Glen-L.com

Howdy, I'm building the Geronimo. I've got all the frames, stem, transom, breasthook and chine blocking made; I'm pretty happy with it. Was wondering if any of you had some pointers on attaching the breasthook and chine blocking to the stem before I put them on the form. I guess they're like most boats this size - the breasthook and chine blocking are both two laminations of 3/4" ply - the top layer sits either on the top of the stem (breasthook, e.g.) or the ledge on the stem (chine blocking, e.g.), then the bottom layer makes a collar around the stem. The two layers themselves are epoxied and nailed to each other.
Here's my question: I can see gluing them to their positions on the stem (the collars are a tight fit), and either screwing or nailing them to the top of stem (breasthook) and top of ledge (chine blocking). However, I'm wondering if I should attach them with ADDITONAL screws SIDEWAYS into the stem. I'm just a little leery here about driving big screws (big enough to go thru the piece and into the stem) into the SIDES of the blocking, i.e., into the laminations of the pieces. Especially the chine blocking - it's on a 28 degree angle to boot. Maybe just the screws in the top thru the pieces into the stem are enough, without screwing thru the sides as well? Thanks for any comments. Bob

You shouldn't need to drive screws in from the sides of the breastook or chine block. Without having seen the plans for Geronimo I'm guessing there is going to be a notch in the stem where you secure the chine block. Secure through the top as instructed and, when you install the chines and sheers, drill lead holes with a countersinking bit for the screws and drive them into the stem. This will reduce any tendency of the hardwood to split. It will also ensure that the screws sink deep enough and not just spin in the softer wood of the stem. Try to place them and countersink them so that you are less likely to cut into them when you do your fairing. But don't be too surprised if you hit one or two anyway.

Thanks Pamelalynne for your wisdom; yes you're right on the plans there is a notch for the chine blocking.

On one of the sheets of the instructions there should be a fastening schedule. It specifies the size, length, and number of fasteners for the particular attachment. These fastening schedules were developed prior to the advent of epoxy, so I would have no qualms about them being more than sufficient when using epoxy.

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Bob
Sea Knight on the water/Malahini in progress

Thanks Bob. Yes, I see on my fastening schedule, just two 2" #10 screws for both; gotta order some from Glen-L. By the way, when building the transom, I started with screwing the side frame members (13/16" sapele) to the transom (3/4" marine ply), per the plans I used 1 1/2" silicon bronze screws - seemed like I couldn't get one in without chewing up the screw head but after some tips from the forum here I bought a quality tapered #8 pilot, and pre-screwed the hole with 1 1/2" steel #8 screws before the Si bronze ones. But when I looked at the other side of the transom about half of them poked thru the back of the transom, even splitting out some of the top layer of ply. I thought I had been careful not to sink the screws too far. So I had to cut around the points, grind them off and fill the holes - no big deal. Anyway, after that, instead of the screws I used 1 1/4" silicon bronze ring nails (and more of them than per plan for screws) for the bottom member and the motorboard. That seemed to work pretty good.