SS William Dawes Liberty Ship build After building from several fiberglass hulls I wanted to try my hand at a wood build. After seeing the free plans available I decided to give it a go. SS William Dawes was chosen because: 1. It was built in the Pacific North West. (Portland) 2. It was sunk. My SS William Dawes is only being built to be sunk!!! In the spirit of Liberty Ships I am going to build this on the cheap. ¼” plywood is from Lowes (not recommended). This stuff is awful! First day laid it out and ruff cut it. I am building it with a water channel, because I wanted to practice, & who knows I may put a pump in it to make it a little harder to sink. Layout Assembled and glued Pink foam Instead of the recommended 3/32 plywood to sheet the bottom, I decided to use pink foam from the Depot. I started with 1”. Cut a strip to width using a stop on my band saw. I used 3.5”. Then I reset the stop to ½” and cut the strip in half. I used Tight Bond III to glue the foam between the ribs then shaped with a belt sander then sand paper. Pink foam shapes very easy. I am concerned at this point that the foam may be too light, I may end up having to remove it.
Bondo I filled the gaps with bondo. This was a mistake. I had tested with West System epoxy. Bondo eats Pink foam. Fortunately it wasn’t too bad. I will fiberglass then use bondo on top of the fiberglass.
You really do want it at as light a draft as possible so it takes longer to sink. That being said there is lots of room inside to add weight if necessary.
I will finish fiber glassing the outside. Then see how it sinks before I decide to remove any foam. Hoping it will not be necessary. Keith
Local game allows a pump for a convoy. Up to a 7/8” diameter impeller and a half unit restrictor. BC Micro pump is a good match for the job.
Lessons learned. You pay for what you get. I went cheap on the ¼ plywood, partially because , well I’m cheap, but also because I don’t have a local source for good 5 ply plywood. I did stop at the local Hobby Lobby, but they did not carry plywood, so I went next door to Lowes. OK I also may be a little impatient. I have been so unhappy with the plywood that I decided to glass the whole thing. Yes I am sure that I now have more money into epoxy and glass than if I had started with good plywood. William Dawes with glass applied
I cut out the glass with a Dremel using reinforced cutoff wheel. Here is the bottom with Bondo to smooth out. A little more work still needed here. For sanding I use a 3” x 21” belt sander belt with a piece of 5/8 plywood in the center. I use 50 grit and 80 grit to remove a lot of material quickly.
Yesterday I came home to two packages I was looking at the props from PropShop, but went into sticker shock. I was later looking around the forum. I briefly looked at the Steampunk rules and saw a requirement for a specific prop from Vac-U-Boat. http://www.vac-u-boat.com/KitsParts.htm 1 ¾” prop for $4.00 I will sand the profile down to 1 ½” as the rudder is too small for 1 ¾”. I also got the micro pump from Battlers Co. It’s soooo cute. Keith
Laid out the rudder. I used 1/8 plywood for the center 1/16 for the two outsides. You can see the bent 1/8” brass. This keeps the rudder post from twisting loose inside the rudder. I will glue it up next time I mix up some epoxy. You can see here I have a serious issue. Water will not drain down to the water channel and get to the pump. This will cause the boat to list and sink. I had to wait until I had a nice layer of fiberglass on the bottom before I trimmed the keel. The fiberglass is now the structure. Here it is trimmed away to allow nice water flow. Keith
Slow but steady progress. Made the deck rim and glued it in place. Trimmed out the deck Glued and trimmed the rudder (no picture) Installed the rudder post. Added micro-balloons to fill space behind rib #11 Sanded the prop down to 1.25" to better cover the rudder.
The more I looked at this the more unhappy I was with it. The water channel should have been extended at least one additional frame and it needs more channeling in the bow and aft areas. Time to build up. First look where the waterline is (should have done this at the beginning of the build). Looks like I can add ¼” of balsa. It doesn’t need to be perfect, I will be filling with resin mixed with microbaloons. If I were to start over I would have cut the pink foam thicker to start with (to the water line) then sculpted the inside to make the water channel all in one shot.
Water channeling complete. I am much happier with this. You can see how the water channeling steps down from the bow and stern. This will force the water to where the pump is. I will narrow the mid section water channeling in the bow section after I run the first sea trial. I will run a strip of balsa or lead depending on where I am on weight. Time to get started on the electronics.
Thanks, She will never be a real looker. Only meant to be a target. I have the wiring comp. I originally planned to use the old cheap 2 channel radio out of the Komet, but the more I looked at the Komet…… It would not take that much to get her running again. I just ordered the el cheapo 6 channel HK radio. Wiring has been done. I had to remake the rudder. I re-read the rules and re-measured the boat. Hey I get 2.25” not this silly little 1.5” rudder Next step is to get the rudder servo mount built and installed. There is very little space to work with in a liberty ship. I plan on going with a simple push-rod system. With a new radio I should be able to set the throw on the rudder.
'Very little space...' Wait till you are shoe-horning three cannons in the stern of your Barham I had so much room in Malaya until that point!
