Raising the Frames

 As mentioned in a prior post, the frames were constructed over several winters in the cellar.  When the time finally came this summer, they were dragged down to the building site and laid out on the full sized framing table we constructed next to the keel.  The two frame halves were "mated" and cross pawls were added to stabilize the frame shape as the were attached to their respective floor timbers.  We started at the engine room where the engine had already been mounted and in anticipation of the fuel tanks which had just been ordered from an aluminum fabricator in NJ.

In addition to raising the frames here, this was also the right time to put in the fore and aft engine room bulk heads.  The bulk heads were to layers of screwed and glued 1/2 in MDO.  The aft bulkhead was left off until the tanks were installed to facilitate their placement (next post).  After the glue kicked screws were removed leaving us with a 1 inch final thickness laminated plywood bulk head.    Then the remaining frames were put in place you can see the floor timbers primed for the forthcoming frames and then finally almost all frames standing.  Frames were bolted to the the floor timbers with four 1/2 inch bolts (2 per side) and then strapping was screwed to the outside of the frames to stabilize them until the chine was attached.