Tuesday, October 2, 2012

An Insight Going Down the Highway

Today I hitched the Karen Ann to the back end of Blue and headed down the highway toward Eufaula, Oklahoma for SailOK. Not a bad drive - not much traffic, plenty of cloud cover to keep things comfortable, not too much rain and only a mildly annoying detour around St. Louis late in the day. I hope to arrive at Sail OK early tomorrow afternoon.

Spending 12 hours behind the wheel allows for a lot of thinking… One of the things I thought about was how to twist & bend those lowest plank pieces in the front of the boat. I have been working from aft forward and with the aft end of that piece attached (clamped and screwed) to the stringers and bottom panel, I haven't been able to twist and bend it into shape between the stem and Frame #2. So, somewhere in the middle of Illinois this afternoon, I thought about how the hull panels of the Karen Ann had gone together (I saw the twist & bend in the hull panels every time I checked the rear-view mirror), wondering if what I learned building the KA might help with Gardens.

Then it hit me: KA was assembled front to rear so the twists & bends were addressed without the aft end of the panels fastened to anything. Maybe that will help with my current problem. Next week, when I return from Oklahoma, I'll give that approach a try - perhaps with the aft end loose the plywood will be a bit easier to twist & bend into place. Hope that works.

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