Ginger rebuild Part V, building a new front end

 

Now that I had removed the front timbers from Ginger I had to make replacement timbers luckily, I happened to have a large piece of aged white oak in the shop that I could glue together to make a blank large enough to cut the new pieces out of. After rough cutting the pieces out of the blank, I had to shape them and bolt them together to form the new front assembly. Then came the task of cutting in the mast step, drilling the new bolt holes needed for attaching them to the keel and finally carefully cutting the cutwater into the leading edge of the forward timber. After a bit of sanding the new forward timber assembly was ready to go back in.

Afterwards, while the planks were off I also replaced the aft timbe,,, but that's the next posting.

Cutting the old bolts apart

Because I was doing the rebuild in the winter I had to tent the glue job over and heat the area for the night to make the epoxy set.

The blank is finished, and cut to size. Now, I position the old pieces and trace them out before cutting them from the blank.

Notice the large areas of cracks and checks in the front timber.

The new and the old

After glueing the two pieces together I had to cut in a new mast step area. First the cutting...

Then taking the thin pieces out.

Ready to be bolted together.

Drilling the bolt holes for the main timbers and the keel bolts.

Laying out the curvature of the cutwater. This was tricky for you want the line to be in the proper place and have a fair, eye pleasing curve to it.

Next, removing the excess wood...

then cutting it away.

The final assembly, glued together, bolted tight, cut, shaped and sanded. Ready to be bolted back into Ginger.