Author: NickB

Much technical discussion today on the best way to set up the inwhales and gunwhales. Originally we had thought of not bothering with an outer gunwhale, but we need a rubbing strake that  will – well – ‘rub’ – an easily repairable semi-sacrificial strip of wood on the outside  round the top of the sheerstrake.

We roughtly cut the eight pieces of douglas fir for the inwhales (two pieces will be scarfed together for each side, then doubled up to get the thickness). The scarfs will be positioned on one of the long blocks for extra strength. This then left enough spare wood  to cut the small 3″ spacer blocks.

We then glued the outermost split halves of the long blocks in place –  but before we did this we discovered that the tops of the frames were generally slightly high by various amounts, so these were marked up and amounts between one and three mm taken off with the Japanese pull saw, angle grinder and chisel.

Once we had glued the split long blocks in position we had a look – no flat bits along the sheer at all, so the extra hassle has been worth it. Tomorrow the fairies will hopefully  glue the inner halves of the long blocks in position.

About 20 people turned up today to help turn the boat over and enjoy a modest celebration of this milestone with mulled wine and mince pies.

She looks wonderful – straight and true and such a pretty shape. Next task is cleaning up the inside – a lot of careful and painstaking work with a hot air gun and a sharp chisel to  remove the excess epoxy from the inside.

This Wednesday we hung plank 5 port and starboard. Initially it looked as though Ewan and myself might be doing this together, but the usual Wednesday night team arrived and we got both planks hung in under two hours . . . we’re getting good at it now there is only one plank left to go!!

Fairing up the frames to take the planks

The frames are now clamped to the moulds and the inner keel piece (sorry – don’t know the right name for  this) has been glued onto them. Now this keel piece has to be bevelled and shaped to take the first plank.  The frames all have to be bevelled by hand to take the curve of each individual plank – a time-consuming process.

Checking the frames with a dummy plank

A dummy plank is clamped along the frames to check the angle.  This section is looking good.

Making the first plank

The chief beveller and scarfer decides he has had enough practice and the first plank is ready for assembly. It comes in three sections that have  to be scarfed together with epoxy. In the picture you can see one of the scarf joints clamped and in the background the bevels cut on the second plank.

Next – gluing the garboard strake in place

Once the plank is glued we need to painstakingly  finish truing the inner keel piece, the inner stems and the inner bevels on the frames to make sure the plank is a perfect fit. This plank, the one near the keel, is known as the garboard strake. It (and its partner on the other side) will be the most difficult to fit because it has to take the greatest amount of bending.

Gluing the garboard strake is likely to be a Wednesday night job as it will need three or four people. Whether or not it is next Wednesday depends on the progress made in the interim on fairing the keel and stems –  there is a lot of work to be done yet.

After the garboard strakes the rest of the planking should just get easier and easier as we work up (or down!) towards the sheerline. Or at least, that’s what the head boatbuilder says 🙂