JEM Watercraft

Started lofting on Dec 21 and managed to get the panels cut out by the 26th. Using cheap "5.2 mm hardwood plywood" from Lowes. This is my first attempt at a project like this and would rather use the cheap stuff for a learning project. They called it Luann at the store, but it looks nothing like luann to me. The grain is really rather attractive.



What with company arriving the following week I took my time and only spliced one panel a day so that I could spend more time with family.



Ran into the first glitch when I realized I had miscut the floor sections, and they were a little shorter than I would have liked. Decided they would be all right as is and went ahead with the splicing. Then when lining up the hull sides saw how I had missed a measurement when lofting.



Left quite a gap, but I was surprised at how much the FG strengthened these joints. I had planned on painting the hull anyway, so the appearance won't be an issue.

To line up the panels for splicing I laid a strip of masking tape down on the garage floor, then snapped a chalk line and measured the end points and offsets on the tape. Don't know how others do it, but this worked well for me.







Expect to start stitching on Tuesday. Wonder what other surprises await me. I'm having fun and learning a lot both from my mistakes and from reading the experiences of others in the forum here. Is there anyone who can give me some specific instructions on posting pictures? It seems I can get the link in here, but not the actual photos. What's the secret?

Bruce

Well the photos posted great. Think I just had the sizes too large before.

Hi Bruce, Looks like we are building in parallel. Like the look of your timber - reckon it must be better than mine.

One thing I've just worked out today is that the keel joint is the hardest line to get fair. Mine required some loosening as well as tightening of stitches and this was difficult with cable ties. Would recommend using wire ties along the keel as they can be loosened. Other Laker builders may not have found this, it's just what I experienced.

Hello Bob!

Yes, you are a week or so ahead of me, and I've been enjoying your posts. Thanks for the info about the midline stitching. I don't have decent wire to use so if there's a problem I will just have to cut the cable ties off. I hadn't planned on starting a thread on my build (didn't think I would have anything new to offer) but one never knows what may influence other people reading. Hopefully there will be something here that can help another new builder.

Have a good one,
Bruce

It's not only about helping others - it goes both ways and I've taken great comfort in the responses to my log so far because I know things are on track. Without this little bit of feedback you tend to spend a lot of time worrying unnecessarily.

Regarding posting pictures and resizing, I use Imageshack which can be set to automatically resize pictures as they are uploaded.

Well after thinking about it for three days the light finally came on this evening. After looking once again at the hull panels and comparing them to the QA drawings (for the zillionth time) it finally dawned on me why they look so strange. Tomorrow I will be cutting them and re-splicing them in the correct orientation.

looking forward to following your build here, Bruce.
I'm close to starting a Laker too.......And it looks like there'll be a few on the go......

Hey John,

Good going, you'll enjoy building the Laker and you shouldn't have any of the rookie problems I have had. You did a first rate gorgeous job on your Cape Fear and I know the Laker should be a breeze for you.

Got both of my side panels respliced this morning, and hope to glass them this evening so that I can stitch tomorrow. We'll see.

Bruce

Bruce36549 wrote: Tomorrow I will be cutting them and re-splicing them in the correct orientation.

Well that shows how awake I am (NOT)
Having just been through this I should have picked that up from your pics but didn't make the connection.

Well the new hull splices look a whole lot better than my first try.



and the spliced panels look a bit more like how they should. While waiting for the resin to set on the new splices I began stitching the floor panels and frames.



Standing on that concrete floor so much over the past couple of weeks has played havoc with my back so I took some time off this afternoon for a visit to my favorite chiropractor and to do a little shopping with wife. After getting back I managed to get the hull stitching started and about half finished before dinner



Things are moving right along. I will be leaving next week for a month long trip down to the Florida Keys so I probably won't get too much more done before then.