Mini-Brig Project: Hull Construction - Step 12

Hull Construction: Step 12

Finishing Interior/Fittings:

Step 1:  Varnishing The Wood
 

Now is the time to finish the wood by putting several layers of a good varnish. This is where it pays to use a quality product. In our instance we used a mini-wax professional series fast dry varnish. You could also use any of the traditional spar varnishes or varathane.

Adventure Brig

The Interior Varnished and Ready To Go

Step 2: Cutting and forming the rudder and daggerboard:
 

With the hull finished, you will now need to cut and sand the rudder, tiller and daggerboard. There are various configurations available and you can use the standard D4 plan, or use the plans from the advanced D4 Brig CD.

Rudder

The Rudder Under Construction

The Tiller was made by laminating together three pieces of 2"x2". and then fixed to the rudder with a bolt. The Tiller is currently a little long, and we may shorten it. We then placed several coats of varnish over te tiller. 

You will need to order some pintles and gudgeons for the rudder hinges. The Duckworks chandlery is a great place to obtain these. You can order these here.

Pintles&Gudgeons.
The pintles & gudgeons and our" Rudder Keeper"

The daggerboard has a thin 1/2" strip at the top to prevent it from sliding down into the trunk housing, and so it fits flush with the seat. A hole is drilled in the bow side of the board and a sliding lockbolt holds it in place. You can develop whatever keeper system you want, even a bungee chord will work!! Don't forget, your gunner/crew will be sitting on this board so that will also help to hold it in place.

Keeper

The Daggerboard lock mechanism. It slide into a hole on the bow side of the daggerboard


You should also install a set of gunnels, this will help provide rigidity, and absorb any actions such as banging against a dock, other boats, etc. The gunnels also serve as a support for oar locks, and cannon decks. The gunnels are a 1/2" x 2" strip of hardwood, located between each of the rigging mounts on the outside of the boat. We screwed and glued the gunnels in place.

Cannon Deck.
Here is a picture of the gunnels and cannon decks in place

At this time we also added our "cannon decks" which support two carbide cannons on each side. The decks are removeable for when they are not in use. Our cannons sit on the decks and then lock in place. The cannon deck instructions are available on the advanced D4 Brig CD.