Stir Ven @ 43°S: strake 2 is done

What this is about

We live by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in Southern Tasmania. It, and much of the Tasmanian coast, offer amazing cruising possibilities. Previously, we owned an old, sturdy and fast 33 ft Huon pine sloop that we loved. The things it didn't offer - easy portability to other waters, shoal draft, beachability and the simplicity of dinghy-like sailing - are the things we gradually craved more and more.
For at least a few years I have thought that I should build an open, or mostly open, 20-something footer that would satisfy these urges. After much looking around at designs, we finally settled on the Stir Ven.
She is beautiful, fast, seaworthy, floats in 25cm of water and is designed as an adventure boat on which one can spend a few nights.
We hope she will be ready for use by the summer of 2012/13!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

strake 2 is done

I've been lucky enough to have the last few days with uninterrupted building. Well, I did have to look after the kids a bit but mostly, I got to build until I had to come inside to cook dinner.
After getting the garboards on with no worries, I thought it would be simple to get on the next strakes. In retrospect it was but in practice it took me most of a day to cut the planking bevel then work out and cut my gains. After talking to Mike Randall (of Vicky Bee), I decided to gain the planks at the transom end and the bow end. As I didn't want to remove too much material, I spent a long time planing then checking then planing then checking.....By the time I got them right and had them both dry fastened in place it was too late in the day to get he epoxy on.
So, this morning, I started gluing them on and was finished and had the squeezed out epoxy cleaned up by about lunchtime.

Here are some pictures of my progress: