It's a long holiday weekend, but we still fit some physics in!

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so we will not be at the workshop this week.  Many thanks to all of the veterans who fought and continue to fight to make our country a place where all children have the opportunity to get an education and we all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We are forever in debt to these heroes...

Since our focus at the Compass Project is STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) studies, we spent some time this Monday watching Andrew Njaa's AP physics class do some pumpkin chucking using catapults and trebuchets. What a blast (lol)!

Many thanks to Andrew for providing his students such a hands on experience with physics and engineering and for letting us watch them put on a great show.  The longest "chuck" we saw was an impressive 110 feet...

Compass Project Week 7: No pictures this week, but check out Shane's great link!

Both Mrs. Horton and Mrs. Brewer were out this Friday, so no photos to post this week.  Many thanks to Mrs. Duddy and Mrs. Mulhern who took over for us and brought the crew to the workshop.

Shane sent me this link to a post he made on the WoodenBoat Forum: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?139073-Morbic-12-Sailing-Dinghy-New-Kit-Build-by-Students-in-Portland

Thanks for the great press Shane - we are so lucky to have you and the rest of the Compass Project staff right in our backyard...

Compass Project Week 6: Work on the Morbic 12 continues...

Lots of projects, some new and some ongoing, awaited us in the workshop this week.  Although we made a lot of progress on the beveled edges of the bulkhead and transom last week, because of it's complexity, a lot of work still remained on the stem.  There was still work on the girder that needed to be completed and several CNC parts needed to be fully separated and sanded before they could be attached.  In addition, Shane needed "board stretchers" and a false stem stock crew - so much to do in only about an hour and a half each week!  The crew divided the tasks out and got to work...

First up was our false stem stock crew.  See that curved wooden "trim" piece at the very front of the boat?  Well, that's the false stem....

 We had a great crew working on this detailed project.  Shane, Elena, Mrs. Brewer and our honorary team member, Will (Mrs. Horton's nine year old son), worked out some complicated metric system conversions...

 After a lesson in safety and instructions on how to use the table saw, Elena made some cuts and the false stem began to take shape!

 Undaunted, Marissa continued to work on the beveled edges of the stem...

 Molly looked to Allen for guidance on how to separate those pesky CNC cutouts...

and won the battle as she wielded a sanding block to finish the job!

James and Allen prepared to attach the bulkhead to the girder...

So all of us were wondering what exactly the role of a "board stretcher" would be.  Wendy worked with Andy and Socheta to separate the CNC cut strakes or planks that would then be laminated or joined together at their stepped finger scarf joints...wow!  These long or "stretched" planks would then be used on the side of our boat.

Strakes with stepped finger scarfs...

Andy breaks the number one safety rule (notice the glasses lying on the wood), but does a great job as a board stretcher!

 

Socheta works hard to separate the planks...

Thanks again to the Compass Project crew for another great week in the workshop!

Compass Project Week 5: We meet Clint Chase and start to create beveled edges...

We were honored to have the opportunity to met Clint Chase of Clint Chase Boatbuilders, LLC located right here in Portland, Maine.  Clint is the sole US kit agent and licensed builder for Francois Vivier, the designer of the Morbic 12.  He did the computer numerical control (CNC) cuts for our boat right in his Portland workshop.  He gave the kids a great presentation on how CNC cutting works and we are looking forward to showing off our final product to him.

You really should check out his website: http://www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com/, as well as his blog at: http://clintchaseboatbuilder.blogspot.com/.  They are a great glimpse into the intricate art of boat building.  Thanks again to Clint for coming over to spend time with our group!

After Clint's presentation, it was time to get back to work.  Today's mini lesson focused on the finer details of block planing.   This unassuming tool may look like a breeze to use, but believe me, it takes some practice (and patience) to get this right!

Shane and Allen made it look easy as they showed us how we would be using the block plane to bevel the edges of the parts that we had already laminated...beautiful curliques of wood seemed to effortlessly shave off!  These "beveled edges" will allow for the planking to fit seamlessly against these parts.

It took a bit of practice for the rest of us, but by the end of the demonstration, everyone looked like a pro!

The ever-patient Ahmed...

 Marissa gets those curliques flying!

 Allen helps Elena get just the right angle to her bevel.

Finally it was time to get to work on beveling the edges of the bulkhead, stem and transom that we laminated last week.  Marissa and Greg took some time to get the stem clamped down and discussed the proper angle to bevel this complicated part.

Molly and Elena teamed up to work on the bulkhead and eventually switched out their block plane for a file to make this very detailed job a bit easier.

Andy and Wendy worked on the transom...

Allen guided Ahmed and James through the process of adding supports to the girder.  The measurements and markings that James and Connor had made during our last visit to the workshop made this process a lot easier.

Lastly, take a few minutes to visit Francois Vivier's beautiful website.  There you can see some beautiful images of a completed Morbic 12 and learn a great deal about other vessels designed and built by Vivier.  You can find his website here:  http://www.vivierboats.com/