The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

... "Hey, would you go out and work on your boat?" Saturday could be worse.

Carved Stem 1. I think this is pretty close to right.

I think it's ready to glue in. Here's the dry run of the clamping. The stem has a little twist, which I am going to muscle out of it. Thanks for your help, gents.

Ok -- so I have cut a mortise and it seems to make sense. but I am trying to understand two bits of info that I have that seem conflicting. the thickness of the strips is >1/4 inch and the drawing calls out a 3/8 thickness for the keel end of the stem, IIRC the book says that the stem is to be flush...

Hi Randy,

Thanks

I need to do a dry run on the clamping, but it seems I might have a good understanding of the fitting and gluing steps.

Hi Brian, I think I am ready to fit the first of the outer stems. Having read Ted's description and looked at your Freedom build, I think the routine goes like this. Taper the sides of the bottom of the outer stem down to 3/8". Cut the mortise in the hull to fit the tapered stem. Glue the outer...

The "Whiskey Strip" and stripping up to the sheer line.

The moment of truth is arriving, . There is an abundance of whiskey. And Flamenco.

Brian, It's true, we are at about the same place. Your shop and build both look very clean and organized (I don 't want to show this to my wife -- she'll start cleaning my shop). It's coming along, there's major delay due to rain here for the last few days. Spending some time sharpening tools and cl...

I cut the centerline. I was more than a bit nervous about this step.

I trimmed the centerline amidst a bit of trepidation.

I am running out of full length pairs of book matched strips, before finishing the bottom of the hull. Fortunately for me ... in a moment of completely unexpected and accidental brilliance ... I numbered both end of the strips, so the cutoff pieces are all numbered in book matched pairs. I should be...

It's certainly clear now, t0hanks. Mine looks a lot like yours, at the point of starting to cover the stem as it gets to the bottom. Cutting a notch out really had not occurred to me, so it seems good that I am talking to you.

I appreciate the pointers. I have been reading Ted's book and it is help, as are your pictures. You have two different methods keeping the hull against the form. This is interesting because that is one of the things I have found difficult to do. I put a few screws into the form around the sheer line...

I often choose silence as an alternative to talking. I am following the advice from Ted's book to book match the strips on bottom of the boat, but mostly I am stripping. I am going pretty slow, because I am old, and not sure of what happens next. I am about to get right to the end of the stems, and ...