Alphington Steam launch

Got a Steamboat? Then put a link and pictures in here and let us know about updates etc.
dhic001
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 173
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 8:32 am
Boat Name: S.S. Zeltic

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by dhic001 » Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:41 am

Well done that man. Do you sleep?
Daniel
Lionel Connell
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 2:42 am
Boat Name: Alphington
Location: Da Nang City Vietnam

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:02 am

Do you sleep?
Not as much as i should.

Lionel
User avatar
fredrosse
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 1906
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:34 am
Boat Name: Margaret S.
Location: Phila PA USA
Contact:

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by fredrosse » Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:07 am

Have you considered just glass & epoxy coating, with wood showing through the epoxy on the outside of the hull? The wood is beautiful, and you can always paint it later if you wish.

One advantage of clear epoxy beyond the great looks on a well made hull is the opportunity to see if there is any water intrusion into the wood. On my boat I eventually painted the hull outside (it is not a beautiful strip-planked hull like yours), but have left the entire hull interior clear epoxy coated, so I can see if there are any water intrusion issues.
Lionel Connell
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 2:42 am
Boat Name: Alphington
Location: Da Nang City Vietnam

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:58 am

Yes I did consider leaving the hull with a wood grain finish on the outside. But I like the look of paint on the outside and bright work on the inside. Although I have decided to go with mahogany wood grain on the curved transom. I did go to some trouble to get the strip planking reasonably neat as a practice run for the second boat, just in case I change my mind and make the second boat with a full wood finish all over. Yes, I am making two, I purchased enough material for 2 boats from the beginning, and that is why I went to the trouble of making a good building jig. The second boat will be powered with an engine of my own design.

Lionel
User avatar
DetroiTug
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 1863
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:56 pm
Boat Name: Iron Chief
Location: Northwest Detroit

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by DetroiTug » Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:09 pm

Looking good Lionell,

I would definitely go with paint vs varnish. I seen a similar hull varnished and to me anyways, it didn't look right. Carvell planked (I know it isn't, but that's what they typically are or were)boats are generally wider planks with fewer endjoints and with all the different grain picking up the sunlight and short pieces, it just didn't look right to me. Maybe it was all my time living in a house with a hardwood oak floor ? ;)

With the round bilges, she will be a little tender, but very seaworthy.

-Ron
Lionel Connell
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 2:42 am
Boat Name: Alphington
Location: Da Nang City Vietnam

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by Lionel Connell » Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:59 am

With the round bilges, she will be a little tender, but very seaworthy.
Yes, I went for the most efficient hull design of this width that I could find, it was drawn by John King in the UK. Tender it will be, I have placed the engine and boiler as low a practicable in the design and I will be building in hard points to allow for the fitment of bilge keels if necessary. I don't really want to add to the wetted surface area by adding the bilge keels, so fingers crossed I won't need them.
Lionel Connell
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 2:42 am
Boat Name: Alphington
Location: Da Nang City Vietnam

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by Lionel Connell » Tue May 08, 2018 1:21 am

Pressing work matters kept me busy for the last few weeks but I am back onto my launch build again. The Transom is curved 100mm across 1000mm and I laminated it out of 3 layers of 1/4 ply on a bench jig, that was reasonably easy. Now that the planking is finished I wanted to laminate one more layer of very hard 1/4 ply over the transom to cap off the end of the planks and provide durable corner edges on the transom. I did not want to use any fasteners as I intend to leave the transom bright, this proved to be quite a challenge. Vacuum bagging would be the only way to do it and I had real trouble getting the bag film to seal sufficiently. My first tow attempts ended in failure and I had to clean all of the epoxy off everything, not fun. On the last attempt I used my daughters Play Dough to seal the vacuum film, it worked a treat. The edges of the transom were beveled at 45Deg and filled with epoxy and a tough filler to create a stronger corner with better resistance to the glass cloth being scratched though on the corners and allowing water to get to the wood underneath.

For better pictures go here https://www.facebook.com/pg/steam.launc ... 9189512966

Image

Image



Image

Image

Image
Lionel Connell
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 2:42 am
Boat Name: Alphington
Location: Da Nang City Vietnam

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri May 11, 2018 8:11 am

Finally starting to look like if may float.

Image

Image

Image

Image
User avatar
DetroiTug
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 1863
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:56 pm
Boat Name: Iron Chief
Location: Northwest Detroit

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by DetroiTug » Fri May 11, 2018 3:12 pm

Lionell,

Doing a fine job on it, looks good. Keeping it nice and flat will make fairing the surface a lot easier. Those hulls look nice varnished inside with boiler and engine and place.

-Ron
User avatar
fredrosse
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 1906
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:34 am
Boat Name: Margaret S.
Location: Phila PA USA
Contact:

Re: Alphington Steam launch

Post by fredrosse » Sat May 12, 2018 2:00 am

Great work you are doing, nice to see such a piece of art.

Do I see what I have always called "Table Scraps" off to the side in one of your pictures? Whenever I build something large out of wood, I usually glue the scraps together to make a table top, be it a hardwood flooring job, or boat building planking, etc.
Post Reply