Building the Sea Scull: Bow Loop, Transom and Frames

The Bow Loop

Bow loop on the Nemah

When I built the Lady C, I installed a traditional steel bow eye. On her maiden voyage, I was pulling away from the Whittier dock on a windy day. I pulled the stern out and swung the bow over the dock. That is when I heard a loud snap and felt the boat shake. As I continued to swing, the reason for the snap and shake became visible. I could not do this again if I tried but the steel bow eye had hooked on a dock cleat. The wimpy steel bow eye sheared off and was left hanging on the cleat.

First Chesapeake with bow loop

Second Chesapeake with bow loop

After a few trips with no bow eye, I was hanging around the Jackolof Bay dock and spied the Blue Heron, a stitch an glue boat much like the Lady C. Instead of a steel bow eye, the Blue Heron had a loop of rope through the stem.

Third Chesapeake bow loop

I retrofitted the Lady C with a loop of rope through the stem. Every boat I have built since has a loop of rope through the stem instead of a steel bow eye.

But you can't just drill hole and string a rope through the stem because the plywood alone is not robust enough to hold the rope when cartopping, trailering, retrieving or anchoring.

To re-inforce the stem at the bow loop, I create a spot where each therapy session's excess epoxy is dumped. After a while, a huge glob of epoxy builds up and can be re-inforcement for the bow loop.

Epoxy glob in stem of Chesapeake

I build a dam and pack excess epoxy in there instead of throwing the epoxy away. I mix all kinds of junk in with the epoxy to increase its volume. I add whatever I find laying around. I usually add wood flour and saw dust from the table saw.

Occasionally I'll toss in a beer bottle cap or a used condom.

Epoxy glob in the stem of the Nemah

Start of the Sea Scull's epoxy glob

Letting the last of today's epoxy
drip into the glob

There's a healthy epoxy glob for the Sea Scull

I'll drill the hole for the loop of rope near the end of the boat building, after the fiberglass has been layed up on the exterior of the stem.

The Transom

Fiberglass lay up on exterior of transom

Much like the stem at the bow loop, the transom needs to be robust where the transom rope loop ties in. I decided to build the Sea Scull transom out of 3/4 select pine. In order to get the same grain as the rest of the outside of the boat, I laminated a layer of 5mm RevolutionPly to the outside of the transom and layed up epoxy-saturated fiberglass.

I used screws to secure the transom in place for gluing. Since the side panels turned out to be little too long, the screws are in the excess side panel that will be cut off later.

Transom in place for gluing

Transom exterior

Quarter Knees and Breast Hook

Rough-in of quarter knees

Quarter knees re-inforce the top of the side panels at the transom.

Final quarter knee installation

The final quarter knee looks like a toilet.

Now I can claim that the Sea Scull has a head.

The breast hook re-inforces the top of the side panels at the stem.

There is no need to finish sand and coat the breast hook and quarter kness at this time since they will be sanded flush to the wubwails after the wubwails are installed.

Frames

Rough-in of frame

After its initial pitfalls, the 5mm RevolutionPly is turning out to be pretty darn good. It is extremely flexible yet resilient. And it is very light weight. But, its flimsiness means that it needs a few internal frames.