Work continues on Toroa

I was finally able to fit the recycled 9 mm, 5 ply pine panels to Toroa's bridge deck.
The work remaining to be done includes coving all the interior joins with epoxy dough (mixed flour and epoxy), then sanding and glassing the new planking from the keelson up to the cockpit floor, after which I will glue the cockpit floor panels into place with their barrel top hatches already glued in place.



















I'm laminating 2 layers of 9mm ply over the kiato splints to ensure adequate compression strength.


















Next bore the holes in the ama stanchions to accommodate the pegs on the ends of the kiato.








































The plywood covered the entire bridge deck area generously. I pinned it down temporarily and trimmed it to follow the profiles of the cockpit top, kiato splints & knees with my router ensuring a perfect match fit. Tomorrow I will glue and screw the decking in place, remove the screws when the glue has cured and plug the holes with doweling as before.
























The large hatches are the tops of plastic olive barrels with the screw top lids. The topmost part of the barrel is cut off, glued and screwed to the cockpit floor with sealant. They are watertight, very strong, dark polyethelene plastic (UV resistant and cheap)!

Toroa and Sparky the talking chicken.

Hmmm nice tidy workshop floor.


















Kiato beam splint support & gunwale reinforcement detail


















Open areas to be decked with 9mm 5 ply.


















Framework prior to fitting of ply deck and covers.























Interior prior to glassing and cockpit floor placement.















Hmmm, not quite so tidy over there.















Is this where I perch?















Or here?















What a funny shaped egg box















Where's the bedding



















What! no bedding? I'm outa here.

Toroa progress

No Photos today though I had one of our chickens come in to the workshop today, she jumped up and investigated my handy work (which she seemed very impressed by) after which she jumped down again and went on her way in search of insects.

I have now finished gluing all the internal framework and kiato supports with all the associated fiddly bits of timber which are intended to reinforce the connections to the hull. My next step depends on a source of plywood which I am currently demolishing from an old hospital utility shed nearby.

All my timber is sourced from recycled native wood from my ever growing collection. I sometimes wish I was as good at collecting money as I am at collecting wood. Perhaps I will build my next proa out of money! On the subject of money this rebuild has just passed the $150.00 threshold and is rising slowly with every tube of glue I finish. I'm working myself up to the purchase of 20 meters of 8oz glass cloth which I'm dreading, (both the process and the spend).

I dry fit all the components including drilling all screw holes & pre-fit screws, after which I sand the mating surfaces and then apply the adhesive. I use square drive screws to hold the components and clamp where possible. Once the adhesive is cured I remove the screws and drill out the hole with a 6 - 8mm drill. I then cut a length of 6 or 8 mm doweling which I coat with glue and drive it in to the hole. This forms a tree nail which reinforces the joint with tremendous shear strength. I prefer this method to leaving screws in the wood. Metal and wood are never very comfortable together, they seem to irritate each other. The added bonus is that the screw hole is filled with wood and this sands and fairs perfectly with the rest of the wood work, no filler needed.

More soon.

Toroa rebuild

Ribs installed at the intersection of the old and new sections, the kiato extensions (splints) are glued on and extend to windward as a permanent fixture of the main hull. The red kiato will be removable and will be lashed in place under the bamboo deck when on the water. I intend to continue transporting Toroa on his side with the kiato and ama removed.
I have yet to cap the extensions with timber after which they will be fiberglassed along with the deck and hull.























The blue painted void will be covered with plywood decking to form a small watertight compartment under the beam at either end. It seemed like good use of the redundant cockpit floor & will add considerable and desirable stiffness in just the right place.


















Diagonal braces will be glued in from the foredeck to the end of the kiato extensions as part of the permanent deck structure, the resulting triangle will be filled in with bamboo decking.



















Dry fit of all components to verify sizes and dimensions.
Note the final scarf jointed infill on the lee gunwale rail


















Paint removed from hull on lee side






















Mast planed and faired ready for glassing.


















Ascertaining height for ama stanchion connection point.

New year progress on Toroa

It's great to have a few days straight to dedicate to boat building. I now have Toroa turned over and I've dry fitted all the components in order to determine the nature of some of the connection details. The inversion gives me a totally fresh perspective and ideas are flowing fast and free.












































































Lee side, starboard tack end.















lee side, port tack end.















Windward side planked up to the gunwale.
































I've finished shaping the ama and I've been able to put some time into lengthening the mast by 1200mm.




























The masthead figure "God of wood shavings"
Those gray painted aluminium brackets are the old deck kiato sockets from Takapu which I have retired to the "good thought bad idea" bin. They seized with salt within the first 3 weeks of use back in 1996 and have stayed that way until I took the hacksaw to them to transport Takapu to our new home in Northland in 2005!



















An old spruce mast base I've been carrying around "in case it came in handy!"


















I spliced the base socket over the tapered foot of the existing mast by splitting the white painted section length ways down the center line, opening it up, scribing the taper on to the cut and gouging out a tapered trough. I used carbon paper to mark the mating surfaces to identify the high spots and adjusted the fit several times before gluing the two halves back together around the existing mast base.


















The difference in diameter between the two sections is equalized using strips of ceder cut like long barrel staves and glued to the section, nailed with panel pins temporarily.


















Once the mast flitches have been glued on I will plane the whole surface even to match the taper of the old section then I'll glue on some thin ceder strips to cover the butt joint followed by faring and sanding.