Building Frame

With the hairpin finished I could lift up the lofting floor and put it to one side. If needs be it can be reassembled but finding enough space to do that would be difficult. Hopefully it won't be needed or, if it is, only part of it will be needed.

With the floor cleaned the building frame could be put together. Here is the basic ladder frame. I was lucky some months ago to find the 2 Glulam beams (200 x 50 x 6 metres) in the local Bunnings store where they were either surplus to an order or had been returned, either way Bunnings wanted them out of the way and they were cheap! They are like 50mm thick plywood, dead straight and will stay that way forever.

The frame is in the right position and the sides will be shortened so that the shed door will close and to provide space at the back of the shed to walk around. The shed is 6 metres and the boat is 5.48 so it is a tight fit. There is enough space under the sides for me to wriggle under and then sit up. This will be awkward  and hopefully not something that I will have to do very often but it will be possible.

The station positions were marked out putting the stern of the boat so it will almost be touching the tilt-a-door when it is closed. The ends of the side beams were cut off, a string line on the centre line and 100mm below the water line organised and the cross beams at each station fitted. Here it is:

More cross supports are needed to support the hairpin or deck shelf. These supports follow the height of the sheerline and are cut at an angle so that the hairpin sits at the camber of the deck. Each of these supports sits on 2 legs coming up from the station cross beams. Getting them centred, at the right height and level was tricky but a batten laid along the centre line touched them all nicely with no kinks!

Next step is to fix the hairpin to the cross supports so that it can be disconnected when the time to turn the boat over comes in quite a few months. This is one reason that I will need to crawl under the frame.