BYYB Forums

Greetings all,

Made some more progress on the cabin ...



and cut out some rafters from Mahogany ...



and then set them on the boat to see how they look ...



Cheers,
Tom

Tom:  I fitted my rafters and chocks and glued them in place yesterday.  Next is fitting the stringers for the cabin top.  The plans are miseleading at this point.  They state that you can use the "cutoffs" from the stringers at the bottom of the cabin trunk up at the top.  You can't!  They top stringers need to be cut at that famous " 23 degree angle" all the stringers are cut at in order to fit.  Also, they need to be about 1-1/2" wide (2" better) to accommodate the 51" wide top at the back (unless you scarfed the top!).  I'll let you kmnow how it works out for me.  I do have a bandsaw I can tilt to make the cuts on the curved parts.

Dave

It's getting cold in Wisconsin (low 50's today) so I've started working in the garage.  Here are my rafters fit to the chocks.

Dave

I started fitting the top stringers...not as hard as I thought!  What I did was trace the outline of the cut out piece on the bottom of the blank.  I cut the 23 degree angle, the used a compass set to 2" to scribe the width of the piece.  I cut out the piece, sanded and rounded over the edges.  I think it looks good and leaves plenty of room to secure the roof.

Dave

Greetings Dave,

I have been wondering which way is the better way ... stringers first, then rafters .. as per the plans, or rafters first, then stringers like what you are doing.  The two stern-most  stringer segments are fairly straight and therefore easy.  I will be curious to see how you get the front curvy stringer in place, as it curves in two directions at once.  You might have to back off of the width dimension to something around an inch to get it to take the curve that forms the shallow crown of the roof.  You can cut the horizontal curve into the stringer, but the vertical whoop-de-do over the crown has to be bent.

And yes, I was wondering about the 20 degree angle of the bevel along the sides of the cabin ... as the plans have you cut the stringer square, mount the stringer to the boat, and then mount the rafter to the stringer, presumably with the top edge of the stringer landing flush with the inside edge of the stringer, which will leave you with a flat spot or high spot along the outside edge of the stringer that needs to be cut, ground, or sanded away to continue the smooth slope of the rafter.  The more I look at it, the more it looks like the bevel rolls from 25|75 degrees along the cabin sides to about 7|83 degrees at the cabin front.

Cheers,
Tom

When I did my front curvy stringer, I cut it already curved from a larger piece, rather than trying to make it bend around that curve.

Tom:  I'm going to do what Keith did and cut the stringer from a larger piece.  I think the curve is too severe, and I don't want a 1" stringer when all the rest are 2".  You're right, the back and middle sections are relatively straight and easy.  I cut the cirved stringers at 22.5 - 23 degrees on a band saw.  The curve in front of the fore rafter will be broken up into three parts.  I did some scrap mockups of the parts today and it works!  On my boat the average angle of the front curve is 7 degrees.the first pieces forward of the rafter fin nicely cut at that angle.  The "nose piece", where the cabin trunk's peak lies, is more of a problem.  By using a 2X6 cut at 7 degrees, and then fairing the curve with a drawknife and belt sander the part fit perfectly.  I just glued up 2 lengths of mahogany 1X6 stock to give me a finished blank 1-1/2" thick.  It will fit great after cutout and fairing.

Dave