Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

I have the Shearwater 16 plans and am just starting to scarf together sheets of plywood, cutting out forms, etc. The manual says the form locations are on the full size patterns for the hull pieces. They are not. Does anybody know where they go? There are 15 of them -- every foot starting at the bow or what? Seems like their placement in the cockpit area would be somewhat critical. Thanks for any insight you can share with me.

Dennis

 


14 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

is it a shearwater hybrid?  i think when i built mine i had 4 forms but i built it from the kit (non hybrid)

 

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Sorry, yes, the hybrid. The permanent and temporary bulkhead locations are marked. But the temporary forms for defining the shape of the deck and the location of the cockpit are not marked on either sheet. I found a pixelated not-possible-to-read lines drawing for the 17 hybrid showing the location of its forms on the site, but even it is not reproduced in the manual. I'd sure like to know before I cut the panels out since it is much easier to mark when laying them out initially. 

 Dennis

 

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

I had the same problem with a Shearwater 16 hybrid kit. The manual refers to form offsets "shown on the plans" in a few places. It seemed natural to assume that these were important fundamental measures that would be clearly stated somewhere in the manual. (I do not have plans.) Funny to hear that they are not in the plans either.

A couple of conversations with CLC about this resulted in nothing more definite than that the forms would, "snap into place in their natural position." While that left me a little unsatisfied. I think I understand now why it isn't such a big deal.

Every hull is going to have some variance -- depening on how tightly you wire it up, the particular stiffness and flexibility of your sheer clamps, etc.... I'd imagine that if you worked with exact measurements, you'd find the deck forms wouldn't fit *exactly* where the measurement would fall anyway, You might find the form wants to "snap in" just slightly forward or aft of some precise location depending on exactly how wide the hull has glued up at that point. So I ended up putting the forms in where they "wanted to go". Then checking with some long strips to make sure they would lie fair. The forms ended up going in very close to the one foot lines, measured from the bow. 

 Form 10 goes up against the forward side of the aft bulkhead and forms 9, 8 and 7 are constrained by having to fit to the cockpit skirt form. This was the only area where I had some difficulty. My hull turned out slightly narrow at form 7 and I had to take a shinto rasp to the side of 7, and a bit to the center slots in 8 and 7 to get the form to sit so that it rolled off into the sheer without any mismatch in height, and so that the cockpit skirt form lined up nicely with the top of form 7.

 So long story short, they went in on mine very close to the one foot marks. But some adjustment was necessary here and there. I ended up worrying more about getting them in where they want to go so that the roll of the form into the sheer, matches the bevel of the sheer clamps, the form is vertical and perpendicular to the keel line, and so that the strips lie fair on the resulting set of forms. This seems to have worked out well so far. I still have about 3 tough strips on each side of the cockpit to finish before I can lift it off and really see what happened. 

--

Ogata

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Ogata,

Thanks. I kind of figured it would depend, but since the manual indicated this information was there I thought it might actually show up somewhere. Perhaps a minor revision in the manual for the next printing is called for to allay fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Good luck with those last strips -- I hit the road tomorrow afternoon in search of some reasonably clear WRC from which to mill my strips.

Dennis

 

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Yeah, funny about that manual:) The first place this is mentioned is in the part where the sheer clamps are glued to the top of the side panels. It is specified to "show" varying amounts of the sheer clamp above the top of the side panel and this measure is indicated by form position. No form positions anywhere to be seen in the manual. I guessed that they would be at the one foot marks and marked of those distances and used that to figure the "show" for the sheer clamps. In the end, when I placed the forms. They lined up quite nicely with the one foot marks on the sheer, so that turned out to be about right for the Shearwater 16.

--

Ogata 

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

To be clear, the marks I made were along the length of the sheer clamp, before wiring or gluing th hull together. So those marks aren't really feet along the length of the keel line, but feet along the length of the sheer. Anyway, all of this seems to only really need to be "close enough for government work". Barring some major malfunction, minor offsets in the exact placement of the forms is unlikely to be particularly noticable in the resulting shape of the deck.

--

Ogata 

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Since you guys have finished beveling the shear clamp by now and have moved on to the strip deck, would you mind if I asked some more questions about this subject you posted? i am just starting to insert the temp bulkheads and cockpit form. Nothing seems to fit correctly. How high should to temps be? When placed up tight against the bottom of the shear they sit too high, and they are all significantly off the foot marks. Also, number 10 is rit up against the rear cockpit bulkhead. As for beveling, how did you do it? Did you make a beveling form (we had one for the Chesapeake 17 but all of these plans are different)? Well, there are many more questions. Hopefully you are still reading these........Denise

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

I am nearing completion of a shearwater 17 Hybrid so will weigh in with a few comments.

1.  Yes, the forms go in at 12" increments, at even feet from the bow.  These locations are measured parallel to centerline, not along the sheer.  The side of each form away from midship goes on the line, ie. the forms forward of midship sit aft of the line and the forms aft of midship sit forward of the line.  That's where you start.  Now some adjustments will be necessary to get all the forms to fit snugly and for everything to be fair as Ogata pointed out.  You do want to lay test strips over the forms to be sure you will not have any humps or hollows.  At the sheer, you want the form at an elevation such that if you extend the curve on the top of the form outboard it will align with the top edge of your side panel.  If it is to high, you will end up planing the form to get everything in alignment.

You do not need a planing guide.  As you plane the sheer clamps, just check by bending a batten (use a deck strip) transversely across each form and the sheer clamp at that point.  Trim the sheer clamp until the batten lies fair out to the side panel.

For the cockpit, get the aft bulkhead located, then use the fore and aft cockpit form to get the transverse forms in place.  Test clamp the cockpit apron to the assembly so you can get it all square and true before you go nuts with the glue gun.  It all just takes a bit of patience and remember that once you epoxy anything, or start gluing strips, you are locked it.  So, get it right before you move ahead.

Finally, just a word of sympathy regarding the manual.  I built a MC 16.5 and found that manual very detailed with a consise step - by - step.  In comparison, the Sheerwater hybrid manual is pretty vague in many places.  Seems to assume a bit more building experience.  I often find myself going back to the MC to remind myself how to do certain things.

Hope you enjoy your build - it is really great fun.

Good Luck and don't be shy about asking questions.

Paul G.

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Hi Denise,

I beveled the sheer clamps using the deck forms as a guide:

http://www.antibozo.net/cgi-bin/eric/imglib/prod/image.pl/eric/pictures/Archive/Shearwater/1-resized/IMG_0693.jpg

You can also see the little black marks I had made at one foot intervals on the sheer clamps before gluing them to the side panels. I just held the deck form with one hand at the location where it "snapped" in, which was generally close to, but not exactly at the foot marks, and used it to eyeball the roll into the sheer. The basic point being to be sure that the curvature matches, and that there is no discontinuity at the transition. So that the lateral curvature of the strips will be smooth at the transition from the outer strips that lie on (and are temporarily nailed to) the sheer, to the adjacent strips supported by the forms. After planing the sheer clamps, I played around with the deck form placement for quite a few hours, probably over a day or two before hot gluing them in and proceeding.

A warning about these pictures, don't make the boneheaded error I did of mistaking the cockpit coaming for the cockpit apron. Note that the apron has the little knee brace tabs at 10 and 2 oclock. I'm certain, no normally intelligent person would make this same mistake unless they were lead into it by looking at pictures taken by some knucklehead who had screwed that up:)

I love the smell of cedar shavings in the evening!

--

Ogata, eric

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Thank you for such quick response. We went out and checked again, and the cockpit deck form doesn't fit. We took it out of the boat and fit the cockpit form onto the bulkheads outside of the boat, but once we went back to the boat the form hits the aft cockpit bulkhead and therefore won't fit to the rest of the bulkheads. Will a picture help? Is it supposed to butt up against the aft cockpit bulkhead? If so, it is a problem in that the forms cannot be moved far enough forward to fit (they are too tight). Is it OK to shave the form to make it fit? Or would that make the cockpit too far aft? denise

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

There is a bit of difference with the 17 in that the aft cockpit bulkhead is on a half frame and there is an extra form.  If you have a form for frame 10, it should butt right up against the bulkhead.  The fore and aft member should fit to your form 10 and then lock into forms 8 & 9 atleast.  If 8 & 9 do not fit, how much do you need to spring things to get them in?  Pictures may be a good idea and you may need to ask CLC direct if this does not clear up.  You want to be really sure before you start trimming things.

Paul G

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Well, measuring from the bow down the center line was the key. The forms were actually almost right on, so that was great info. After rereading your comments I started fitting the cockpit form in from the back to forward and it finally fit. There are still some adjustments to make, but it is starting to feel a bit better. Planing the shearclamp went pretty well, as we remembered the tips we got from building the Chesapeake. So thanks for the hint about using the forms as guides. So, it looks like I will be starting the strip deck soon. Any good suggestions before starting or how the first strips go? Hope you won't mind me coming back to pick your brains........Denise

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

Glad to hear it worked out. Stripping the deck is pretty fun. If I had to do it again, I think I'd spend some time with a wet rag during strip selection looking at the color change that occurs when the cedar is wetted out. Especially with strips used for accents. The colors you see when stripping differ significantly from the way they will look under glass and epoxy. And then they continue to change over time as the boat is exposed to the sun. But that is probably less predictable. Some of my dark strips had a lot of nice figuring in them that wasn't apparent until they were wet. If I had selected more carefully, I might have gotten those strips to lie together more usefully. Some were too close to color of my 'medium' strips but it wasn't as apparent when they were dry. I think my dark strips have lightened up in color over time. I have since thought, it might have been interesting to try staining the darker accent strips to get a more consistent color. But a lot depends on the wood you have, and how carefully you look it over during selection.

Other than that, it took some time and care to get the first strips placed and trimmed along the sheer and the kingplank fitted (strip down the center). Then things went pretty fast and smooth until that last little sliver, which took probably a couple tries on each side.

Have fun!

--

Ogata, eric

RE: Shearwater 16 deck form locations?

OK. About the cockpit apron s coming. The apron has the tabs at 10 and 2, but when placed on top of the cockpit form the front and back sit correctly but the tabs don't fit on the sides. There is no indication where it is supposed to go: will it be on the bulkhead? Does the side have to fit flush? When you start laying down the strips do you go over the apron or up to it? And speaking of the strips. since there are only about half as many dark ones as light, I wanted to stain some light ones to get the design I want. Is it OK to stain that wood? Denise

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.