BYYB Forums

Greetings all,

My garage is warming up again!  68[sup]o[/sup]F !!!  So it will soon be time to start working on the Weekender again. 

I was at the stage where I was about to attach the shelving to the cabing sides, and I noticed different builders had used various approaches in fabricating the shelves ...


Peter Stevenson ... level ... parallel to the hull bottom


Mark Hynes ... inclined ... perpendicular to the hull side


Mike Redding ... no shelves at all

I have cut my shelves to match the plans as Peter built them in Frolic, which was a lot of fun to cut the rear bevel to match both the curve and the inclination of the hull and still achieve a cabinet grade joint.  It will be even more fun to screw it down as the screws need to be perpendicular to the face of the joint, so I will have to be careful to start them lower than the centerline of the joint to keep the screws from poking out the top of the shelves.

But I think Mark Hynes might have a better solution overall.  He has not bothered with trying to match the inclination of the hull sides, instead opting for a shelf that is perpendicular to the hull side, resulting in a bookshelf with 90[sup]o[/sup] corner that is actually suitable for shelving books. 

Now 20[sup]o[/sup] of heel is about the comfort limit of most sailors while underway before they think the boat is heeling too much and start getting scared and seriously consider tucking in a reef (excluding Paul of course, who is probably just starting to grin about then).  That would make the windward shelf in Mark's boat about level, and the fiddle rail just about superfluous.

The lee shelf will now be heeling at 40[sup]o[/sup], so if the rum bottle is stored there, it better be well stoppered or their will be serious problems.

Mike has no shelves at all, which is even easier to build!  But I think the plans said something about the shelves being a structural element in that the hull sides need a little stiffening right there in way of the shroud attachment point.  Remember, a Weekender heeling at 20[sup]o[/sup] with 400 lbs of crew sitting on the windward rail is absorbing about 5000 lbs of tension through the shrouds, which are anchored to that skinny little piece of 1/4" hull side.  The stiffening provided buy the lower rub rail needs to be augmented by the shelf, which spans the distance from the forward shroud at the front bulkhead to the rear shroud at the rear of the shelf.

Has anybody else built the boat without shelves and noticed unwanted flexing in the hull?

Cheers,
Tom

I went without shelves as well Tom.  I have hanging nets.

I'd suggest going with the shelves.  With the seam right in the middle of the cabin wall, I would think that would be a weak point otherwise.

I'm not sure that the shelf adds much strength to the sides, but it look nice.  I left it off because I hate sharp edges where I will sleep, no other reason.

I actually have my shelves already made, just not installed yet.  The way they are built currently the shelves are flat but I've had trouble getting the back angle just right, the wall is curved and angled.  I'm thinking of recutting the back of my shelves and mke them look like marc hynes pic, which is angled.

P.S.  The reason I don't have them installed is that they did not make it to the last staining and varnishing session in nice weather and I want to stain and varnish them before I Install them. I'm waiting to finish a couple other pieces before I start again.

My shelves are mahogany, and I turned the spindles.  The shelf is parallell to the bottom.  Finished in epoxy/ varnish the mahogany looks great.

Dave

    Try using a pair of deviders or compass as they are sometimes called (no pun intended) to scripe the back of the shelving to the hull side variations, a carpenters trick to plumb or level something  new to something that's not and make the saw cut at 20 degrees I believe from looking at the plans.

          Alan & Fran

Greetings all,

If you use the parallel dividers or drawing compass method, be sure that you hold the compass at a constant angle to a reference line ... for carpenters, this would be a wall; for boat builders, this could be the centerline of the boat ... especially for curved surfaces.  So for making the shelves, hold the compass perpendicular to the centerline of the boat, and vertically, with no twist, as you trace backwards and forwards along the joint.

If you let your attention lapse, like I did, and hold the compass perpendicular to the hull side, you will end up with a curved joint with two surfaces of different radii that will be snug in the center of the curve and loose on the ends.  I effectively did this by using a very sharp but very fat carpenter's pencil with an oblong cross section that I held flat against the hull side to trace onto a rough-cut shelf blank.  When I discovered my error I repeated the process, but the second time I kept the flat side of the pencil perpendicular to the centerline of the boat so that only the corner of the pencil touched the hull side, and viola!, I got a perfect joint.

Cheers,
Tom

    Another option might be using a scrap piece of wood to get the hang of it before putting the saw to the shelve.  As a carpenter when we scribe something we make witness marks (faint pencil marks) on the wall, in this case hull so the the scribed piece is test fitted in exactly the same location, if not, that can really drive you "Nuts".
    Finish work can sure get interesting, just think "Up side down & Backwards" it helps.

                  Alan & Fran