Stringers and Transom are on !

 Stringers and transom are on...

After a lot of adjusting the frames on the strong-back, I was finally happy all was straight and true. My first measurements from the transom to the bow showed a difference of 15mm between the sides. It took a few days of tweaking and adjusting to get the same measurements both sides. The biggest reason was two of the frames were out of parallel and I 

Here's the usual rogues gallery of progress pictures.

The stringers took a lot of twisting and bending towards the bow. Several times I slowly tightened a Spanish windlass arrangement and I waited for a crack or split, but none happened. Even the scarf joints held !

Each stringer was put on and taken off several times and I always put them on as pairs, to balance the pressure on both sides. Once, I put on a middle heavy stringer, on one side and immediately could see two of the frames move slightly. So from then on, every thing went on as pairs, from transom to bow.

Skeleton of a boat

 

Two weeks of work having finished the frames and I have a skeleton of a boat, an upside down boat.

The image below are details of the build so far. The laser level is the perfect tool to center and level each frame. But make sure they are square to the frame. I've tried to lock everything down as strong as possiible because when the stringers go on, I expect they will exert a lot of sideways strain.

I used the Spanish windlass principle to tighten in frames A and D1, on the bunk sides, worked well.

Glueing up the scarf joints for the stringers.