A Shipwright in Training

It took the better part of the day, but the stem rabbet is done.  At least the port side.  Kevin gets to do the starboard side.  I also get to plank the port side… this way if there are planking problems you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. 

So, here’s how it started.  First couple of cuts there next to the bevel gauge.  I used the bevel gauge first to copy the proper angle for the rabbet.  Once you’re pretty sure what the proper angle should be (this is best explained by looking at a video… just take my word for it, you have to get an accurate read on what the angle should be first) you then attempt to carve a little angled slot into the stem where one side of the slot is your desired angle.  This angle changes along the length of the stem, so you’re constantly readjusting it as you go. 

9:20 am, a couple of slots cut.

1:00 pm a couple of slots now connected up to form a continuous rabbet.  Once you’ve got a lot of slots, the connecting cuts move along pretty quick.

2:15 pm.  The whole rabbet is now roughed out.

We use a little scrap of wood called a fid to test the angle.  It’s 1/2″ thick, the same as the planking, and it shows us what the planking will look like as it enters the rabbet.  When you cut it right, the fid will be coming in at the correct angle, there will be no gaps between the fid and the walls of your cut, and the top edge of the fid will come just to the scribed rabbet line.  Here’s a good fit.

That’s all there is to do with the rabbet for now.  Final tweaking happens once the stem is attached to the boat and we start the actual planking.  One full day of work, and all there is to show for it is a groove in wood.  But, it’s a good groove.

Nancy from work, and KC, Samara, and Maxx were in town today and I got to show them around the place.  It was great to see them, and to feel reconnected to Madison life.  Nice nice nice.  At dinner out, KC surprised Nancy and I with a birthday chocolate volcano (we share the same birthday in November) and piles of ice cream.  Amazing how fast sleepy Maxx rose to the challenge of eating that puppy.

I’m definitely the luckiest guy I know.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Classes, Newport Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.