Enough of that. On to the boat building! I can't believe how fast the planking went on this boat. I was looking back at the last post and there were no planks on the mold, just frames. 2 months later, and she is done. I don't have a picture of the completed planking as I'm on a long weekend in Vermont, but Phil and Pat should be finishing up the sheer planks today.
One of the great reasons to build wooden boats is the beauty of the place you get to work. This is my typical view when I show up at the shop in the morning. The light is amazing.
Of course once everyone arrives and the noise starts and the dust flies the ideal is broken, but these little moments of perfection go a long way. Hopefully not just for the day, but for a long time to come.I still love my bench, which is starting to look like something out of Wooden Boat Magazine. Since I didn't have to move benches after my last project, I'm definitely nesting a little more.
My plane collection is getting bigger. The #7, #5, and #4 are all Stanley Bailey Sweethearts. The shoulder plane is an old Miller's Falls with the neatest little blade adjustment I've ever seen on a plane. If you look close you can see 2 throats. The blade is currently in the aft one. The entire blade mechanism can be moved to the front of the plane. Rounding out the collection is a Lie-Nielson block plane (the most expensive and most used. . . well, maybe a close 2nd to the #5), a rough and tumble block plane I use on stuff I don't want to use the Lie-Nielson on (like epoxy) and a Stanley #90 rabbet plane.
And I bought this just to make Nate jealous. . .
Here are a few shots of the mermaid. One of the nifty things we did was stealer planks, which were done on the boats we looked at up in Sommes Sound. Since the girth of the boat is really large in the middle and really small on the ends, you end up with not only wider planks in the middle of the boat, but also more of them. There are 13 planks in the middle and 11 on the ends. Where did the 2 planks go? Well, we scarph jointed 2 planks into one about 8 feet from the ends at 2 positions. You can see this joint in 2 spots in this shot (click to enlarge). Starting from the front end, follow the 4th or 6th plank from the bottom of the picture back until you see it turned into 2 planks.
In the old days this was done with butt blocks. The planks were butted up against each other and then you would have a block on the inside of the boat that acted as a gusset to hold them together. Not very strong. Our method was more difficult, but will make for a nice strong joint. We first hung and fit the 2 planks in the middle of the boat. We then fit the 2 pieces that would join them (one aft and one forward), but left them long. Next we figured out were the scarph would be and marked our line (just like we do for turning a few boards of cedar into one long board). We then took everything off the mold, cut the scarphs, and then put everything back onto the mold for glue up. The trickiest part was the glue up. We had to be sure to tape off all the appropriate surfaces, as we can't have glue in between the planks or the planks and the frames (or worst of all, the planks/frames/mold). Once the glue was set, we had to pop the now very long plank off one more time for clean up and then we did the final fitting onto the mold. It looks pretty hot now that I've faired these in. I'll get a close up shot for next time.
In our spare time, we've also been doing the lead pour. This keel is more difficult than the one for the twins. While it is a little smaller (930 lbs. vs. 1400 lbs for the twins), the shape is a little more complex. Phil and Pat ended up lofting the mold shape every 1 1/2" (the width of a 2X4) and cut out about 2 dozen 2X4s to shape, stacked them on end, faired them out and then put the 2 sides together. Just like last time, we then lined the mold with masonite and ceramic paper.
The set up
And the result
Note that the thickness of this keel changes from top to bottom and front to aft.Almost everything went perfect with this lead pour. The only thing I forgot was to break the fall of the lead where it lands in the mold, as all that hot, heavy lead damaged the cermaic paper lining. So there is some paper in the keel, but it was a pretty easy fix. You just throw some copper nails in to attach the lead pieces on either side of the paper (which are really already attached at some other point in the keel), dig out as much paper as you can, and then fill the seam with some epoxy. Once this thing is painted, you'll never know.
Next step, fair the boat. . . including bunging the 2000 or so screw holes and caulking 700 feet of plank seam.
