A Tour of the Construction Form

Today is my mom's birthday. So, let me first start off by saying:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

I'm looking forward to celebrating her birthday a little later today with my parents and my kids. She's a picture-postcard of the "Baby Boomer" generation, my mom. My grandad came home from Europe to rural Georgia after the end of the second world war. About a year later, there was my mom.

For fans of classic boats, the following decade brought an economic boom in the U.S. that yielded some of the most beautiful boats ever put in the water. That boom also brought a high demand for kit boats and plans for boats that could be built at home. The Glen-L Zip that I'm building is a product of that era. Glen L. Witt published the design when my mom was about 8 years old.

Birthday Girl!

Speaking of the boat... It has finally become a three-dimensional project. All the frames are on the construction form, and I've begun fitting the keel. My construction form this time around isn't as heavily-built as my last one. It's mostly as-per-the-plans, with a couple of my own ideas added — and, naturally — a few mistakes that I had to fix. So, here's the tour:

Here is an overall view, with the frames all mounted on the form.

The legs were built from scraps of pressure-treated lumber left by the contractor who recently built my back deck. I left the tops open, so that it would be easier to work underneath the hull if necessary.

The longitudinal stringers on the form are made from 2x4s that I bought at Lowe's. To insure symmetry, I screwed the boards together before making the cuts for notches, etc. The plans actually call for 2x6 boards... a mistake I didn't catch until later. However, I believe these will be fine... not to mention lighter if they come off with the hull.

The supports for the stringers are attached from the inside-out, as are the stringers themselves. They are attached with hex-head lag screws. The idea is that, when the time comes to remove the hull, I should be able to get underneath (as before with the Utility) and detach the stringers from the legs. Hopefully, this will make it easier and lighter to remove the hull and flip it over.

I pre-built these T shaped spacers to hold the stringers exactly 18 inches apart. I attached them to the stringers when they were upside-down on my garage floor. The idea is that the floor would keep the upper (topside) edge of the stringers in lateral alignment.

The forward-most spacer is positioned to provide additional support to the notch for frame 5-1/2. That notch is cut 3 inches deep, at the very front of the stringer. Obviously, a 3-inch cut into a 3-1/2 inch "2 x 4" doesn't leave much to support the weight of the frame and hull. This is clearly why the plans called for 2 x 6 boards. The spacer is attached from the bottom with 2-1/2 inch wood screws. It should provide adequate support.

Notice the arrow on the forward legs. I had to remove this set of legs in order to slide Frame #4 onto the stringers. Thankfully, the hex head lag screws made this fairly easy. The arrow was to make sure I re-attached the legs exactly as they had come off.

The forward end of the stringers are cut and beveled to allow clearance for the planking that will bend around Frame 5-1/2 later on.

Frame #5-1/2 is attached to the forward spacer with 2-1/2 inch wood screws to prevent movement of the frame. This also holds it in position where it is horizontally level. I added blocking to the breasthook support to hold Frame 5-1/2 level vertically.

Blocking to support the breasthook so that it is exactly 21 inches from the topside surface of the breasthook to the top of the stringers.

The stem support board is attached to the forward legs via three 90° brackets.

The plans call for the stem support board to be 14 feet long — long enough that it can be attached to all 3 sets of legs. This is to hold it firmly in position, centered exactly on the centerline. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought an 8-foot board. Not surprisingly, I found the board could easily be kicked out of alignment. Totally unacceptable.

To remedy this problem, I attached a leftover 2x8 to the back 2 sets of legs. The forward end of this board overlapped the back end of the stem support by about 6 inches. I attached the two at this joint with the biggest gusset I could make out of scrap 1/4 inch plywood and a lot of wood screws. A little unconventional, but it works.

In addition to the original T shaped spacers, I added two more as blocking to support Frames 2 and 4. I further added 1 x 1 inch strips to these spacers, and the frames are attached to these with 2-1/2 inch wood screws. While this will work for the time being, it also creates something of a problem. The 1x1 strips are high enough that they will interfere with placement of the floor battens later on. So, these will need to be removed before I add the floor battens.

I added more 1 x 1 blocking to the sides of the stringers, to hold Frame #4 in position where it is vertically level.

I left the aft ends of the stringers at an overhang, to allow plenty of room to work on both sides of the transom.

The transom is screwed directly to the ends of the stringers, holding it in position at a 12° angle. I hated drilling holes through the transom. One 2-1/2 inch wood screw per side is all it took.

And, finally... fitting the keel into its transom notch.