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| "A Mistral, like a good bit of beef benefits from a few days of hanging." Those words come from the original building notes by designer Derek Chester. Hanging a stitch and glue hull allows the panels to even out and the builder to gauge and eliminate twists in the hull before locking the shape down with epoxy. This boat is a copy of Walt Collins' modified Mistral Y2K BUG which John currently races. Walt eliminated the butt strip running from the transom to the aft end of the centerboard truck, which the original plans call for. This permits the hull to be shaped more naturally and avoids the ugly knuckle which usually distorts the keel line of these boats. |
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| Two temporary bulkheads. The transom shown in the first photo is permanent but these two bulkheads will be removed as the hull shape is refined. John is a very neat and careful builder. He's in no hurry to complete the boat but hopefully will have her ready in time for the Brigantine regatta in mid June. |
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| A photo of the bow of the hull showing the copper wires which temporarily hold the skin panels together and are part of "stitch and glue" building method. |
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| Looking down on the bow. More wires can be seen along the keel line. These will eventually be covered by a 4 inch wide strip of fiber glass tape saturated with epoxy resin. |
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| Builder John Z. explaining how he installed the inwales. |
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| It was a fine December day so John P. motored to the gathering in this very nice Triumph TR4-A. |
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| Top down in December! That was so yesterday. Today it's snowing. |
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| The TR's engine room. |
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| A proper dash full of instruments. |
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| Nine of us eventually assembled to drink beers and gawk at John's new boat. We sometimes struggle to turn out this many for an actual race! Happy New Year to all and to all Smooth Sailing in 2013! (this photo courtesy of John Z; and yes, he builds boats in his basement). |
Impressive work and impressive super-clean work area John ... Wish I was there ,but not sure about the snow the next day ! ... PS , Shame Smith's don't make a round GPS with a silver bezel !
ReplyDeleteRelax Len, the snow didn't amount to much. It turned to rain before I could remember where the snow shovel was.
Deletelooks like I missed a good boat party. oh well. the boat looks good John. the TR4-a looks good too. I fixed my seitect dolly so I did a little boat work.
ReplyDeleteGreg: Too bad you live 5 hours away. You would have sparked up the party! I had a surprise on my roof racks which I'll blog about soon--stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteLovely work. That basement has an awful lot of sunlight in it. Must be a half basement.
ReplyDeleteI'm uncertain of the architectural terminology; the shop is downstairs in the utility region of their house. To me that's a basement. Yes, plenty of daylight from the above ground windows--v. useful; most of the boat building I've been a part of took place in dark sheds and draughty, unheated garages!
DeleteThanks for the kind words folks, it was a blast having everyone here, maybe this should be an annual winter event.
ReplyDeleteRegarding my boat shop, it is actually the family room. All of the other (almost identical) houses in the neighborhood have their big TV's and couches in this room. I made a deal with the wife that she could have horses barns and fences in the backyard on the condition that I got the family room to myself. Other than being horse broke, this is a great deal for guys who want a nice, well lit shop.
Well that sounds swell, John--you build a boat each winter and we'll come over and drink beer ;)
DeleteHi John, Looks beautiful and would love to see the final boat. Found the pictures through the Earwigoagin page, which was referencing your plans for the Mistral Moth. Would love to get in touch as I'm thinking about building one.
ReplyDeleteOlivier: If you go to the mothboat.com website you can contact me via the "contact" button.
ReplyDeleteBest,
George