The Building of my Harmonica "Gypsy"

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

People have told me that I spend more time talking about building boats than I actually spend building them. However, as true as that may be, I have found that if I will just spend a few minutes or maybe an hour working on the boat each day, before I know it the boat is almost finished. I say almost finished because I don't believe a homebuilt boat is ever completely finished!

In this section I will try hard to show more of the actual construction of my Harmonica, "GYPSY", and hopefully, spend less time talking about why I did what I did! It will be hard…but I will try!

Compared to many boat designs, Jim Michalak's Harmonica is very easy for an average person to build. Using my dolly worktable it was easy to cut out the parts for the bulkheads, and also cut the two plywood panels that form the sides of the boat.

Photo showing the cut bow curve on the side panels.

After cutting out the side panels and setting them aside, I started assembling the four bulkheads. Having all of the parts already cut and in kit packages made the actual assembly very easy. I used the surface of the worktable to lay out the plywood and board sections and to ensure that each bulkhead was square, and all dimensions were in accordance to the plans dimensions.

Bulkhead # 2 laid out on the worktable.

Once a bulkhead was determined to be the correct size it was taken to a heated area to be assembled with epoxy and bronze ring nails. I used epoxy resin to glue the plywood panels, but the bulkheads could have easily been build with Weldwood Resorcinol Glue, or a quality construction adhesive such as PL Premium.

After the four bulkheads were glued and nailed together I started the process of joining the two plywood panels together to form the boat's sides. Taking the two cut out 1/4-inch panels I laid them on the floor and joined the two panel's ends together in a simple butt joint. Nothing fancy, just a 1" by 4" board under the two panels where the ends meet, with a bunch of thicken epoxy, and some bronze ring nails to hold it together until the epoxy cures.

Side panel joined with a butt joint.

Once the side panel's epoxy had cured for about 24-hours, I added the 1" by 2" and the 2" by 2" wooden strips to the sides for the sheer and deck clamps.

I then started thinking about how I was going to attach the bulkheads to the sides. I finally decided that I would use my dolly as a jig to assist in holding the sides while jointing the bulkheads with epoxy and nails. The dolly/jig would also assist in ensuring that the boat was built square, like the box it was supposed to resemble!

Since I was going to build the Harmonica with the bottom up, I started the assembly process by standing one of the side panel's upright with the bottom up, and then placing the transom bulkhead at the aft end of the panel. My sweet darling wife held the side panel while I applied epoxy to the joining surfaces, and nailed several nails through the panel and into the bulkhead boards. I ensured that the insides of the panel and the bulkhead were square to the outer boards of the dolly/jig.

Port side being joined to transom bulkhead.

With the side and transom bulkhead standing upright, I moved the second side into position, and once again with my wife's help, glued and nailed the side to the transom.

Second side ready to attach to transom.

After the second side was joined to the transom I slid the dolly/jig forward and attached bulkhead 3 to the sides with epoxy and nails. I then removed the dolly/jig and attached bulkhead 2. Later that day I glued the bow bulkhead to the sides. In the bow photo you can see the bronze ring nails that I used to attach the sides to the bulkheads. These nails have great holding power and are much faster to install than screws.

Bulkhead 2 attached to sides.

Close up of Bow

After the epoxy on the bulkheads had cured I then took three 1" by 2" boards and ripped each one into four or five strips. I then assembled enough of these strips to form two soon to be laminated boards. The actual measurements of these boards were 3/4" thick by 1 1/2" wide. I could have built a form to use to laminate the bow curve, but that seemed to be a lot of work just for one boat. So I decided to use "C" type clamps and wooden blocks as jigs. Very simple and it worked very well. I believe that you can understand how I did this by looking at the photos showing the chine logs being laminated and attached to the bottom of the boat's sides. In a nutshell I used the top edge of a metal "C" clamp to hold the wooden strips at the top of the side, and a wooden block, held by the metal clamp, to hold the strips from the bottom.

Bending the laminated chine log.

After dry fitting the wooden strips to test my proposed jigs, I then wrapped the metal clamps and wooden blocks with Glad Freezer Wrap so that the epoxy would not make the "Jigs" a permanent part of the boat! Laying the four or five wooded strips across the bow and second bulkhead I coated the strips with epoxy and joined them together. By attaching the first metal clamp at the bow of the boat, and a second metal clamp close by, I was able to form a bending jig of sorts. I inserted the glued strips into the opening formed by the first bow metal clamp, and bent the laminated strips over the wooden block of the second clamp. Working my way to the aft end of the wooden strips I bent the strips and tighten the clamps so that the top of the strips were even with the top of the side.

On to Part 3