Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 29

Chines after planing

Chines at bow

Frame 2 level with chine

Fitting aft section of the hog

I’ve had an absolutely brilliant time building ‘Sharpy’. This afternoon I planed the chine logs level with the frames and started fitting the aft section of the hog. Before I fitted the hog, I thought the lower edge of the transom would be proud by about an inch! But that was purely an optical illusion. After I cut the notches in frames three and four and inserted the hog, I could immediately see that Derek’s measurements were spot on, to 1/16 of an inch. Everything slotted in perfectly.


I shall need to fit the forward section of the hog and join both pieces. How to do this, I have yet to work out, and where the best place for the join will be. When they have been epoxied into position, the finished hog will help keep the boat symmetrical.

The next job will be inserting the side stringers that will stiffen the floor. After that I shall probably fit the fore and aft central deck supports, so that the boat will be absolutely rigid. At that stage the aft and forward floors can be cut to shape and epoxied into position. The aft section of the floor will be cut from a full length of a piece of plywood, so that the position of the butt join will be determined at 8 feet from the lower ‘v’ of the transom.


Building this boat is rather like building a Matt Layden Paradox, in that the sequence of building follows what has already been built. The frames and panels give the shape of the hull to which the hog and stringers are added, and so on.