Building the Jarcat 6

Once the keel and chines were faired I moved on to the forward shelves. These were made up as stated in the plan and positioned from frame 1 to the stem.

Next I faired the stem blocking pieces again using hand plane, rasps and files. The epoxy glue and filler blunts the plane blade after a while so you need to keep resharpening often.

I use a standard oilstone then follow up with a 1000 grit Japanese water stone. The water stone is easy to use and the edge produced makes for easy working.

On the matter of tools, I use saws with Japanese style teeth (sometimes also called shark tooth saws) - both push style with hardened teeth and pull style Japanes saws for fine work. I started using these saws about 15 years ago and they really are a pleasure to work with. My planes I have had for quite some time and when I priced them recently was surprised to see a small block plane marked at nearly $100. You can buy a cheap electric plane for about half that amount. Like most things you get what you pay for and if you are purchasing tools only to build one boat I suggest you buy economy tools that will probably last for the project (but maybe not much longer). The other tools I have been using are a couple of wood rasps and coarse metal files. I did try using Surform tools that I acquired years ago but the new blades I installed did not seem to stay sharp long once I stated on resin and filler.

I also use a rechargeable electric drill (14.4 Volts) for drilling and driving. Having two batteries helps keep the job going. One of the most used tools up till now is a putty knife which I use to clean up glue joins and fillets. I made two filleting tools- one with a radius of about 15mm made from an old power hack saw blade and the other with a radius of about 20mm made from a cheap putty spreader. White vinegar is used as a clean up agent for all my epoxy work. It really cleans the unset epoxy off the tools well and I leave a plastic tub of vinegar handy so I can just throw in the tools ready for cleaning once I have finished with them.

With all the longitudinals in place I commenced the beveling of the keels and chines. I find working with hand tools to be quieter, cleaner and definitely more controlled than working with power tools so my method to bevel the edges was to use a saw to carefully cut a line from the inside upper edge of the chine to the centreline on the keel ensuring not to cut the intermediate stringers. Cuts were made at the frames and about 300mm apart elsewhere. Faired lines were drawn along the chine and the edge of the keel joining the bottom of the saw cuts Then using a SHARP hand plane remove wood to the bottom of the saw cuts. Finally a coarse file was used to smooth and fair the timbers. A straight edge is used across the keel and chines to constantly check the bevels.

The chines were attached next. To cut the angle at the stem I placed the timber in the frame notches ,held it with clamps and then pulled the chine around frame 1 until it touched the stem. I was then able to mark a line parallel to the stem on both the horizontal and vertical faces of the chine.

The picture shows a temporary pine spacer placed between the stems holding them the correct distance apart. This spacer was also braced down to the strongback to stop the stem bending during the marking and then the gluing process.

With the ends of the chine cut to the correct angle both chines were placed once again and clamped to the stem. A hole was drilled through both chines and the stem. This hole allows the insertion of a dowel when gluing. The dowel provides positive location and added strength to the join.

Finally the stems were glued into position.

Next the stem packing pieces were glued either side of each stem. I also added an extra block to each side of the stem from the aft of the packing pieces to the fwd end of the keel. This block was aligned with the keel edge of the stem.