First Plank

The time has arrived to start planking! Here is the first plank going on the boat which was quite exciting as once I get through this stage I will have something that will float (hopefully).



The process went without a problem in the end and the plank pulled down quite well. The twist at the front is quite extreme so I took it slowly and ensured that it was supported with a clamp as I was concerned that the pressure on the end screw might pull it through the plywood.


Here is a shot from the inside of the forefoot. As you can see the plank pulls down well on the keel bevel and creates the illusion of the keel sinking into the plank.

The part that concerned me the most was the scarf joint. I will have few more pictures of this in the next post.

Lessons learnt from this stage would be to watch where you put the screws at the keel. This is a fine line between getting them too close to the side of the keel and going right through and having them too close to the center and ending up with them interfering with the bevel for the other garboard plank and the flat for the deadwood.

In the end mine where to close to the centre so I removed all of the screws that where going to cause a problem. Luckily I discovered this about 18 hours after gluing on the plank so I could remove the screws before the epoxy held them for good. At this stage I don’t think I will replace them as I can’t see them adding that much to the strength of the joint. I will check this with Arch and see what he thinks.

Stem Facing

To create the laminations I used by table saw to split ¾ inch boards into three parts. These needed planning down by hand to remove variations created by cuts made from both sides of the boards. This was not my preferred method of creating the laminations but I had to work to the limitations of the tools at hand.

Ideally I would have split the boards down the center on the table saw and then brought them down to size with a thicknesser.

As you can see the gluing up of the stem facing is not a task you want to attack without a good supply of clamps.

Slight Diversion

Ok the mess in the workshop got to me so I spent some time making a peg board and shelves to house some of the tools. I got the ideas from the Woodsmith series of books.

Anyway I had to do a bit of thinking how I would make the laminations for the stem facing as my first attempt using my bandsaw was disaster.

Keel Bevel

Here are a couple photos showing the keel beveled to take the first plank. The instructions call for a process to mark the location of the bevel that works well where you make the side of the keel but I found the area near the transom, where the line runs from the edge to the top of the keel, near impossible. In the end I decided just to take it carefully rather than rely on the lines.

To help spot the high points on the keel I used a file across the bottom stringer to the keel. This automatically marks the high spots on the keel and allows you to knock these off with your plane.

Stringers

Finally all of the stringers on the frames. All in all I only shifted 1 stringer about 1/8 of inch off its mark on one frame. I have checked from all angles but they all look good to me so I have to congratulate Arch for his good drawings and his insistence on being fussy in building the frames and setting up.


Personally I found getting the stringers through the transom more difficult than getting them to sit on the stem correctly. However the most important part of the transom is the inboard side so you can get away with it being a bit rough on the exit because this will be covered by the ply on the outboard side.

My advice for the bottom stringers at the stem would be not to try and get to much twist on them. While you might be able to hold this with a clamp it is unlikely to hold with a single screw.

A Fresh Start

Well putting the parts back together has gone a lot quicker than I thought it would. I sourced some good pine for the building jig from the local hardware store and used some laser levels to get it nice and level.

I was a bit concerned when I ripped the sheers and stringers from my nice straight peice of wood as the tension trapped within the wood bent them into all sorts of shapes. However in the end this did not make a difference as they still formed fair curves as they were bent onto the frames.

Now if you think this boat is taking a while to build, the model boat behind me has been on the go for twelve years.

After fixing the sheers I then added the top two stringers before attacking the more difficult bottom stringer. However the process explained in the instruction manual all made sense when put into practise and I quite satisfied with the result.

Over the Ditch

After the last New Zealand general election in November 2005 we decided that we would shift out of New Zealand and experience something different. So this put a stop to the boat building as we made plans to relocate somewhere in the world.

In the end we decided to shift to Melbourne Australia and so plans were made, a new job found and we were off, shifting over in March 2007.

After settling into a new house the boat was started over again. Thankfully I was able to bring over the temporary frames, the Fijian kauri, and the stem and transom.

Unfortunately the garage at the new house (below) is only about six meters long and three meters wide. Not the luxury of my last one (above) but it not going to stop me.