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Summer Breeze building notes - 
Day Six (Oct 13, 2000)

Today I did the quarter knees and the inwales.

quarterkneedraw2.jpg (8604 bytes) Quarter knees strengthen the joint between the transom and the sides. I attempted to omit them during my first season of use of Featherwind. It held up OK, but there are signs of fatigue of the joints so I'm going to add them soon. A French  curve is handy for drawing your pattern. I made mine from 2x6 stock. Use your bevel gauge to take the angles off the transom.

  quarterkneecut1.jpg (7359 bytes) The first cut I did with my band saw, but a saber saw or coping saw will do. 

quarterkneesaw.jpg (9235 bytes) The pull saw makes short work of the notch for the inwales. 

 quarterknees.jpg (8192 bytes) The finished product looks like little modern sculptures. (If you rendered these in 20 foot tall welded stainless and mounted them at jaunty angles you could sell them for big money to a corporation or University.)

 quarterkneeglue.jpg (8244 bytes) In spite of the bottle of Titebond sitting there, I glued these with PL-Premium.

gunwalefix2.jpg (11415 bytes)  I heard a disconcerting "CRACK" sound, and found my starboard gunwale had spontaneously broken. Ouch! The wood is cypress and the grain had "run out" a bit at the break, but this was rather concerning. I instantly removed the frame, and smeared in some PL, covered it with plastic wrap and clamped a temporary support piece to it to pull it back into shape. 

gunwalebrace2.jpg (10918 bytes)  I then glued a reinforcing piece on both sides just for safety (and symmetry.)

 portinwaleglue.jpg (13927 bytes) The inwales were glued on next. I made them half inch thick instead of 3/4", to facilitate bending. (In the future I'll make gunwales 5/8" thick instead of 3/4".) I also wet them and propped them on the edge of a bench with some weights pre-bending them in the middle for a couple of hours before gluing them. Do a dry run, to mark where it fits into the knee. Lean towards the long side of the mark, to allow for a little trimming to fit. I glued the ends with PL and the spacer blocks with Titebond. I put two clamps per block so I could pre-drill in the block centers for my Stainless Steel, square drive deck screws. 

Tip!

Put two screws into the ends of the block you will use for your oar locks, so the middle in not obstructed when you go to drill the 1/2" + hole for your oar pins.

Next, the keel and skeg.

Day Seven!