Planking Begins!

As with the stringers, the planking will take a few days due to how many clamps are at hand as well as needing to heat the area thats curing. Slowly, at least it feels like it, but surely the planks are getting attached. This is really exciting seeing the curves take shape. The reverse curve at the bow took some patience to get it to snug up and take the shape. I didn't want to go too fast with the clamps for fear of snapping the plank. Right now this section is gluing up on the port side and each section of the lower plank is glued and set behind it. Where the plank meets the bottom panel it is secured using the stitch and glue method. I used small zap straps and glued them in, after I will sheer off what is protruding of the straps. This joint also gets fiberglassed top and bottom. After the lower plank the rest are lapstrake. This is where you can start to imagine it all floating!

a diagram of lapstrake planking

Snap crackle pop, gunwales

Stringers are done! The last couple took a while. Originally I had the gunwales cut as per the plans, as a single 40mm by 20mm piece. These had to be bent quite a bit at the bow of the boat. There was a lot of force and I wasn't confident they would bend very easily. I decided to rip the pieces lengthwise to get two 20mm by 20mm sections that could be glued on in stages. Also two sections had to be joined end to end with a scarf to get the full length. While doing a dry fit I realized that each of these sections had been cut from the same 1"x6" board and this board was a freebie from the lumber yard due to some defects. During the dry fit each section snapped in what would have been the same spot when it was still a 1"x6" piece of lumber. I half expected it. But it was still a bit unnerving to have a piece of wood snap and fly out a foot and a half towards where your head was three seconds ago. I had only moved away to go reach for the clamp that would have held this section. It moved fast due to the amount of tension that was on it. Since this was the last piece of Douglas Fir I had to wait a day or so till I had the car and was able to head down and buy another. Then trim, scarf and dry fit again. Now everything is glued on and staying put. She looks good. Next step is the planking!

Stringers!!!

Back to the mine

Back to the regularly scheduled program. It was a very productive week off, now back to work. There wasn't a single day that I didn't put in a few hours. The timing was good. At the end of my holidays to be able to look out and see all the bulkheads on including the transom was well worth it. I would say that getting to this stage made the week feel even more productive. It just wouldn't have been the same if at the end of the holiday time I only had half of the bulkheads done. This made it much easier to go back to work. Next its time to get the stringers put on. I had to cut scarfs into twelve 20mm x 15mm x 2500mm pieces of lumber to be able to create six full length stringers that will run from stem to transom. While reading The Gougeon Brothers On Boat Construction(West System epoxy) I got the idea to create a miter box style jig for cutting the 8:1 scarfs. I added a guide for the saw to the one they had shown. It worked great!