Align hull properly before tack welds

[JonLee]

I think this discussion came up on the forum a few years ago. Having some gap there is pretty normal. Fight to bring it together as best you can and then move on.

I reckon when I stopped fighting and started gluing, the gap was maybe on the order of a 1/4" in some places.


As far as making sure everything is in alignment, there are two things I did to make sure the hull was level and there was no twist: 1) Measure back from the bow to each corner of the transom, 2) make sure the boat was level athwartships with either a straightedge and bubble level, or using the old water-in-a-clear-tube trick (I used both, actually). To make adjustments, I found that putting shims under the cradle was sufficient to get evertyhing perfect.

[DanaDCole]

I never heard of a level or even garage floor! I don't think there is any such thing. I have to roll mine in and out all the time so my wife's car can live in the garage when I'm not working on the boat. I noticed rear keel support in the manual's pictures, so here's how I took care of that:

Pretty simple really, but I thought someone might profit from the idea. As far as twist goes--I guess I'll measure it at several spots around the floor and if it averages out, call it good. If it is off in the same direction (but possibly by different amounts) in all those spots then I probably need to do something about it.

[truenorth]

Pretty nifty, I like it. Only thing is I don't see a way to lock it? At some point in the build, you actually spend more time in the boat than out of it, so need to ensure it doesn't wheel down the driveway.

As far as an even garage, Pete of Tattoo lore leveled his garage. Of course he did.

[DanaDCole]

I should have mentioned that. There are eight more casters, four on each cradle. The outer four wheels (the only ones I can get to) are lockable. I did not want to put locks on the ones under the keel because I was afraid I might forget they were locked and try to move the boat. This would probably not hurt anything--just being a bit overly cautious.
Here's a picture I found in my blog that shows one of the lockable casters:

You can't see the other two casters on the port side because they are hidden by the 2x4. I wanted to get them as close to the keel as possible.

[truenorth]

On the other hand, PocketShip would make a great go kart racer.

[DanaDCole]

Might do better in a bed race.

[DanaDCole]

It beats me how you can measure from bow tip to stern corner with bulkhead 2 sitting there, and I'm damned if I'm going to remove it. If the boat has a little twist, then so be it. All the mistakes in different directions will probably cancel each other out anyway.

One thing though: If you have a perfectly level cradle, and ALL the panels are perfectly fitted together, then you can read the level at various points along the sheer (making sure the level is perpendicular to the keel). That will tell you if you have any twist, and as JonLee points out you can fix it with shims under the cradle. It seems to me that you could only fix it if the panels are wired and not glued, though. So it's too late for me. I'm not losing any sleep over it though.