Townsend Pre Purchase ?'s

[skiabq]

I have been looking at the plans for the Townsend 15-32 and have come up with a couple of questions. There is a seam down the center of the boat, from what I have read that improves tracking and prevents oil canning. Is that seam a straight edge on both panels? I was thinking of setting the circular saw to a depth of 1/8" and making that cut. Then I could make the bend, fillet and fiberglass on the inside, and there would be no filleting on the outside of the hull. I could still put a strip of fiberglass tape on the outside if you thought it was needed. Is this something that could be done with this model? Also From the pictures I do not see any butt blocks, does that mean that the seams where the lengths of panels are spliced together has been done with fiberglass? That seems like it would make it look much nicer, but is a 4" piece of fiberglass tape on the inside and outside enough? Or is there a more involved process in splicing the panels together?

Thanks

[jem]

I have been looking at the plans for the Townsend 15-32 and have come up with a couple of questions. There is a seam down the center of the boat, from what I have read that improves tracking and prevents oil canning. Is that seam a straight edge on both panels? I was thinking of setting the circular saw to a depth of 1/8" and making that cut. Then I could make the bend, fillet and fiberglass on the inside, and there would be no filleting on the outside of the hull. I could still put a strip of fiberglass tape on the outside if you thought it was needed. Is this something that could be done with this model?

Interesting idea. Unfortunately it wouldn't work on this model. The cut down the center line slightly curves and isn't straight line. It could be done but you'd need a design with exactly zero rocker and flat garvey-like pieces on the ends.

Fairing the outside of seams/chines is not bad. It's actually pretty easy. Filleting and fibeglassing inside seams are generally more difficult. Even if the partial cut idea worked, I'd recommend adding glass to the outside.

Also From the pictures I do not see any butt blocks, does that mean that the seams where the lengths of panels are spliced together has been done with fiberglass? That seems like it would make it look much nicer, but is a 4" piece of fiberglass tape on the inside and outside enough? Or is there a more involved process in splicing the panels together?

Thanks

The builder pictures and images are shown with the fiberglass splices as you mentioned. Generally the fiberglass splice on JEM designs are 10" long so if you're using tape, you'd have to use a couple of extra strip for the bigger panels.

Using wooden butt blocks vs. fiberglass splices is a matter of builder taste.