December 5, 2024 - realignment

During our internship at the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam we learned a lot about how to properly shape a boat and how important it is to get the groundwork right. That is why we immediately checked all the jigs we had made and changed them where necessary during our first week back at school. Then we attached the stem and stern to the deck. Once that was all done, we could continue with the wood strips. The adjustments we made have also made the boat wider (6 cm on both sides).

November 15, 2024 - internship
Our MBO training also includes internships. These come in periods of 10 weeks. We followed an internship at the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam. The museum has a fleet of historic boats in its collection. One of the ships is the Seagull. This ship has always had a wooden lifeboat, but due to poor maintenance it has rotten beyond repair. To complete the collection, the museum has started rebuilding the lifeboat. They decided to do this in collaboration with the HMC. During our internship we worked on the transom, the grooves in the keel, a steam box and the first 2 planks on either side of the boat. We also carried out many repairs in the museum yard.
June 9, 2024 - Stripping the boat Stripping a boat means checking whether the shape of the hull runs nice and smooth. We do this using wooden strips. These are actually just thin sticks that are easy to bend into shape. But as you can see in the photos, the shape is not yet running well, so we have to work on that some more in the coming weeks. This is because the drawing we use is from 1800 and is of course drawn by hand. The original drawing only stated the length and width of the boat and no other dimensions, so we assumed that everything was drawn to scale. So that's not entirely correct...
June 5, 2024 - Add molds and stem Now that we have the beams, we can add the construction jigs to them. These jigs are crosscuts of the boat so that we can later check if everything is right. We also added the front stem and the front gill beam.

May 27, 2024 - Make the surface neat again

After all the screws on the surface were removed, we cleaned everything up and sanded it again.

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

May 24, 2024 - making the plane

Now that we have 4 separate planks, we still have to attach them together. We do this using beams because there is no glue between the planks. Girders are beams that lie on the plane and hold it together. To attach the beams we use special screws, these have an extra wide head making them perfect for pulling everything together properly. In addition, there is also caulk, which gives extra strength to the whole and also ensures that no water can get between the beams and the surface. If that were to happen, the wood could rot. Once everything was secured, we sealed the holes with the screws using wood. We do this to prevent water from getting between the screw and the wood.

May 22, 2024 - Sawing the plane to shape

Now that we have all the planks ready for the plane, we just need to make it into the right shape. Because the shape is round, we have allowed the wood to protrude in certain places so that we can place clamps there. This way we can close all the seams. We first roughly sawed the planks with a jigsaw and then applied the correct shape with a plane.

May 8, 2024 - Add caulk to seam

We make a sloping edge between the planks of the plane to finally caulk the plane. Caulking is adding cotton or hemp between your planks. We do this to ensure that no water can leak into the boat.

April 24, 2024 - Getting rid of knots

A knot is a spot in a beam where a branch once grew and forms a weak point. Knots are also places where water can get in, causing it to rot from the inside. Some knots are even so large that they make holes in your beams. To solve this problem, we mill out all the knots and replace them with wooden covers. We drill small holes in the smaller knots and plug it with wood.

Apr 22, 2024 - Drawing the shape of the lower deck
The bottom of the boat is somewhat shaped like a surfboard. To transfer this shape from the computer to the wood we use nails. We place the nails at specific distances from the center line outwards and from front to back. After we have hammered the nails into the wood, we bend a thin stick along the entire length, allowing us to draw a nice curved line along that stick.

April 19, 2024 - Bending the lower deck test

The original construction drawing of the Hoogaars did not specify a thickness (or any measurements, for that matter), so we had to come up with that ourselves. What you usually employ for your lower deck is double the thickness of your hull . In our case, the hull is 2.3 cm thick and we opted for a deck thickness of 4 cm. The plane consists of four beams. Because we were not sure whether they could be bent into shape properly, we did a test with one beam. With the help of a lot of clamps and Lukas' weight with a few pairs of heavy beams, we managed to get it into shape.

April 17, 2024 - Customize beams for the surface

Today we tailored the beams that we bought from Frank Pouwer to the surface. We first ran these beams over the leveling machine to make them perfectly flat on one side. Then we used that flat side as a guide to make the other side perpendicular to it. Using the thicknesser we could then also flatten the two sides that are still coarse. This works the same as a leveling bench but takes something off the top instead of the bottom. Repeating this process for all four beams we made the coarse side nice and flat and parallel to the smooth side. The beams are 4.7 meters long. Since the machines at our school are designed for furniture makers who never need such a huge length, it was difficult to find a suitable machine with enough space in front of and behind it. After some measuring, we found a place where we could precisely machine the beam. The beams are each 25 cm wide and 4 cm thick.

April 15, 2024 - Setting up the construction bed At the start of our project Zeeduivel, we had already made the construction bed for our ship in parts. Now that the stage is completely to your liking, we start installing the trestles. We must carefully measure the distance between the three trestles. They all have a different height because the deck of our ship is curved. There are two beams along the construction bed to ensure that the floor does not get pulled upwards when we clamp the lower deck to the bed.
 
 
 
 

 

 

April 10, 2024 - Getting the room ready

Now that the graduating classes of 2024 have completed and taken their boats, we can finally enter the classroom with our project. This is where we will have our practical hours for the rest of our studies. Stages were once built in the classrooms on which we can attach the construction bed. Unfortunately, drilling into the concrete floor is prohibited, which is why the podiums are placed on the floor. Now this is not a disaster, but a lot of dust has accumulated under it over the years. As a result, the floor was no longer even and not level. That's why we decided to open up the floor and re-lay it.

This is the CNC machine we used

April 4 - finishing the rudder - CNC work After we'd assembled all the parts of the rudder, we still had to give it its final shape. We did this with the help of the CNC, a CNC is a computer-controlled milling machine. These machines are super precise and fast. Axel therefore made drawings that we used to control the CNC. we also milled the construction molds that we will use to define the shape the boat. After we the rudder was shaped, we sanded it and applied a thinned layer of lacquer. We did this as quickly as possible to retain the moisture that will remain in the wood because when wood dries out, it shrinks, cracks and deforms. By putting varnish on it, it cannot lose moisture, so our hard work is not in vain.

This is what the rudder looked like before we milled it

March 26 - view wood at Frank Pouwer

In between all the building we went to the Frank Pouwer timber yard to look at the wood. we still needed wood for the mast and the plane of the boat. the surface is the bottom of the ship, which must be thicker to prevent wear. We were helped there by the employees and Frank himself. they normally supply rustic wood which is often used in construction to give it an old fashioned look or in furniture. We chose Frank Pouwer because they have very unique sizes of wood and they are very well priced for the quality and service you get. In addition, they have a delivery time of 1-3 weeks, so you don't have to wait long for your wood.

March 19 - Glueing the rudder
After we have made all parts of the rudder to size, we only have to glue them together. We do this again with the same glue as we glued the Stem and Sternpost. We added some extra reinforcements to the rudder. Normally this is done with stainless steel rods, but since our rudder is so large, we opted to use special high-end dowels. These dowels are made of Padauk, Padauk is a poisonous type of wood, but this is a good thing in this case. the theory is that if wood rot enters the rudder, it will be killed by the poisonous dowels. While clamping the rudder we kept a close eye on whether everything remained level. because if your rudder is bent or crooked, it can keep us from sailing in a straight line.
March 14, 2023 - Helm progress
Now that we have sawn the long plank into pieces, we still have to remove the bark. This process is called edging. We not only remove the bark, but also the sapwood. sapwood is wood that is just below the bark, this wood is lighter and also softer. Because it is softer, it is also more susceptible to rotting wood. but after we have squared it, we make sure we cut out the heart. We then ensure that the wood is nice and flat and completely square all around.

March 14, 2023 - the beginning of the helm We have started making the rudder because we cannot start building the rest of the ship yet. We're making the rudder from one of the two heart planks from the tree that we bought earlier. A heart plank is a plank that comes from the core of the tree. A tree has a kind of artery in the middle which it uses to transport water from the ground up. For that reason it is not waterproof and there is a greater chance that it will tear at that point. We can therefore use these planks to make the rudder and centreboards, as long as we saw out the heart. In the photos below you can see how we sawed the large plank into pieces and ultimately make the rudder.

March 12, 2023 - the making of the stem and sternpost On the fore and aft side of our ship we have 2 beams, called stem and sternpost, that go from the plane (the bottom of the ship) to the top edge of the ship. These components are very important as all the planks in the hull will be lodged in them. We had to make these beams from 2 parts because it is difficult to find beams of wood with the correct width and thickness. We glued this connection with Resorcine glue. We chose this glue over epoxy because epoxy sometimes does not get a good bond with oak. We will add stainless steel threads at a later date to strengthen the beams. In the left photo you see Axel making the beams flat and perpendicular and then working on the width and thickness. we use a leveling machine for this.

February 8, 2023 - Building a construction bed After our internships we are back at school. We cannot start our boat yet because the boat room is still in use by the current exam class. So during this school period we are already making everything that is separate from the boat. For example, the construction bed. This is the frame that we use as a stage to build the boat on. We have 3 parts in total. There are 2 trestles (photo right), one at the front and one at the back of the boat. They have different heights. There will be a rectangular frame in the middle of the boat (left in the photo), which we have made a bit stronger for extra stability of the boat.
February 5, 2023 - Our tree is in Rotterdam! At the beginning of January, Lukas drove from Leidschendam to Doezum in Groningen to view the tree at Houthandel Van der Naald that could be perfect for Project Zeeduivel. The oak wood has been naturally dried for 3 years. After some measuring and calculations, it turned out that this was indeed the tree and the deal was closed. With a length of 6 meters and a width of 65 centimeters, we can make a large part of our Hoogaars from this. Transport was quickly arranged and a storage location at the HMC. The 14 sawn planks are now well covered there, waiting for the project to start. www.houthandelvandernaald.nl
January 2023 - Project Zeeduivel gets its own logo Because our project is starting to take shape and many people are interested in its progress, we want to communicate about it in different ways. We opened an Instagram account (@project_zeeduivel) and this website was created. We also want to create a newsletter that we'll send by email. MarleenTekent designed a logo for us that we use everywhere. The logo features our initials A and L, the number 2025 (the year we complete the project) and an anglerfish. The logo is also engraved on the upper part of the rudder. www.marleentekent.nl