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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.
If you would like to ask me
any questions, you can E-mail me at:
Raymond_L_Montondo@DOM.com
Here is how I have
done it so far:
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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
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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:
Cutting the pieces out was quick and
easy with a small reciprocating saw. I believe
by using this method, the shape of the pieces is within
1/8 inch of the design.
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 woodie. 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.
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