Video from the Bench: Fairing the Bottom Board

Watch me mumble through my hobby!

Previously I glossed over the fairing of the bottom board. You would think it would be pretty difficult to grasp the concept of complex multi-dimensional curves when it comes to building a boat, especially since I’m a prolific builder of slightly-out-of-square boxes. I love straight edges, flat surfaces, and 90 degrees!

Luckily, you don’t really need to have any skill to determine if a curve looks right, you know it when you see it. The camera does a great job of distorting this faired curve, but there are no sagging areas of the curve, just a smooth transition to the end of the board.

Each vertical line is a rib station, and by connecting the dots at each station, I could establish the curve of the bottom board

It’s pretty easy to see where I had still only roughed in the curve with a drawknife, where there are scallops from waste removal, and humps where more material still needs to be removed. By sighting down the 7ft edge you can easily see highs and lows, as you work to you line.

I’ll use this post to finish up talking about bottom boards because I’m tired of talking about it, once I finished fairing the edges, I planed and then sanded the board to the final finish roughness, planing it smooth and then roughing the surface to 220 with the sander for when it eventually takes varnish. After the final smoothing, we can finally move on.

Helmet is on standby just incase I need to chainsaw this bastard in half

Checking for imperfections with mineral spirits. Easier to check on it now, rather than wait until I have sets of ribs every 6 inches getting in the way of sanding.

Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter. I hope you can get outside and enjoy Spring. The Narcissus are just starting to bloom here in Connecticut, and have plenty of pollen coming from the maples, willows, and skunk cabbage. A great time to be a bee!