Optimist Building in Virginia Beach

Al from Virginia Beach writes in and shares pictures of his project boat...

NOTE: ALS UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT THE TOP UNDER PAGE TITLED "Virginia Beach Optimist Project"

Im building the boat for 3 and soon to be 4 grandkids. I sail and my 2 sons sail, so getting the little ones into it makes sense. The oldest is 8 but lives about 300 miles away, so when next summer comes and we get to our lake house hopefully the craft will be ready to use.

Im using West System to coat and put this together but am not glassing the boat - extra weight that I dont want or need. My boat is Maranti plywood, 12mm for the transom etc and 6mm for bottom and sides. Ill make my own foils from 12mm also.  For the "solid" wood I have found some very nice and cheap spruce. I plan to use some mahogany for the rub rails - I have some nice pieces. Almost at the point of fastening things together since today I got the chine bent and straightened - that was fun and am glad I had as many clamps as I have, but one never has enough clamps!

Steps:

I fished a piece of spruce out of my pond and tried again with bending a chine.  I figure that 24 hrs underwater with all the enzymes and slop in my lily pond should make it pretty bendable.

I clamped the stern and mid ship positions and placed the above type clamps to make it parallel.  Then I gently bent the end of the chine toward the forward bulkhead and did two things. First I used a long clamp around the chine and the nearer stringer. Then I hung my tool bag with saws, drills and assorted heavy items on the end of the chine. I never changed the weight but I applied the straightening clamps and gradually tightened the long clamp.

The whole process took no more than 45 minutes and I never heard a creak from the wood.  When the chine was finally in position I removed the long clamp and tool bag and attached the chine to the forward bulkhead with a clamp. Not a screw in it yet. I will let it dry for a few days before removing clamps and attaching with screws. Then Ill see how the skin fits.

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Someone else building a Yellow boat in Blue Coroplast

Someone else  building a Yellow boat in Blue Coroplast

Blue Boat 1 a single piece of Coroflute

Yellow boat 1 and 2

Yellow Boat 3 

Yellow Boat 4 Balsa ply Epoxy Fiberglass tape

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Building the Optimist Strongback

The least complicated part of boat building is the strongback or base with which to attach the stations or molds. Clark Mills designed the Optimist with only three simple molds - bow, mid-frame, and transom. This strongback gives the builder a good base to attach the three cross-members that will set the precise distances for the bow, mid-frame and transom.


We are building three Optimist at once, so here is a quick look at our three strongbacks using the CABBS plans:

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Fleet Building Mutineer Fleet in Grapevine Texas

Its no secret that the most sure-fire way to build a sailboat fleet is to have that one spark-plug; an enthusiastic go-getter who passionately believes this sailboat he/she sails is the best sailboat ever to grace the bounding main.

Here is a video of one such spark-plug, Greg Reed of Grapevine, Texas. His love and passion for the 15 Mutineer sailboat, a sailboat abandoned when Chrysler divested their marine businesss in 1980, is building an orphan fleet in Grapevine Texas. Of note in the video is how the fleet is attuned to bringing up the new racer.

(Anonymous, in the comment section, says both the Mutineer and the larger Buccaneer are still in production. "The Nickels Boat Company in Mich. is still building both boats and the Buc still has a fairly active class. In fact a Club in Alaska recently adopted the Buc as its Club fleet.")

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As a follow-on to Gregs pitch in the video for Grapevine, Texas running the 2014 Nationals...there were 19 Mutineers racing in the 2014 Nationals: Gib Charles, 1st; Ty McAden, 2nd; Uwe Hale, 3rd; and Mr. Mutineer, Greg Reed, 4th.

Grapevine Sailing Club - Mutineer Fleet 2 from russ ansley on Vimeo.

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Building the Optimist dinghy frames

Winter is flying by, and we are diving into our three-boats-at-once project. We have spent some time getting to know the CABBS plans. Its helped to have found some pretty nice images of other folks working on their Optimists. Nothing like a picture to make things clearer.

Here is where we would like the project to be the next time we get to work on the Optimists:

Pictured below in red are the frame stations that we are working on in the accompanying video, and how they will support the other members. We have completed the bow frames (1) and attached the bows to the strongback. The bow must be angled back at 22 degrees as can be seen below. The rest of the frames (2 and 3) are perpendicular to the strongback.

If any readers happen to stop by and read this post and watch the accompanying video, feel free to leave a comment about the "real" way to build these prams. My brothers and I have sailed boats and fixed-up wooden boats, but weve never attempted to build any from plans. This has been a fun and challenging experience so far.

You may notice from the video that we have been using scrap lumber. We have a lot of odds and ends of wood lying around, so to save on cost we have used old lumber as much as possible. We need these boats to last about ten years - we will see...

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