The Launch plus video of her being towed behind the Tanzer.

APPLE PIE DINGHY TENDER.

I build a pram tender for my Tanzer 22.

At the end of day 2, I have a fiberglassed interior and all the patterns for seats, knees, and the parts for the seat assembly. The stitch and glue method of boatbuilding is quite fast.

DAY 3 of building the Apple Pie Dinghy tender for my Tanzer 22.

Day 3 is a hot day. I keep dripping onto my work.

Using the seat patterns I made out of cardboard, I cut front and back seats out of half inch plywood. In hindsight this makes the boat quite heavy. The position of the back seat is a bit close to the middle seat for easy rowing. I think I would make it narrower next time.

Using my faithful Makita random orbital sander and 60 grit paper a bevel was ground on the underside of the seat pieces. This is to fit against the sides and ends of the boat that are not vertical but at an angle.

Used up a piece of pink foam that was left over and cut it to fit under the back seat-flotation chamber. It will help support the seat when it gets glued in.

The front and back seats aka flotation chambers get covered in epoxy resin. The interior of the flotation chamber also get a second coat of epoxy. Checked that there was no hole or bad connection anywhere. We have a go...

Middle seat assembly gets put together. It has the seat support, the daggerboard well and the mast step. It is contoured to the floor of the boat.

It also adds to the flotation volume. The original design has none and I'm not comfortable with this. I guess that's what the inflatable bladders are for but just putting in an air space is easier. There will be a weight penalty because of the extra plywood though.

The knees get cut and adjusted to fin in each corner of the boat. I used a block plane and it was very quick to do. I fine tuned on the spot using my sander.

Seat assembly has been glued and is being tried for fit. It's a sticky dry run.

Position is marked onto the bottom. It is checked, measured, remeasured center points marked. I also drilled 2 holes that I will use to screw the daggerboard through the bottom.

Put a coat of epoxy on the floor. Using lots of thickened epoxy squeezed out of a plastic bag, the assembly is glued following the lines on the floor. Fillets are made and clamps placed to make sure the assembly does not slide out of true. A last check is made to make sure the position is good.

Fillets are used to strengthen stitch and glue seams.

Back seat gets glued in after a small support is attached to back to support the seat while it sets. Fillets have been made and weights placed on seat.

The plywood is half inch Meranti and adds quite alot of weight. If I had used Okume It would have been lighter. Okume plywood is not very rot resistant though and I expect that this boat will be a utility boat rather than a pretty boat.

After a final check to make sure the little tender is level, it is put to bed till tomorrow. Cute profile!

Tomorrow I apply the inwales and glue in the front and middle seat. The boat is getting more rigid with every step.

END OF DAY 3. Back seat is glued in position, middle seat is glued in and the front seat is ready to go. There is one layer of fiberglass and 2 layers of resin on the inside of the boat.

emails: Christine

This web site reflects my personnal ideas and doesn't represent anyone else's point of view.