applied a coat of varnish. I still need to finish adding more coats of varnish.