Building Phoenix III

Ross has some excellent articles in his blog on how to assemble and glue the staves. I pretty well followed his advice to the letter. I was able to do most of the work single handed but it was a definite help to have some assistance for the gluing. My workshop arrangement was fairly simple, … More Assembling the spars

I had already decided on two rigs, the sprit rig and the balanced lug and opted for booms for both. This meant five spars. I liked the idea of the birdsmouth method for the mast and yards and all the staves would be cut out from the longer plank of Sitka Spruce. The booms would … More Spars – milling, measuring and cutting

The centreboard was made at the same time as the rudder using the same stock plank of yellow cedar. It was milled to slightly thicker width and three sections were butt joined using epoxy.     The centreboard shape was drawn directly onto the flattened board and cut out with the bandsaw and finished with the … More Making the centreboard and case

The 14 foot plank of yellow cedar that I collected from Stones Timber, in Salcombe, was to used for the rudder blade and centreboard. I had plans for a natural wood finish for the transom and also the rudder blade and case. The first job was to prepare the stock to an appropriate thickness. The … More Making the Rudder

Ross provides plans for seven and a half foot oars based on a Peter Culler design. The two planks of Sitka Spruce were both nearly 17 foot in length and three inches thick. My first plan was to use one plank for both of the oars and the other for all of the spars. This … More Making Oars

Marine softwood for spars, centreboard and rudder Now the garage had a bit more room I was able to start considering ordering wood. Stones Marine Timber, based in Salcombe, Devon, was highly recommended. After leaving a telephone message, I was soon rang back by Tristan Stones, who runs the timber side of an interesting family … More Selecting the Wood