Building a Beg-Meil

My Labor Day break from my normal labors was to labor on the boat, and I was able to glue on the skeg.

At the end of the last post, I’d been slowly laminating strips to wood to build up the skeg.

What, you may be asking yourself, is a “skeg?”

Woodworking is rife with clichés (“measure twice, cut once”).

The garboard planks are the two closest to the keel, or in this case, on top of the keel.

Before I can think about fitting the garboard planks, I need to bevel the keel so the planks fit at just the right angle.

In our last episode, I’d expressed some concern about the springback in the keel impacting the alignment of the transom, at least until I was able to add the sheer clamps and planking, which should lock everything into place.

It’s been about a month and half since my last update on this site.

Boatbuilding can be a solitary affair.

As a part of dry fitting the keel to the boat prior to breaking out the epoxy and doing anything permanent, I decided I needed to steam bend the aft portion of the keel.

I have a t-shirt that has the old saying “measure twice, cut once” on it.

Let’s talk about the keel.

Over the years(!)

I promise I’ll get back to talking about the boat build soon.

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve made progress on the boat, but I have a good excuse.

At a recent family gathering, my father’s cousin Stu slipped me an object in a brown paper bag.

Let me regale you with a story of bulkhead number 2.

Last Friday I took the day off and crossed the Puget Sound to head to Port Townsend, WA.

Sometimes I wonder who I’m writing these posts for.

More thinking about precision In the last post, I talked a bit about precision.

You may have already figured this out, but one does not simply build a boat on the ground.

After a little more research, I’ve decided that varnish-over-epoxy is the way to go for the transom.

At this point, I’ve precoated most of the bulkheads with epoxy, but I was worried about the end grain.

I’m still spending most of my time encapsulating various bulkhead parts with epoxy.

Look, it ain’t all going to be exciting.

There’s a notion in technology management spaces (where I spend my working life) of “one-way doors” and “two-way doors.”

“From stem to stern.”

It turns out that the hard part was getting the board prepared because these last steps were pretty straightforward, and not too time-consuming.

In my last post on the transom, I detailed the issues I’d had with the first attempt a gluing up a “blank” to cut the transom from.

I’ve recently started to think about power.

As I hope I’ve made clear on this site, I’m very much still learning boatbuilding and woodworking.

I an earlier post, I mentioned that Vivier specified “marine sapele” plywood for the sheet with the rudder and transom parts.

The thing about building a boat like this is that there aren’t super detailed step-by-step instructions.

Now that I have the plywood, it’s time to start planning the next steps.

In an earlier post, I outlined some of the things I was considering around the big plywood purchase.

One of the little side-quests I’ve had on the agenda is to build some clamps to help out when the eventual planking process.

The next big step in the boat project is buying the plywood that will be used to construct the hull.

Sometimes I wonder why this project takes so long.

The release of the Lost Art Press “Make a Swedish Tool Chest with Whitney Miller” video course coincided with an expansion of my free time.

In the last post, I’d expressed some concern about the bow in the wood.

Near the end of my last boat-related post, I described my plan for a “spar bench” – basically a really long flat surface that I can use to glue up the mast.

I’ve devoted a decent portion of my shop time over the past six months to building a guitar.

While a good deal of my woodworking time is still being taken up by the guitar-building project (which is progressing nicely, even if I’ve decided to not blog about it), I haven’t forgotten the boat.

I’m fortunate to have the week between Christmas and New Year’s off work, and that affords me the opportunity to spend some quality time out in the garage, working on various projects.

The boom is “done.”

When last I reported on the workbench, I’d flipped it right side up, applied some finish, and drilled the dog holes.

You know how, in the last post, I decried the price of Sitka Spruce and hatched a plan to make the mast out of fir instead?

Remember that boat I’m building?

I’d been a bit worried about how exactly I was going to flip the bench over, but between my wife and teenage son, we were able to get it flipped over with no injuries to either the workbench or the workers.

The next big task I had was to drill two holes into the front (and back) of the benchtop in front of each leg.