Next, the bench and building jig,,,

There are so many things to do (and dollars to spend!) to prepare to build a boat before actual construction. I learned a lot from reading the construction manual of the PT Skiff.  Russell and Ashlyn Brown sell these as kits in Port Townsend, WA.  Russell is an exacting, master boatbuilder and has helped me a lot (wait until you see the keel trunk he made for me!).  The PT Skiff and the Shilshole 27 make use of the same concepts - they both came out of Bieker Boats.  They both use advanced wood/epoxy techniques to make a very strong boat for the weight. They are both stitch-and-glue on a building jig.  Russell has written a companion document to go along with the PT Skiff construction manual.  It is a short, concise document on epoxy techniques that Russell has learned after many, many hours of using these materials.  Another recommended book is The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction.  I am using their West System epoxy.

The Shilshole 27 is made of Okoume plywood - 9 mm and 6 mm.  The plywood comes in 8 foot lengths and so must be joined to make up the long pieces necessary for the length of the boat.  To make these joints strong they are made to snap together like a puzzle and that's what they are called - puzzle joints.  To glue all the pieces necessary for the total length of the hull, a good long working surface or bench is necessary.  Using Russell's procedures, the parts are held in place during gluing by clamping boards that are screwed through the parts and into the table, making sure that there is plastic sheeting (or wax paper) on both sides of the parts to keep the epoxy from sticking where it shouldn't.

Here is a glued puzzle joint on the building jig

I made my bench surface of white melamine board.  Incidental glue and epoxy can be scraped off and I can trace the outline of adjacent parts on it with pencil to preserve the alignment of the parts.  I used 3 - 4' x 8' sheets so my bench is 24' long.  Some of the parts will hang over the edge while gluing, but as long as there are no puzzle joints near the ends it is OK.  For longitudinal support I got 2 - 24' I beams from my local lumber store.  At the same time I got 2 - 16' I beams for the building jig.  The bench legs are 2 x 4 thru bolted to the I beams with diagonal bracing.  I like a high bench.  Mine is 39" off the floor.

Assembling the building jig on the bench

Gluing the longitudinal for the building jig

The building jig is the foundation of the boat so I took pains to make it as accurate as I could and added reinforcing to take the weight of the boat.  Finally I added 10 leveling screws and got a group of guys to help me lift the building jig off the table and place it on the floor.

Here is the aft end of the jig showing some
of the reinforcing and one of the leveling screws

The jig on the floor.  You can see the strings that were
used in combination with a laser to level the jig on the floor.
The keel trunk is in the background.