If all goes well, I will end up with something along the lines of this:
That is actually a standard "Pelican", where I am building a "Pacific Pelican"...essentially the same boat only the Pacific version is two feet longer.
First steps: Get a bunch of lumber and start the building jig. So a trip to Home Depot, including borrowing their very nice delivery truck, some help from the neighborhood kids, and presto! Pile of wood in the garage:
That's "Duke". He seems mildly interested. The kids were a little disappointed when I told them that none of this wood would actually become part of the final boat.
I built a set of sawhorses about 20 years ago, and they were shot. So I decided to make some new ones to start this build. Then it was time to mark off the "strongback". This is the big board that will run down the center of the jig and establish the curvature of the hull. The plans call for a 14' 2x12 board for this, but all Home Depot had was a 16 footer, so I cut it off. The plans also talk about striking a chalk line along the bottom of the board and marking your curve points from that, so as to ensure a straight line. When I struck the line, I realized that the edge of the board that I got was plenty straight already, so I just marked from that.
Looking at that board, the scale of this boat starts to become apparent. Its going to be bigger than I visualized. That's cool. Although I'm a little worried things are going to be pretty tight in the garage.
The top edge of the strongback will be curved, establishing the curvature of the hull. To achieve that curve, a series of offsets are provided in the plans, each at 1 foot intervals.
The next step is to find a really long, limber piece of something that I can use to connect those dots and mark off the curve, and then cut the board to shape.
To be continued...
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