The Seats Are In! Almost DOne!

Looking aft, this shows centerboard trunk with center thwart and its support knees. The side seats are seen going back towards the rear bulkhead seat. The porthole cover on the rear bulkhead is shown, but not yet installed. This is the one with 6" diameter cover. I chose a clear cover with white ring. The ring will be secured to the bulkhead with clear marine caulking sealant and 1/4" long pan head wood screws. I like the clear cover which allows you to see into waterproofed bulkhead area. The two bulkheads ,fore and aft, are designed to keep the boat afloat if you capsize. While they are not meant for storage ,I think putting cell phones, and other small valuables could go in, the cover screwed back on and there would be no compromise of buoyancy.

The rectangle of seats in the back of the boat. Mid boat oarlock chock seen at top and mid thwart support knee just to the right of it. The starboard support knee is at the bottom of pic.

Shows port rear side seat and it's underlying support strut which goes from  rear bulkhead cleat to underside of mid thwart. Edge of port rear bulkhead cleat to support side seat and strut can be seen.

Another view towards the stern. Name of boat will be painted on the part of transom you see just above rear bulkhead seat. Under the sides of mid boat thwart you can see edges of support risers, support struts(for side seats) and shape of support knees on top of sides of thwart.

Best view I can get in the garage, showing boat from front to rear.  Lawn mower is not part of boat and is NOT my favorite tool. Good view of top of stem and the breast hook behind it at front of boat.

Centerboard trunk and rear seating. Pardon the sawdust. That will be gone  soon. and all inner surfaces of boat will be coated with 5 to 6 coats of high gloss varnish.

Good view of front thwar and it'sangled support knees.

The rear seating. Sailor manning the tiller and mainsheet will sit on either side of this depending upon direction of tack(meaning how boat is sailing with respect to wind direction).

Lots of saw dust on the left,sorry. But a good pic showing seats and knees, and boat from aft to stem. You can see curve of breasthook just under stem at very front of boat, top of pic.

Port side. Rub rail will be a strip of wood that will go on top of outer edge of boat from stem to stern. This is my next project. Combination of the rub rail, edge of uppermost plank, and previously installed sheer rail will serve as surface for cap rail which will be made of 5/16" ash.

Good pic showing detail of underside of port side thwart with its rear bulkhead support cleat, support strut going along underneath of seat towards bottom of middle thwart(which you can't see) where it is attached. Can also see porthole hardware(not yet installed and lowermost stringers on port side.

I decided to go with mahogany for the seats . I was able to get  four 5' boards of  1" thick x 11" wide mahogany, nearly the same color as my okoume planking to do the thwarts and side seats. I was intimidated from the beginning with the idea of installing these seats and definitely didn't want to mess up the boat or the beautiful mahogany boards. So I used cheap 12 inch wide pine boards, some from my scrap pile, some from the original building jig and practiced making the thwarts and side seats with them. Good thing I did. This was no easy task as there were all sorts of curves, angles, and difficult leveling to do to get these right. Plus I had to install seat risers to support everything and these were tricky also, so I used old scrap wood to practice those also. When I had gotten the practice boards to fit well I started with the mahogany, making my measurements carefully, using the practice boards as templates , and making my initial cuts proud of the line so that I could gradually remove wood from the mahogany and get a perfect fit. One thing I have learned in boat building, and forgive me if I have said this before, is that more is better when it comes to leaving extra material on a board you are cutting. You can gradually remove material off a board to make it fit but, cut it too short to begin with, you are stuck because you can't put material back on. So leave your cuts proud of the line and then fidget with sandpaper, chisels,  or whatever to remove what you need to to get the right fit. So first the risers for the forward thwart were made of 2" x2" white oak. Then glued and screwed to the appropriate spot on the inner planking just resting on the stringers and placed equidistant from the fore oarlock chocks to ensure accurate placement per the plans. I made sure the faying surfaces for the thwart were level by using a rabbet plane to remove material from the tops of the risers after they were installed. Then I cut the thwart to length, a little longer then my lines from my pine template and, naturally finding it to be too snug to rest on the risers, , gradually removed material from the ends, also making sure to follow the curves that went fore and aft and up and down. This took a long time because the mahogany is a hard, tough wood to remove material from. When I had it right it was a simple matter to glue and screw the thwart to the tops of the risers. I applied glue to the sides of the thwarts, but did not put screws through the side as there was no need, and that would just serve to violate the planking unnecessarily. After the glue cured I spent hours sanding the thwart down to a thickness of about 7/8" and rounded the seat edges bullnose fashion. Very NICE! I then fashioned the required knee braces for the top of the thwart where it attaches to the sides of the hull, thus giving additional support. These were of white oak and, because they were to be angled towards the exact middle of the boat, needed templates and then much work to get them to fit around the stringers and also sit on the thwart squarely. They were then glued and screwed in, the shape of these not triangular but curved concave in. The middle thwart and risers came next, the procedure easier now that I had the hang of it, plus there was the advantage of having the back of the centerboard trunk serve as central support for the middle of this, the largest thwart. I then made the side seats which were required to be curved to fit the fore and aft curvature of the hull and up and down curvature of the planks. The most difficult task here, besides making the risers, was to get the groove and triangular cut made at the aft ends of these thwarts so that a stringer that needed to be accomodated for, could pass through the seat. I also had to install cleats on the rear bulkhead for the aft edge of the seat to rest on and struts that went from these cleats to the undersides of the central thwart to provide a resting surface for the inner bottoms of the side seats. I made the risers for the central thwarts 2 inches longer than they need to be so that the fore part of the side seats could rest on these same risers. All of this was very difficult, even with the templates . The side seats were then glued and screwed to the cleats on the rear bulkhead, the risers and the struts, all without a hitch, requiring much glue to get the job done right so that the side of these thwarts adhered well to the hull and all faying surfaces. I plugged the screw holes with small oak plugs. Two days after each thwart went in, sanding occurred and I mean a lot of it. I sanded down all thwarts so that there was nice blending of this rectangle of seating that was made by the co-joining thwarts and rear bulkhead seat. All exposed seat edges, where our legs would be going over when in the boat, received nice bullnose curves with the sander. One power sander(the one I started the initial work on the boat with) died during this heavy duty sanding job, but it had served me well for the better part of the 3 years that I have spent on this project so far. Finally, I added the knee braces to the center thwart, made of white oak, this much easier than the fore ones because these just went straight out from the hull towards the center line of the thwart and thus needed no fancy angle cutting or shaping to fit snugly against the hull. These and a simple 3/4" by 3/4" piece of white oak molding to be put on the top edge of the rear bulkhead, between the back of the 2 side thwarts were all glued and screwed in successfully and, with that, the boats inner structures were complete. Next, I have to put on the rub rails,  and molding strips along the lower edge of the top planks, then do the fine carpentry involved in installing the cap rail. Will be back to describe those ventures once done. Until then, enjoy the newly added photos showing the things described in this post. An early Spring 2011 launching seems eminent now!