Swallow Yachts Forum > Home Builders' Area
Storm 17 panel kit - The story so far
Ray:
SOURCING THE HARDWOOD: I tried to obtain similar woods as were recommended by Swallow Boats. Matt was helpful once again in this regard.
Once you know the sizes of the raw wood, you can sit with a pencil and paper and fit all the various parts into the uncut pieces to produce your cutting list. Remember to allow for the saw blade thickness.
It looks to be a mammoth job to 'kit' all the harwood but you don't need it all at once.
The only harwood you need early in the build is the wood for the rebated gunwale. I had a few months work before I needed the next bits for the keel/stem and stern.
A friend with a table saw helped to cut the harwood to size as I needed it.
Ray:
GUNWALES: Mine needed two scarf joins on each piece. The scarfs were cut using a jig on a table saw. It's worth getting some help here. If they are all cut at the same time they fit perfectly and it only takes minutes to have them all cut.
I also cut the inner gunwale rebate on a table saw.
After thinning down one gunwale with a hand plane, I decided to buy an electric plane to do the rest. Even after thinning in plan and side view, the inner gunwale needed quite a lot of force to conform to the hull panel over the last foot or so at the stern.
Ray:
STITCHING THE PANELS:
I found suitable copper wire in the form of heavy braided cable (uninsulated)at an electrical supplies business. Two thicknesse have worked well; 1.2mm for all general stitching and approx 1.5mm for where extra strength is needed at the stem and stern.
The 1.2mm is easy to work with and is easier on the fingers but it will break if over tightened. Tie your stitches in the same way every time so you know whether you are tightening or loosening them without having to look. It's a great sight when that hull takes on a shape in front of you.
Where the panels meet at a small angle ( near bow), I sometimes needed more than a screw driven into the join to hold them in alignment. Here I used one of the many offcut alignment tabs (covered with packaging tape) screwed across the join.
Ray:
FITTING THE BULKHEADS: I needed a few helpers to get the bulkheads in and aligned. It takes a lot of force to get them down into the hull. Watch out for that dowel when tightening the chord.
Ray:
COPPER WIRE: This is what it used.
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