Ruth:

Countless days were logged away as Garrett searched for CVG Fir. Found through Craigslist was a plentiful supply milled from 6ft diameter trees. This stuff is truly beautiful and exactly what we were looking for to complete our planking. A few loose ends with the frames are quickly wrapping up. Happy to soon be planking. I can’t wait to see her in her skin!

                

Checking the bevels on the frames and then drilling for the bolts to hold it all together.

  

I attempted to fit the whole boat into one picture…. Not the best but still kind of neat. And Garrett caught a great picture from the stern looking forward!

The hunt is never over for lumber and other materials so wish us luck!

Thank you everyone for the support!

Well here it is episode 3! Feel the majestic poetry as it tickles all of your fancy’s.

We have finished the framing up to the bow,  and I must say she is looking rather sexy like!

      I definitely could have trimmed the forward frames down, but I find comfort in seeing those massive chunks of wood right up in the bow

 I wish I were a competent enough photographer to show the curves of the hull… She looks much less boxy in person!  And here’s a couple more just because…

Only three more frames to go in the bow! We can really start to see our salty lady’s shape with her sheer approaching the top of the shed, and all of her bodacious curves!

 Ruth posing at station 8 with the latest frame. Really gives an idea of how much room we will have up in the bow!

 You can see the climbing sheer that her deck will have.

 Wrapping a long batten around the hull to check the bevels, and position on the frames. So far everything is looking pretty good. Only 3 frames need minor adjustments. Back to the table to start on the next frame!

Well sit right back and enjoy this here ding dong of a keel flipin ballast pourin ho down!

We are officially half way through framing! It took us 9 days so hopefully she will be  all framed out in a little over a week. Thankfully summer is officially over, and it’s really starting to cool down. Which means much more productive days! Somehow we seem to be ahead of schedule despite all the setbacks from the crazy summer heat, and delays on materials. We still have no idea what winter will bring. The last two years were super mellow with no snow, but thats not the norm. Usually there is  quite a bit of snow,and temperatures dipping down into the teens. We will see I suppose!  Were trying not to get our hopes up, but if progress continues as it is I think we are looking at 6-8 months before she can be trucked to a boatyard to finish her off! Hard to believe… It’s a crazy thing to see something thats only existed in your mind as a dream for so long become a reality. It wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of everyone who has helped us along the way! Thank you!!

 Her whole belly framed out! They will start to get smaller and smaller at both ends.

 Drilling for the last drifts through the keel with the giant auger our blacksmithing neighbor made for us! Thanks Jim!

 Ruth striking a cute pose with our salty lady.

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We have put together the first of a series of videos to document the build starting from the beginning! Still figuring out how to work iMovie, but hopefully we will post new videos regularly!

Just click here to have your eyes gently caressed by the radical delight of movie picture wizardry!  

We are back to work building frames after a two week trip down to California. They are coming together pretty quick so far. Although We could probably get at least two done per day I have set a realistic goal of one frame per day to balance productivity with my laziness.

Believe it or not they are actually lining up reasonably well to! We have 5 done so far , so I think in roughly 2ish weeks she will be completely framed!

 Yup…

We have finally stared framing our yacht! So far we only have one frame, and four floor timbers. It only  took a day to do the first set, and Im pretty sure i’ll only get faster at it the more of them I do.  Hopefully we can knock them out quick!

 First frame done.

 Measuring for the floor timber. You can barley make out the outlines of the frames on the table. This is what we use to find the correct shape for all the frames.

Getting the first set up, and making sure things are level.

All bolted in place! everything lined up nicely. The floor timber is the big cross beam at the bottom of the frames. This is what ties the frames to the keel. Which is why we left a bunch of bolts sticking up out of the keel. Once we get the floor all measured up we drill a big hole through the middle of it and slide it down onto one of the bolts, securely fastening it to the keel. then the frames are through bolted to the floors with six 3/8in. bolts.

The more she comes together the more I realize just how stout this design is. I think she will inspire confidence in any and all adventures to come!

Two weeks have gone by since the ballast pour so it was time to flip the keel back upright. It was surprisingly easyish. Two high lift jacks, and a cable come along was all it took. The hard part was determining where to put the jacks to maintain a good grip so the 7000 pound keel didn’t fall back on top of me… seeing as I am neither dead nor crippled I managed not to screw it up.

 Working both jacks together to slowly inch the keel up.

Being careful not to let it fall the other way once it passes the teetering point.

HAZZAH!

The last couple days we have been working on getting the keel totally done. We still had three timbers to attach in order to complete the keel assembly.

She grew a little!

 Forefoot, stem, and stem knee added up front. transom knee aft. She now only has a few feet of clearance from the rafters in the shed! Some slight miscalculations in determining the height of the shed….. definitely swabs fault.

Hard to believe we are at the framing stage! We are itching to start building the frames, but we are still waiting on the lumber. Hopefully by midweek we can get started on them, but for now it’s pretty freakin cool to see the whole keel put together!