The Launch plus video of her being towed.

APPLE PIE DINGHY TENDER.

I build a pram dinghy tender for my Tanzer 22.

So far so good! After one day I have a shell with bulkheads tacked together. My apple pie tender is well on its way and looks like a big bathtub.

My Tanzer 22 is called Sensei, which means "teacher" or "master". I think I will call the tender
"Teacher's Pet" or "Grasshopper".

DAY 2 of building the Apple Pie Dinghy

I removed all the wire stitches, checked for level and measured the diagonals from corner to corner to make sure it's even. Dead on! What are the odds?

I like the speed at which a stitch and glue boat comes together and actually looks like a boat!

Some people leave the wire in place and just grind the ends flush. I prefer to remove them.

Coated the tender with epoxy and let it set to tacky. I used fast set epoxy. Meranti is quite attractive. Usually it's much duller in colour. I'm tempted to keep some of it bright but I give up on the idea. I don't want another bright boat to maintain.

Mixed up a batch of epoxy thickened with wood flour and made fillets on the inside. The wood flour I have is too coarse and makes a bumpy surface. I also did not let it set enough before putting the glass so it is bumpier than I would have liked.

The fillets make an nice angle on the edges to allow the cloth to go down and fills in the gaps between the surfaces. The fillets add significant strength to the construction of stitch and glue since there is no other fastener except the fiberglass cloth.

I applied fiberglass in the interior of the boat with 6 ounce cloth. Why oh why did I put in bulkhead before fiber glassing!

It took a while and I had to make a couple of judicious snips in the cloth. I also distorted my fillets and they are a bit uneaven now. However the interior is fiberglassed! I did not cover the bulkheads however I did fold up the cloth to cover an inch or so of the bulkhead. I don't think I need the extra strength on half inch plywood.

I checked the level of the tender in several places, floor, top of bulkhead and edges and everything is fine. I checked my diagonals again, that's ok too. With each additional layer the boat gets more rigid and any problem with twist or distortions get unfixable. Epoxy is left to harden. I'm using slow set but the weather is warm.

I spent some time getting a pattern for the middle seat following the curve of the bottom.

Here I'm modifying the original plan to make a more substantial middle seat and to house the daggerboard and mast step. The parts have been cut and coated with epoxy.

Putting together the daggerboard case. It follows the curve of the deck. It will not be very large because this boat is primarily a row boat with sail assist. I plan to put a very small rig on her, just for fun really. The inside has been coated with epoxy resin.

Note: in hindsight, the sailing rig was not very successful and I would save weight next time and not put in daggerboard well

I spent too much time figuring out the waterline and the angle the seats should be. I should have marked the waterline on the inside of the boat when I was laying out the measurements.

Taking a pattern for the seats. I added a half inch to allow for the thickness of the seat and the angle of the boat. If nothing is added the gap is quite pronounced on the top side while the bottom of the seat fits well.

Pattern for the 4 knees that help support the corners of the boat. These will have to be fitted in each corner. To my delight the 2 front are the same and so are the 2 back corners. I cut strips of wood to be the gunwales. The thickness of the end of the knees is the same as the gunwale thickness so it will flow nicely. This will require some fitting.

I made sure the boat is level and called it a day. It is a fabulous feeling to look out the window a see a BOAT being built in the back yard!

END OF DAY 2. I have a fiberglassed shell, the daggerboard - seat - mast step is waiting for assembly, and I have patterns for the knees and seat support.

email: Christine

This web site reflects my personal ideas and doesn't represent anyone else's point of view. Remember I'm not suggesting that this boat will be perfect and that I KNOW what I'm doing. Use your head and do your research.