Raymond Montondo's Stringer Lightning
To all the people who have sent me correspondence on my project, I have not given up. As you can guess I like to work on projects, and my house has taken priority over the past two summers, new siding, stairs, wood floor, paint. Believe me, there is nothing I would rather work on than my boat.
Here is how I have done it so far:
I did not originally plan on building a Lightning. I had a 3D CAD program and wanted to learn how to use it. Boxes were to easy, so I decided to try to draw a picture of my boat (9285). I had the original drawings. That was in September 1998, by spring I had:
By using my old 24X36 flatbed plotter, I made full size patterns on white craft paper.
I then cut them out, and used spray contact glue to glue them to the plywood:
The next step was attaching them to a strongback.
I built one 40" wide X 20 ft long. The last two feet do not have a floor.
There is a 2X8 spreader that you can not see that is on the same plane as the stern.
The next step was attaching them to a strongback.
I built one 40" wide X 20 ft long. The last two feet do not have a floor.
There is a 2X8 spreader that you can not see that is on the same plane as the stern.
To align the stations, I plotted all stations on one sheet, and screwed two small boards to the floor 40" apart.
The two supports were screwed to each station, and the height marked from the alignment boards.
To mount the stations on the strongback, I marked lines 1.5 ft apart with a square, lined up the supports and screwed them fast with angle brackets.
I set up all the pieces in the picture in under three hours, some after dark.
Before assembling, I coated all of the stations with one coat of penetrating epoxy, and one coat of 1:1 epoxy. Making enough 1/2 X 3/4" stringers 20ft long was also a bit of work until I constructed a jig that would cut a good 12:1 scarf.
This summer (2001) I put the sides and bottom on the hull. The bottom is 3 layers of 1/8" plywood, and I used one 1/4" and one 1/8" ply on the sides. As I plan on racing this hull, I wanted the bottom finish to be perfect. Unfortunately I spent the best two months of the summer working on the "perfect finish" and finally settled for good enough.
Here is the hull as it looked by July. It didn't change much for the next two months except for the amount of epoxy dust left over from all my sanding.
In September I did get it flipped over. So far it weighs in at 305 lbs. I should have no problem finishing it up, and having a bit of margin for corrector weights. If anyone is interested in building one, I would say that drawing the plans was one of the easier parts. I don't have plans for sale, but may someday. Building my boat is more important to me right now than writing a construction guide, as I have been making it up as I go.
In case anyone was wondering, yes I do (did) own a glass hull... I sawed it up. (12875) Fiberglass hulls are nice, as long as you don't get them wet!
Here is my other woodiy. 40 years old, stored outside under a tarp, and it is likely lighter now that the day it was built. 5 people could dance on the deck, and it still looks and sails great. People sometimes ask me why I like wooden hulls. The answer is because I believe this hull will be just as fast as a new fiberglass hull the day it hits the water, and still be just as fast 40 years from now. That is stored inside, outside, or at the dock- in the water.