Preparation is key, but it takes forever
Most projects seem to be 80% preparation, 10% actual job, 10% cleanup. For my 5.80, that has held true.
I finally finished the last frame, frame S, which is the only frame mounted on a slant, making the entrance to the cabin, in early December. Before final assembly, some of the frame hardwood pieces required beveling because of that slant, so that when various parts meet up with horizontal pieces they will sit flush. We have a tabletop bandsaw; it was in my beloved's workshop at home behind a bunch of other stuff. Now that he is focusing on 3D printing, he is not doing things that spread sawdust around.
So we went to Harbor Freight (a great store in the US that has inexpensive tools) and bought a stand for the bandsaw. Tim modified the stand to fit the bandsaw and we moved it to the garage where I am building the boat. Harbor Freight, by the way, was referred to in my trade school class as "the man store", which always makes me laugh -- there is a lot of truth to that.
I do love the bandsaw and I was happy to use it to get those bevels cut.
We had already made the jig uprights and just had some bracing left to do. I started to mount the frames temporarily, but... I still did not have any stringers. They did not come with the kit.
In mid December I went over to Newport, to IYRS (dot edu if you are interested) to get some advice from Bill, who runs the wooden boatbuilding program there. I teach occasional electrical and diesel workshops at IYRS, and everyone there is always willing to give me advice. Bill said Douglas fir would be good for this, and recommended I go to a place about an hour away by car that would have "4 quarter doug fir". Always good to know what terminology to use, so I don't come across as a complete idiot. Bill also said I could bring the boards back and run them through their industrial strength planer.
I got some 8"x 10', 12' and 13' boards.
I hadn't really thought about the best way to transport them. My truck bed is only 4' long. Let's just say it was a long trip with a lot of wood overhanging my tailgate, with an orange rag zip-tied to the 13' board. Remember my wish not to look like an idiot? I totally blew it. Later at home, Tim reminded me we have this support thing that goes in the receiver hitch and provides a platform at roof rack height to support a kayak, etc. I told him about using the IYRS planer.
Unfortunately, Tim had already ordered a pretty nice planer for my big Christmas present. He was bummed I had ruined his surprise. It hadn't arrived yet, so we canceled that order and went up to IYRS with the wood. But Bill was not around that day. He practically lives there, so although inconvenient for me, I'm glad he took a little break. And I thought maybe getting our own planer might be good after all. We went to reorder the planer and guess what, suddenly it was on sale for $300 off! And in stock. I really hate how nowadays in the US, the price on buying anything expensive is very random and you need to wait for a sale.
We also needed the table saw from the shed we have in our back yard. We had to wait for the last snowstorm's snow to melt before we could go down there and retrieve it. Actually for Tim to retrieve it. I stayed away from that project. I know how much stuff is crammed in that shed and that table saw was buried in the back.
Meanwhile we had to make space in the garage (which is offsite, about 9 miles from our house) to plane the wood and then do the scarf joints. We had to shove our carefully leveled jig over to the side as much as possible, after removing the frames. We will check the level again later. We will have to back the motorhome out. We can't park it outside at this location, so we need to get everything ready ahead of time and plane and then cut the stringers in one day. This should be totally doable, but everything always takes four times longer than I think it will. And it keeps snowing.
The actual project of making this boat is very enjoyable and I am having a lot of fun with it. This post is about how that 80% preparation number sometimes makes progress slow.
Happy New Year, everyone, and if you are building a 5.80, best wishes for lots of sawdust in your hair in 2026!
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