tony o'connor
Stem and forward frame
Frames attached to cross pieces
This is the sole , sheathed with glass cloth and covered with peel ply.
I have made a special two piece bench for gluing plank scarfs.
Garboard being sheathed.
Naval cadet boats
Construction of Jewell began in May 2014.
Naval cadet boats.
tony o'connor
Construction has begun, like all of Francois' cnc kits the building frame including supports for the frames are cut first, these are usually either structural ply or mdf.
Cross support and after end of building frame, these pieces are joined with the same zig zag scarfs used in the planking.
Building frame base.
Building frame with cross supports.
Cross pieces showing indents, the number of indents corresponds to the frame position, this is frame 7.
NEW CNC
tony o'connor
Proud an all as I was of building my own cnc machine I had reached a stage where a faster machine was needed so given the interest in Francois Vivier kits I decided to buy a new commercial machine. It was a long process having it built and shipped and then commissioning here but it is now up and running and I am pleasantly surprised how fast it is. It also has a vacuum table which means no need for clamps and weights to hold down materials , which was a pain and occasionally the cutter would hit one and ruin the work and the cutter.
Finishing hull.
tony o'connor
The final few weeks passed in a flurry of activity as I pushed to complete the boat for the Hobart show, unfortunately there was very little time for pictures
Side view of cockpit
Cockpit looking aft.
Cabin roof panel made from 2 cnc cut pieces.
Laminating jig for cabin roof.
Laminating cabin roof.
Companionway looking forward.
V berths.
Companionway looking aft, the spaces either side of the centreboard case are for a port-potti and esky.
The centreboard is cut from three pieces of 18 mm ply, this is the centre piece with 30 kg of lead inserted.
Spars and rigging
tony o'connor
planing scarfs for the staves.
preparing to glue the mast, two edges are masked as the staves are glued, so the mast is first glued in two separate pieces, then the solid ends are made and fitted, the inside sealed with epoxy and ducting for cables fitted.
Main mast glueing up.
Cable ducting in main mast.
Forward end of boom and partly made main mast.
Boom jaws.
Gaff jaws laminated from 4mm ply pieces cut from cnc files.
Reef comb on boom.
Mizzen and boom
Fitting mainsail, I used the mizzen mast to keep the sail off the ground.
In this picture you can see the duct for cables .
Fitting out hull.
tony o'connor
After turning the hull the first thing that struck me was how much of the boat was already built, usually with new construction when a hull turned over you have an empty shell to start fitting out, but with this kit almost all bulkheads and internal structures are already fitted.
The down side is that the next part of the job is to fillet all these pieces to the hull. Of all the jobs I do as a boatbuilder this is the one I like least, luckily I have Rory to help.
