Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #7 . . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

   DEMOTED!! 

It all started innocently enough.
I was getting ready to drill for the (off-)centerboard pin and when I made my mark, I discovered that there had been a previous attempt to drill a hole which had been filled in with epoxy.
So I inquired on the SCAMP builders forum on FB if this was something pre-fab and my marks were off or was this really where the hole was supposed to be. 
Howard Rice said it looked suspicious and asked for some more pics of my remaining parts.
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(Later, turned out my marks are correct and the hole is bogus.)
So, HAH!! 

I was happy to oblige to answer a question.
2 pieces on the left are the cockpit sole, which gets a hunk cut for the foot well; added after the kit was made.
Right side is the deck.
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I was aware I was missing the bench seat tops, the cockpit sole doubler, rudder pieces, rudder blade etc.
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After examining my pics and to my consternation, he said this was NOT hull #3!!   
Based on pics he saw, he knew it was NOT a camp build, as it lacked the mast ramp put in on later kits.
Looking at my pieces, he questioned whether this was even a kit, versus a plans-built hull, done by somebody.
After thinking about that, I asked what hull was this, then?
I bought it in Wisconsin, they only had one SCAMP Camp in June, 2018 and there were pics of the camp.
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According to what I had been led to believe, my hull was in the middle of the pic.
Howard sold a kit to somebody in Wisconsin and at that camp, a guy who had purchased a hull had been unable to make it and Howard built it up for him.
He thought that was the one I had purchased.
But my SCAMP wasn't that SCAMP.
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OK, I had PROOF this was a SCAMP kit and not plans built.

Apparently a light went off and Howard realized he had sold kit #3 to SEAS (also on the Sheboygan Yacht Center campus) and built up hull #3 AFTER the SCAMP camp, for a project that never materialized.
Howard thought the hull he finished at the camp was the one that I had purchased, but that was some other hull #.
Nope.
I have the original hull #3 built by Howard Rice and bought from the guy who acquired it from SEAS and Howard Rice (re-)confirmed it.
SO THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT!! 

   PROMOTED!! 

When we last left off, I had finished one side of a rudder blade I had to make from scratch, before working on the trailer some more.
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Well, I finally got around to the OTHER side!
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Now that I knew where the thickest part of the rudder was, I could mark out where to put in the 2.2 pound lead weight and cut it out on the center piece (of 3).
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Once I had the center piece cut out, I could use it as a form to mark and rout out the outside two pieces of the blades.
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I was pleased to see that the thing fit without any lead seeing daylight (a concern all through the rudder fabrication).
All that's left, is to glue the thing together and glass it.
Wow.  Sounds so easy when you say it like that.
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While going somewhere with my wife, I mentioned that I was temporarily held up on progress because I needed 2 sheets of plywood.
I may not have mentioned that it was 9 mm BS1088 Okoume marine-grade plywood.   
She said: "You need a coupla sheets, GET Them!!"
I suspected she thought I was talking about 35 or 40 dollar a sheet Home Depot-type plywood.
I did not enlighten her.   
Drove down to Tarpon Springs the very next day to JF Bedard Yachts, the closest source for $157 a sheet, 9 mm marine plywood.
Met the man himself and mentioned I had admired his ROG design (River of Grass) and discovered he had sold it, owing to a lack of room at his factory.

OK, so now I have the two sheets of ply I need to finish, how does a lofting-challenged guy make some bench seats? 
Scanned the image in the build manual, imported it into a drawing program, blew it up to life-size by matching the off-sets on the plans to the drawing program's ruler scale, and then moved portions of the image into the printable area of the program and printed them out.
Then I taped all the sheets together on the living room floor and spray-adhesive glued them to some craft paper.
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For some reason the flat side did not line up right,    but I was unconcerned, since that was the easier side to fix.

I DID hedge my bets by making the flat side wider, so I'd have wiggle room to trim and adjust as necessary.
Cut in the bulkhead notches and tried a trial fit.
Even though the overall length matched both the plans and my template, it still needed a little "persuasion" from a sabre saw to fit inside the boat.
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Not too bad! 
There were some gaps on the curved side, but I used a pencil  and compass set to the gap width and trimmed the parts contacting the sides, until I had a uniform and close fit down the entire length.
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Once the curved side fit (perfectly!), I scribed the underside of the seat edge and trimmed the excess off the flat part, as well.

This is the cockpit sole.  Originally, the two scallops at top were for water drainage into scuppers.
That idea was abandoned after the foot well modification (which greatly increases comfort) made the scupper area obsolete.
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The front half of the cockpit sole.
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The sole is covering the ballast tank and the foot well is next to it, as seen here.
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The remainder of the sole.  Needs a little trimming for a small storage compartment.
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I noticed the date on the plywood I had bought.
So I'm assembling a boat from a 14 year old kit, using 4 year old plywood and when I get done, I'll have a BRAND NEW Boat!   
I was reminded of an old Johnny Cash song, about a guy who built a Cadillac on the installment plan.
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I had some extraneous bulkhead pieces and I used them to make hatch doublers.
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Whoa!!     Cutting up all that plywood, alluva sudden-like, it started looking like it might be a boat, someday! 
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I had obtained a hatch at a flea market, that I thought I would put to good use.
6" hatches at rear, 8" hatches at front and a 6" hatch on the sole for filling the water ballast tank.
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Another view of the stern.
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It was discovered during capsize testing that a lot of water can ship over the side because that bulkhead is so close to the waterline, when capsized.
Guys started filling in the sides with "wings" and new kits are scribed both ways, so owners can use the original bulkhead edges or the thicker new edges, as they prefer.
Since I have the quintessential "original kit", I had to add my own.
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Had a brief and exciting moment, possible only in the Internet Community Boat Builder era.
Posted a pic on FB and people thought my inserts were wayyy crooked!! 
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I had taken especial pains to level the hull and ensure the insert was plumb before striking a line.
So I freaked out!!    Ran right outside and realized that my camera had some serious "fish-eye" issues, when compared to the MK I eye-ball.

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I took another pic with the center of the camera focused on the bulkhead edge, as well as well as a scrap piece of wood showing the bench seats were also in-line with the bulkhead edge.
It's much better though even in this image, the top of the insert appears to be leaning to the right, but it is definitely plumb.
You know how you line up two objects on shore, one behind the other, to get a range bearing for coastal navigation?
Sighted along the insert edge and it lined up perfectly with either side of the bulkhead. 
IGNORE these lying pics!!    I'm doing it RIGHT!!   

Cockpit sole forward area showing two more 8" hatches.
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View of all the forward hatches.  Hey! I LIKE to have storage!! 
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Since I now had more plywood than I really needed, I decided instead of using the usual manufactured hatches, I would make my own and save about 200 bucks.
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I did, however, trip over a deal on-line and got a twofer on the mid-size hatches (hiding under the stern hatch).
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Here's how they'll look.
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Cutting out the front cabin hatch doubler.
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This is so the door has something to close against and the hinge screws have something to bite into.
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Then I cut  some doors and fitted them.
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The hull bulkhead came with squared-off corners, so I'm going to have to fill them in to match the curves of the doors.
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Let me hasten to add that NONE of this is installed and I have a ton of sanding, fiber-glassing, coating wood with epoxy, etc. Oh! Remember that pic at the top? Lots of centerboard fiddling, before I can start gluing these components down, but at least, now I HAVE the components!! 
And so it goes . . . . .

Charles Brennan

[Captain Kidd]

It's all looking great, Charles. You answered some questions as the post unfolded. Glad you confirmed the origin of your Scamp. I still think it's really a cool thing.

The boat is not nearly as "finished" as I originally thought when I saw the ad. Lots of work to be done. BUT you're getting there!.

Cedar Key here we come!

[Riley Smith]

Makes me want to cut some wood! Yeah, gonna be a nice boat!

[rfrance0718]

Retirement! Just sitting around doing nothing.

[Riley Smith]