Jersey Girl

Houseboat update, Tuesday, March 26, 2019 -- Jersey Girl is growing up! It's all for fit, measurement and marking, and has to come down until the weather warms up enough to allow me to glue with epoxy. But you can see that today I put up the stern roof posts, a temporary horizontal stringer, and the first of 11 arched roof beams. In its final form, the beam will be cut into three segments. The two outboard segments will form the port and starboard "shoulders" of the roof, and the center will be about four inches higher. That'll not only give a little more headroom on the aft deck (the back porch, to you landlubbers), but it will give the inside of the cabin a light and lofty feeling. With night-time temps still dipping below freezing around here, I may have to wait a bit for good 60-degree day that will allow me to glue things together.

Houseboat update, Thursday, March 28, 2019 -- The cutting and fitting, nipping and tucking proceed. Here, you can see the emerging shape of Jersey Girl's roof line. The raised center portion will give 6-foot-4 of headroom on the aft deck (enough to allow a stand-up solar-heated shower out there). Stepping down into the cabin, the headroom will be a generous 8 feet and then some. Jersey Girl will be a comfortable little cabin afloat!

Houseboat update Part 2, Thursday, April 4, 2019 -- Jersey Girl's first roof post came out perfectly! Well measured and carefully marked, all the chamfers started and ended exactly as planned. Huge amounts of dust and noise, but I held onto my focus and paid scrupulous attention to what I was doing, and the result shows. (I emerged with all fingers intact, too.)

Houseboat update, Part 3, Thursday, April 4, 2019 -- Full disclosure: I made a dumb mistake. Having measured and marked carefully, I cruised right past my markings and routed a chamfer where there absolutely must not be one in one of Jersey Girl's roof posts. I patched it up with a piece of scrap cedar, and tomorrow I will cut the patch to match the profile of the post. "But wait," some knowledgeable purist will say, "neither the color nor the grain come close to a match!" Well, I have heard there is a tradition among rug makers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to deliberately avoid weaving a perfect rug, making certain to include at least one imperfection. To make it perfect, the story goes, would be an affront to Allah, who alone is capable of perfection. I have no idea if the tale is true, but at times like this it's a comfort to a far-from-perfect boat builder. Onward.

Houseboat update, Thursday, April 4, 2019 -- I am still working on the upright posts that will support Jersey Girl's roof and serve as some of the studs that the cabin walls will be fastened to. This morning, I'm cutting a long rabbet, which will be one of the support points for a 16-foot riser, running the length of the roof that will cover the cabin and the aft deck. The arched "shoulders" of the roof beams will run from the port and starboard sides to be glued and screwed to the lower part of the riser, and the beam supporting the raised central portion of the roof will span and connect the tops of the risers on both sides, creating eight feet of headroom in the central aisle of the cabin. I've used a circular saw with the the blade set at 3/4 inch to make a series of cuts across the width of the rabbet, then used a chisel to knock out the waste material. The other cutouts in this post are dadoes, made pretty much the same way as the rabbet. The dadoes will support the horizontal top and bottom of a railing that I will make later. I've decided to cut chamfers into the edges of these roof support posts. It will give them a lighter, more attractive look, and they will actually be a bit lighter in weight. I've carefully measured and marked where each chamfer will start and end, because I don't want a chamfer to be in the way of a joint where the railing will fit into the dadoes. I'll cut the 3/4-inch chamfers on a router table. I've included a picture of test cuts I made in a piece of scrap, so you can what a chamfer looks like. The bit I am using has a roller bearing, so theoretically I shouldn't need a fence to guide the post. But I will use a fence, secured to the correct position, just to help maintain accuracy. I've also put markings on the surface of the table, so I can line up the beginnings and ends of the cuts. I'll be using plastic finger boards to help me safely keep the post in firm contact with the router bit, so the depth of the cut stays uniform along its length. And I will be using full eye, ear and breathing protection.