Last Frame Done

Here is a photo of my last frame assembled. The last 2 were the central frames under the deck stepped mast and are 50% heavier than the rest of the frames to abosrb the compression forces of the mast. Later a support tube will be welded into place from the keel to the beam under the mast.

I finished this last week and have spent a few days "scrounging" bits and pieces from around the place. When you build a boat you simply must get good at sourcing cheap or better free items from around your local area. Otherwise if you just buy retail for everything you will probably spend 30% to 40% more than you could in building your boat. Examples are lead - so far I've collected over 1 tonne at a cost of 1 case of beer. I also got a 22 inch prop with barely a mark on it for again - a case of beer (new ocst $2000 AUD). Today I picked up some useful steel offcuts from my local steel fabricators recycling bin - the price - you guessed it. I got a good haul of beam sections, channels and RHS sections. I've got uses for all of this.

Anyway this week I'm working on my rudder plus starting to make a variety of small tools that I will need during hull plating. I'll be standing up my frames starting in about 3 weeks.

I'll post a photo of my rudder during construction. If you look carefull at this photo you can see I've already drawn and cut the rudder plates. They are laying on their side in the background.

MP