Updated : Finish pictures of V12 sailing 6/21/2002
I ordered the plans for the V12 sailboat in late winter of 2001 from www.bateau.com. Since I had plenty of time before winter ended here I had time to study the plans and plan the layouts of the pieces on the okoume plywood. I made scale cut outs (1" = 1') of each piece and messed with them until I could cram the most pieces on the scale plywood sections before cutting. Eventually winter gave up and I drove 190 miles one way to Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis to pickup the plywood.
I decided to use scarf joints instead of butt joints. They really aren't that difficult to make with a belt sander and I just think they look nicer. Below show the future side and bottom pieces scarffed together and drying. The platform I use to build on is made from two 16 foot 2x4's and 1/2 plywood. It supplies a nice level work area. I had previously build two stitch and glue kayaks on it.
Ah - the first cuts for the transom, mid-frame and other 9mm pieces. One screw up and you have $90 worth of kindling and sawdust. I must have measured each piece 4 times.
Finally all the cutting is done and you start wiring the pieces together. At this point it is starting to look like a boat.
At some point, I decided my arms weren't long enough to reach inside and outside. So I enlisted the help of my grandson. He had helped me with a stitch and glue kayak two years ago so he had some idea what needed to be done. That's Stephen the inside man on wiring. I eventually got tired of the copper wires breaking when trying to pull the edges together and switched to some 17 gauge electric fence wire. This worked great and actually is easier to remove - but not so easy to sand - you need a metal file. The blue tape patches on the pieces identified the piece and whether it faced inside or outside.
In order to get everything really straight and square I built two "H" shaped supports which I hung from the garage ceiling (my garage floor is gravel and impossible to keep anything level on gravel). You attach the side pieces to the roof joists and jam the base into the gravel - level the 2x4's and screw it to the roof joist. Attach one end of the cross support to one side and level it and then screw the loose end to the other support. Now you have two level bars on which to wire the side pieces to. Wire the bow section to the cross support. I then run a center line from bow to stern and before final wiring of the stern section I check the diagonals for trueness. After you are happy with your diagonals - finish wiring the stern tightly to the cross support. Now you can start taping the assembly. It should remain level and true unless you happen to fall into the boat while fileting and taping the seams.
Another shot of the "rack"
If you notice in the above picture, there is a slight gap at the bow where all four pieces come together. Using more wire and some wedges, I managed to get a nice fit from all the pieces. I took a hack saw blade and cut some of the tack filets out and rewired the mess. Finally I had a bow I could live with.
Now it was filet time. Here is a shot of the inside seams fileted but not taped and some wires remaining. The darker sections of the filets are the previous "tack" filets.
A shot of the stitches being removed prior to taping. The seam you see on the side is a scarf joint before sanding.
