Pine’s Teardrop build

[nrhmaine]

My 16 year-old, Pine, and I are building Pine a teardrop camper, and this community has been a great help so far, so I suppose it’s time to make a build thread.

The idea was hatched about 2 years ago, after completion of my first kid’s project. (We built her a 16-foot outboard-skiff.)



Pine settled on a Teardrop for their project. We like the Vistabule layout (toes forward), so I’ve drawn a 5x10 fairly egg-shaped design, with headboard against the galley cabinets.




- Nate

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[nrhmaine]

We found a junk pop-up camper with torsion axle and a frame which would easily be cut down to 5’x9.5’



We salvaged a number of components, and then just cut the screws holding the camper to the frame and flipped it onto an equipment trailer to take to the dump.


Cut the side wings off the trailer frame, had new axle mounts welded on, and painted the whole thing with Por 15.




We also replaced the hubs with 5x4.5” hubs to take 14” wheels.


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[nrhmaine]

All that frame prep occurred sporadically over the last year or so, but this month we bought materials and got to work in earnest.

Built the floor, with footwell/storage below.



Made slide-out trays for the stove and cooler.



Installed a water tank below the floor, and ran a propane line and fridge wiring through the frame.



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[nrhmaine]

Now we’re working on the walls.
Snow day already called for tomorrow, so we’ll get an extra day of work this weekend! Should be able to get the skeletons finished, and maybe attach the interior skins.






-Nate


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[halfdome, Danny]

Wow, nice boat.
Looks like the teardrop build is rolling right along.
This build will be fun to follow.
Danny

[nrhmaine]

Thanks Danny.

That skiff has been excellent. It’s like a rugged little pickup truck. Great in rough water, carries 4 people and a few hundred pounds of camping gear without complaint, and it’s light enough for one person to roll it down the beach on inflatable fenders if the tide gets away from you.

The design is a Candlefish 16, by Sam Devlin


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[nrhmaine]

Im doing a Tony style hatch, but I’d like to avoid building up the interior walls in the galley, both for space and weight savings.

I’m thinking that I could use a 1/2” thick spar on the edge of the hatch, and rabbet in an 1/8” strip at the inside edge of the hatch wall. Then skin the interior hatch wall with another layer of 1/8” plywood. This would result in a 1/4” thick lip, to seat on the D-seal in the hatch, and the galley walk would stay the same thickness as the cabin wall (1” total)

Breakfast table sketch below. I’d appreciate feedback, as all this is new to me.
Thanks, Nate




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[S. Heisley]

Thanks, Nate, for posting your build. We'll cheer you on!

[noseoil]

Looking good! Boats & teardrops seem to go together pretty well. Enjoying the build so far, keep planning & plugging away. So far so good...

[nrhmaine]

Thank you both.

Any feedback on the hatch seal sketch? Seems a little different from what I’ve seen, so if something problematic jumps out to any of you, let me know.

Thanks, Nate


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[noseoil]

Ours, no right or wrong...

[nrhmaine]

This weekend we long-boarded the contours to make the curves nice and fair. Routed a rabbet at the hatch end for part of our sealing lip. Then glued on interior skins - 1/8” BB.



Time-lapse of the glue-up mayhem!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b31iMR ... hgfycnI_8w


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[tony.latham]

Breakfast table sketch below.

I believe the sketch of your hatch seal will work fine.



Tony

[nrhmaine]

Thanks Tony. I appreciate your taking a look.
Nate


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[nrhmaine]

We’re back at it this weekend.

Got the interior skin trimmed and cleaned up, cut out the doors and windows, and shaped the raised flange for the galley hatch wall.



The teenager sleeps late, so my wife and I got in about 5 miles of skating in Acadia National Park before the work got started on day two.



In a few hours this afternoon, we got all the major cabinetry parts cut out, and all dados cut.
Then we got a sense of the cabin dimensions for the first time. Feels big!



College visits next weekend. Back to it after that. Summer’s coming!


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