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.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Decking

Before we begin, it's time to play "Guess the mystery object" (answer below)






 
While you're pondering that, I'll go on about decking

This weekend I got the decks rough cut to size.  It felt really good to be making sawdust again, after all that time off painting the hull!

Fitting the deck is exactly the same process as fitting planks.  After beveling the gunwale and cockpit stringers, I fit an oversized piece of plywood on the boat, clamped it in place, and traced the outline leaving a bit of excess all around.


The panel was then cut to the line on the bandsaw


And then test fit back onto the boat.


After confirming the fit, the port side panel was traced to make the starboard side panel.  Both panels were then screwed in place. All the screw holes need to be properly countersunk and ready to go for when the panels are ready to glue in place.


The same procedure was then repeated for the aft half of the deck.

Oversized panels placed and traced


Then cut
And screwed in place

Finally, all four panels were removed and set aside for later.  They will be installed after the anchor well, storage locker, and interior are painted.


And now, back to our game.

What is the mystery object?


It's what's left of a screw that went through the gunwale stringer and the stem a little too high, and then lost a battle with a belt sander.