Mini Milestone: Sheer Flange & Stations Complete

/ Capt Kise
Pretty little Red from last weekend.

I didn’t make much progress the last two weekends due to a couple days on the water. So my progress lately has been in bits and pieces. Slowly but surely I’ll get there. I’ll admit there have been times I’ve wanted to just quit, buy a new boat, and get on the water. My mom, who is full of wisdom, reminded me happiness is not in the destination, it’s in the journey. So journey on I go.

In my previous post I had just completed cutting out the sheer flange. This post I step out the process for securing the sheer flange to the stations, and the stations to the strong back.

In order to secure the sheer flange (the thing on the ground) to the stations, I screwed some blocks to the stations to give the sheer something to grab.
I had to drill pilot holes into the blocks to keep them from splitting.
I marked the sheer flanges with the station lines to make sure they lined up correctly.
I started to make sure my keel was lined up by pulling a string line across the shop. While this worked, it tied up my workbench and made it a pain to get around with the sting running though the space.
So again, I gave into an excuse to buy another tool. I’m told that this laser will come in handy later in the build also. (Lights off for the photo only.)
Sheer Flange complete, commence celebratory beer!
Took a night off building last Monday and got to go demo Brain Floyd’s 10WT Skiff. This is extremely similar to what I am building. I was very happy to see this awesome boat that reinforced my excitement for my build. Well done Brian!
I’ve started meeting some people who share a passion for these style boats and fly fishing. Very cool community that I look forward to seeing more of. Membership of this group does not appear to be exclusive to humans.

So now that I have the sheer flange secured, next step is to get the entire thing level and to fasten the stations to the strong back.

The first idea I had was to work around the sheer flange with levels, making incremental adjustments with shims under the stations. After getting the port side complete, I fastened the port side of the stations to the strongback and moved over to the starboard side.

As I got closer to the bow on either side I was having a lot of trouble getting that section level. I was dealing with multiple variables (big dip in shop floor, crooked lumber in strongback, my own human errors). Furthermore, as I was making all these adjustments and bouncing back and forth, I managed to get the keel out of wack.

I was getting frustrated so I took the rest of the day off and came back with a clear head the next morning. Wouldn’t you know it, that worked. I had a eureka moment that was going to help me get it perfect.

My laser I bought was able to shoot a vertical line as shown above, but was also capable of shooting a horizontal line. With that horizontal line, I could use a method I learned back in my civil construction days to get a consistent (level) elevation.

Very simple but effective use of the laser.

I set the laser up off the mid-ship starboard and had it project a horizontal line. I grabbed a box level because it’s straight and can stand, and set it on the aft station on the sheer flange. I marked a line on the level where the laser hit. Then it was as easy as moving the level to different points along the sheer and adjusting the station heights with shims up and down until every location I put the level had the laser land perfectly on my mark.

After I felt I got the entire elevation perfect, I rechecked the keel for straightness and then fastened it all together.

Now it’s off to build the rounded transom… Thanks for reading!

There is no such thing as Perfection. But in striving for perfection, we can achieve Excellence.

Vince Lombardi

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