Build Pictures of HOUDINI Gaff Rig- John Welsford Design Nov/Dec '09
Posted 29-04-2010 at 08:16 PM by George Cunningham
Designer notes:
"With her wide side decks, ample freeboard and high coamings she is a dry boat, her sharp underwater sections make her stable and much faster than many would expect, while the amount of room is just amazing! One could happily accommodate six or seven adults for an afternoon sail, or four big kids” plus a mountain of camping gear for a week away. This is a boat that not only thinks its a twenty footer but manages to convince most other people that she’s much bigger than she really is as well." - John Welsford - New Zealand
LINKS:
John Welsford Small Craft Design
My Tender Behind website
My Tender Behind Album on this website
Bill Rintala's Fabulous Houdini Website
CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE
This is not my boat, but this is what the gaff rig version looks like.
NOVEMBER '09
Before beginning construction, JW suggests making the parts kit which includes stem, rudder assembly, centerboard, frames, etc.
Some of these are projects in themselves.
First the Centerboard:
Glue up the pieces, flipping every other one end for end for grain strength and to discourage warping.
and shape the centerboard
This is the lead melting pot for enough weight to hold the CB down in the water, about 11lbs.
Pour lead into CB cavity and finish off both sides flush with some epoxy resin. Later, the CB was covered with one layer of glass cloth and epoxy.
The tiller, yet to be glued and shaped.
Now the Rudder assembly:
The rudder is actually a botched up centerboard that I tried to shape with a router. It didn't work out too well so I filled in the grooves with epoxy and reshaped it for a rudder blade. Not being quite wide enough, a piece of hardwood was glued to the edge. I'm glad this assembly was possible since it takes a lot of time, effort, and materials in putting such a piece together..
And the Rudder Cheeks assembly
Then proceed with assembly. I have yet to do the spars but they can come later.
These are pictures of the bottom plank and permanent and temporary frames. The bottom plank is long and requires scarfing two lengths together. The plywood I am using is Hydrotek BS1088 Meranti which has a stamp of Indonesia FIJI Plywood on it.
The construction at this point is fairly straight ahead. The only complication is getting enough supports to hold everything in place while measurements are made. It is no small task to get all frames perfectly vertical and perfectly aligned athwartships while maintaining proper distance from stem and transom at all points. I uses long strings and long measuring tapes to make sure everything was equidistant to within as few millimeters as possible (aiming for perfect), measuring from floor to tops of the frame ends and from frame to frame and frame to stem and stern - then diagonally. Yes, I have learned to measure in millimeters and like it very much. This stage must be done properly to ensure a properly proportioned boat.
I would suggest not using chipboard for the temps - it is heavy and very hard to scribe on with a marker or pencil and then hard to find the marks because of the board's texture.
Maybe cheap luan sheets could be used and reinforced with 1x2s across so they don't bent and flex. Ideally some 3/8" plywood would be great and may well be worth the little extra expense. During the attachment of stringer and planks, there is a lot of torque applied to these temp frames so they need to be of a strong material or beefed up with 1 x 2 or similar.
DECEMBER '09
Good riddance to December - extremely cold month here. Space heaters could not get the garage warm enough to work much.
Because adding the stringers add lots of stresses to the frames and tries to pull them out of alignment, I hoped to minimize that strain by adding more bracing here and there
The stringer bend up forward was done using a piece of PVC and a wallpaper steamer to heat the stringer and then quickly attach to the boat with clamps. The steamer setup worked just great.
You can bend just sections by inserting only a portion of the item to be bent. The PVC needs to be on a flat surface because it will sag after becoming warm and you won't be able to get your board out of it. How do I know that?.......
Be sure to make a dry run on the clamping setup because you want to clamp into place immediately after removing the wood from the steamer. The wood cools off pretty fast.
Also, here are pictures of the stem which was part of the parts kit made beforehand. 
The bending jig is shown with one piece bent on - no problem - but I could never get all the pieces to bend without a break at the curve. Also, tried a solid scarfed together stem but did not trust it strength-wise as compared to the laminate stem. So I tried again by soaking the parts overnight, covering them with a hot wet towel and pouring boiling water over them and put them in a black trash bag for 20 minutes. This was suggested to me by Ray Frechette, a professional boatbuildein Maine, who writes on the JW forum at Yahoo. We got them out of the bag one by one, and with the help of my wife (four hands or more may be needed), we bent them onto the jig with no problem, unclamping and clamping as we went. The pieces of 1/4 inch ply were very compliant and after drying held their curves quite well. Next step was very messy in epoxying each piece and adding to the jig one at a time trying to keep all the others clamped in place but eventually got it done. I'll bet there is a more expedient way to do this stem than how I did but that's history now.
Click for a continuation of this blog to newer pictures and comment
"With her wide side decks, ample freeboard and high coamings she is a dry boat, her sharp underwater sections make her stable and much faster than many would expect, while the amount of room is just amazing! One could happily accommodate six or seven adults for an afternoon sail, or four big kids” plus a mountain of camping gear for a week away. This is a boat that not only thinks its a twenty footer but manages to convince most other people that she’s much bigger than she really is as well." - John Welsford - New Zealand
LINKS:
John Welsford Small Craft Design
My Tender Behind website
My Tender Behind Album on this website
Bill Rintala's Fabulous Houdini Website
CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE
This is not my boat, but this is what the gaff rig version looks like.
NOVEMBER '09
Before beginning construction, JW suggests making the parts kit which includes stem, rudder assembly, centerboard, frames, etc.
Some of these are projects in themselves.
First the Centerboard:
Glue up the pieces, flipping every other one end for end for grain strength and to discourage warping.
and shape the centerboard
This is the lead melting pot for enough weight to hold the CB down in the water, about 11lbs.
Pour lead into CB cavity and finish off both sides flush with some epoxy resin. Later, the CB was covered with one layer of glass cloth and epoxy.
The tiller, yet to be glued and shaped.
Now the Rudder assembly:
The rudder is actually a botched up centerboard that I tried to shape with a router. It didn't work out too well so I filled in the grooves with epoxy and reshaped it for a rudder blade. Not being quite wide enough, a piece of hardwood was glued to the edge. I'm glad this assembly was possible since it takes a lot of time, effort, and materials in putting such a piece together..
And the Rudder Cheeks assembly
Then proceed with assembly. I have yet to do the spars but they can come later.
These are pictures of the bottom plank and permanent and temporary frames. The bottom plank is long and requires scarfing two lengths together. The plywood I am using is Hydrotek BS1088 Meranti which has a stamp of Indonesia FIJI Plywood on it.
The construction at this point is fairly straight ahead. The only complication is getting enough supports to hold everything in place while measurements are made. It is no small task to get all frames perfectly vertical and perfectly aligned athwartships while maintaining proper distance from stem and transom at all points. I uses long strings and long measuring tapes to make sure everything was equidistant to within as few millimeters as possible (aiming for perfect), measuring from floor to tops of the frame ends and from frame to frame and frame to stem and stern - then diagonally. Yes, I have learned to measure in millimeters and like it very much. This stage must be done properly to ensure a properly proportioned boat.
I would suggest not using chipboard for the temps - it is heavy and very hard to scribe on with a marker or pencil and then hard to find the marks because of the board's texture.
Maybe cheap luan sheets could be used and reinforced with 1x2s across so they don't bent and flex. Ideally some 3/8" plywood would be great and may well be worth the little extra expense. During the attachment of stringer and planks, there is a lot of torque applied to these temp frames so they need to be of a strong material or beefed up with 1 x 2 or similar.
DECEMBER '09
Good riddance to December - extremely cold month here. Space heaters could not get the garage warm enough to work much.
Because adding the stringers add lots of stresses to the frames and tries to pull them out of alignment, I hoped to minimize that strain by adding more bracing here and there
The stringer bend up forward was done using a piece of PVC and a wallpaper steamer to heat the stringer and then quickly attach to the boat with clamps. The steamer setup worked just great.
You can bend just sections by inserting only a portion of the item to be bent. The PVC needs to be on a flat surface because it will sag after becoming warm and you won't be able to get your board out of it. How do I know that?.......
Be sure to make a dry run on the clamping setup because you want to clamp into place immediately after removing the wood from the steamer. The wood cools off pretty fast.
Also, here are pictures of the stem which was part of the parts kit made beforehand.
The bending jig is shown with one piece bent on - no problem - but I could never get all the pieces to bend without a break at the curve. Also, tried a solid scarfed together stem but did not trust it strength-wise as compared to the laminate stem. So I tried again by soaking the parts overnight, covering them with a hot wet towel and pouring boiling water over them and put them in a black trash bag for 20 minutes. This was suggested to me by Ray Frechette, a professional boatbuildein Maine, who writes on the JW forum at Yahoo. We got them out of the bag one by one, and with the help of my wife (four hands or more may be needed), we bent them onto the jig with no problem, unclamping and clamping as we went. The pieces of 1/4 inch ply were very compliant and after drying held their curves quite well. Next step was very messy in epoxying each piece and adding to the jig one at a time trying to keep all the others clamped in place but eventually got it done. I'll bet there is a more expedient way to do this stem than how I did but that's history now.
Click for a continuation of this blog to newer pictures and comment
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