The cold-molded W-37 day racer continues coming together at Brooklin Boat Yard. Here all the plywood web frames and bulkheads and all the laminated frames have been hung from the longitudinal girders.
The guys in the building crew are putting the final fairing touches on the frames, planing the bevels just right to receive the first layer of planking, 7/16″ tongue-and-groove strip planking. You can see how the bigger laminated frames in the middle are notched into the heavy stringers where the fin keel will be bolted on.
Here’s a view from astern, showing the shallow sweep of the boat’s run. This spells speed, especially off the wind when the breeze is up. The broad, nearly vertical transom is quite a departure from The W-37’s more svelte sisters, the W-46 and W-76, but it’s this that will give her the power to carry a cloud of sail at planing speeds downwind. It’s made of several layers of marine plywood, vacuum-bagged together over a form to create the graceful camber that’ll distinguish it from more run-of-the-mill sportboats.
A view from the bow. She’s being built on the third floor, so this is looking across the main building bay, which last year was filled with Bequia, a 90′ cold-molded cruising yawl of SWW design. When she’s completed, a beam crane will fly her down to the ground floor, where she’ll be mated to her fin keel of fabricated steel and lead torpedo bulb. Her stem, with its graceful slight reverse, is to the right of the rightmost man’s elbow.
Stay tuned– planking begins next!
Bob Stephens