Glen-L.com

Sorry to hear about this. This is the stuff that can make a grown man cry! I screwed my chine in too. Yikes! Hope the Purple Heart holds up.

I hope these wizards of wood around here have a great fix for you.

I hope maybe somehow you can clamp the boat back to shape and back your chine without taking the front sides apart.

Keep your head up, like others have said when you have finished the fix, you will have a triumphant story. You could name your boat, "What Chine?" or "Perservere", perhaps maybe, Aww S&!T!

I'll shut up now...Good Luck.

I'm guessing here,but without pics(and I've never done this repair before), here's what I would do if I'm getting you right.

The crack is at the frame,so I would remove the screw into the frame and any screws holding the panel to the chine to a point halfway between the break and the next frame(maybe any screws in these chine to frames too, so you don't crack any more).

Then at the halfway point between the frame aft of the break and halfway between forward of the break,draw scarf lines on the chine top,(6 to 1 or whatever ratio).I think reinforcing on the outside by clamping like Oyster said to support and pull into shape while repairing is the thing to do.

Then take either a sawzall and being careful,cut the chine from the panel between the scarf-lines.You will need to dig out at the frame some how. You could also just use the grinder to remove the broken chine instead of the sawzall.

You can clean up the rough cut and grind the scarf in using Oyster's famous grinder method of preparing a scarf by grinding.

back up your scarfs while the epoxy kicks by clamping on the inside another piece of reinforcing wood and some strips on the outside too in those areas....maybe the whole length on the outside.

When you are done, you should only have the screw holes on the outside to fix, and where you had to dig the screws out of the chine/frame joints.

Does this sound like it would work?

Sorry, no pics yet...yep, the wife took the camera to Iowa.

I'm home and I think the solution (similar to what you've come up with ups and oyster) that I'm going to use will be to try and remove the forward plywood skin (stressed plywood) to where my first plywood scarf is located. Then I'll cut out the chine somewhat forward of this area at a compound angle so my scarfs are not running the same direction or on the same plane as the plywood and chine. Then I'll lay in the new chine in two laminations to lessen the flex back. Create a new scarf for my plywood in place (getting pretty good with the hand plane now) and then just pick up basically where I am at now.

Removing the existing chine at the chine block is really my only big concern now with this approach. I think your right on with the sawsall...I might just cut shy of the block then belt sand/plane down to the block from there.

As far as where the current plywood skin attaches to the sheer...well, the ply is only 1/4" thick so I suppose I could just use my power planner to clean up this area.

Thoughts?

From experience:

Keep chain saws far away from boat building/rebuilding projects!!!

I forgot in my little repair dissertation,I would laminate the repair chine sections from 2 or 3 pieces to build the thickness as you stated

camera are cheap now....go buy one just for the shop!

That way you won't mess up a good one

Thanks for not letting my throw in the towel! I'm gonna keep a close eye on the other chine until my bottom skin goes on.

Maybe if I got glue all over it my wife would stop taking it!

Oyster...I talking about my CAMERA so don't get any ideas.

Sometimes you have to walk away and get some C&C time to avoid foolish decisions and really asses the situation!!

I take the sawzall and cut slits upright or right angle to the running length along the way from the inside just shy of the skin at a number of areas. Then I take a beater chisel and chisel the pieces until I get the broken areas off the skin. Then clean up the small amount of wood from the skin.

When you get all the pieces removed from the areas on either side of the frame, you will be able to also remove the pieces at the frame too by chiseling long ways of the leftover wood. Then you will have plenty of room to install a scarfed in piece along the chines with the ability to flex a bit the skin outward to get the new pieces in place, even doing several pieces flat ways and glue to the skin.

The piece that would be on the inside will overlap the good stuff at edge end after you grind down or router for the overlay of the layer thats on the outside or would be on the inside of the chines. This gives you a laminated chine the farmers way. and will be just fine.

Bill, I am so sorry for your situation, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE ARE WE GOING TO LET YOU GIVE UP!

I need to give you a bit of back ground. My daughter, Emily, has Ataxic Cerebral Palsy. She build a pram, doing most of the work herself. Took her a year. You, and most of the people on this forum, could have done it in about two weeks. But, when she hit some tough spots, or was given a load of crap by small minded people, she found support and encouragement from some guys on the net, in a boat building forum. We had many tears, many times when I doubted that she would see it through. But she did, and so will you. And, you will be stronger because of it. Trust me on this one I know, I know, I sound just like that old guy in every kung fu movie ever made.

Really, take a step back, look it over, ask a ton of questions, and fix your boat. No shop in the world will do as good a job as you will, because, this is your boat, and no one else has one just like it. And, even if this is one more thing that the rest of the world will never understand, we ALL do here.
Stephen

Bill,
I feel for you! That is a high stress area.
the chine makes it's most severe bend there, and it's faired pretty thin too. Put a screw in it and you've got potential heartbreak. What kind of wood did you use for the chine? Kiln dried or green? Green white oak worked good for me on my Mahlahini. I had many, many problems but I managed to avoid a cracked chine....somehow?!?
Sam

I have a couple of questions on this subject that I'm sure won't be of any help to the current situation but will be of a good reference for future situations.

Question #1. What would be wrong with laminating the chine in severa thin strips, say 4 or 5 strips, and not screwing them at all? Only use the epoxy as the method of holding and clamping the strips at each frame until the epoxy kicks?

Question #2. If both chines are equal in tension and one breaks, would that require building it back with an attempt to match the tension on the other side? Otherwise, would it have a tendancy to wrack the hull?

Many have done basicly this. My only concern, and possibly it has no merit, is that by doing thin laminations for the chine or shear you will not get the correct curve on these pieces due to them not being under the same amount of tension as a much larger single piece would be.

I might be full of it

I hope that Bill does not mind me taking this thread off topic for a bit and that some of this reply can help others thats in a simular situation when setting their boat up.

I will add my way of doing a wharped bottom boat with solid timber. There is nothing extra special. But in regards to bending, you can always adjust the chine strips after you have then roughed in of you do not like the shape. The real key is using the same thickness of wood and picking simular wood grains. This is also easy to do if you are running your wood from the same boards.

When I do this I do it on the table saw with the blade set at a slight angle. The reason I do this is that the additional piece sorta locks in place and helps to self align as you glue up. This does take some clamps both being used two different ways.

This bottom is simular to most of the wooden style runabouts that flatten out quickly from the entry to a more friendly planing surface.

I actually used a small pad midship at the transom. But you can see that it flattens out at the transom also showing the three pieces that I use. Of course these pieces are not long enough and thats not a big deal at all. Just temporarily clamp you short pieces to an existing piece that you begin with until you can dry fit all the chine before gluing up. Solid wood will talks to you. When I say this I mean that solid timber finds it shape and you will be able to see any hard spots or spots that will also tell you that the frames or jigs are short or misaligned too.










I actuallt fair the hull shape in place using the smallest and thinnest batten that will hold and show any inperfections early on. The initial setup will tell you also if you have cut the end angles enough or have a hard spot created by not enough angle up foward where you have the compound shape which requires that twist to make the increased deadrise in a short distance. The key also is to counterbore you woods after determining the proper place.


What I also use to do so is small brass tacks or simple metal or steel wire brads at least 1 1/4" long in the initial setup and roughing in. This way if you do not like the shape, just pull it back out and go again. Hopefully you can see that there is not predrilled holes, only the brads to do so early on.

First, let me say with my prework this morning...this is recoverable!

I used kiln dried white oak (heart wood) steam bent with the grain (not across it) but it was still under considerable tension (see my old post white oak...like bending steel).

Next, I think the shape will not be compromised due to the sheer already being in place, the port skin not being able to compress, and my extra temporary chine reinforcement is still in place. Thus, there will not be an increadible release of potential energy when this chine is removed. I'll add a little extra reinforcement for peace of mind but I think I'll be okay.

Just got a call from the wife...she's in Wisconsin now (with the camera)...hell, I wish I was having as much fun as she is...DAMN CHINE!

Anywho...things are cutting out as anticipated so far. (Pun intended)

Got another football game with the son tonight so it may be tomorrow or monday before the results are seen...but am optimistic so far.