The stem part 1

The stem is effectively the front of the boat to which all the planks attach. If you want to be pedantic the outer stem is the front most part of the boat, but its really there just to finish off the look of the boat and protect the rest of the structure when ramming Japanese whaling vessels.

The stem can either be cut out of wide planks or laminated. Because the stem for the Auk is a gentle curve it would need to be cut out of cery wide planks, and as it has already been established that I am a tight arse I will be laminating mine. It so happens I have some left over bits of thin marine ply (3mm) so i don't have to buy anything and my tight arse is a happy one.

The shape for the stem is derived from the plans and marked out on a flat bench. Blocks are then screwed to the bench, to which the stem will be clamp
ed. I've made the curve just tighter than the stem will be because it will rebound just a bit.

About six strips of thin ply were cut. I did a dry run to make sure they would actually take the bend and not snap. 3mm play is petty bendy!












They were then covered on both sides with thickened epoxy, (thickened to the consistency of phlegm). This is all sandwiched together, wrapped in glad wrap and clamped to the blocks from the middle out. The epoxy hardens in 24 hrs. It only rebounded about 5mm in the end. The glad wrap got stuck in the epoxy that oozed out and I had to sand it all off together which buggered a sanding belt. It's really strong.





















Then I attached the stem to the building frame. I made a little bracket to hold the stem onto the first mould. Below is a photo I took of the stem once the keelson was attached to it (I'll talk about that next). I've started to shape it.