The Planking Begins



Now with all the forms, transom, and stem shaped, squared and beveled, the battons are laid out on the plank lands. These will be used to derive the plank templates from.

Plank battons laid out on forms

With a wide length of 1/4" MDF clamped down to the keelson and first botton I am able to trace the actual plank shape onto it from the inside; both at the land and at the keelson. The MDF is the removed and the traced pattern is smoothed out, then cut and planed to the line (constantly checking for fairness by eye and feel).

When the template is cut, I test fit it to the forms again and clean up  any issues of fairness that might occur. When I'm happy that the template is fair and ready, I lay it on the marine grade 6mm plywood and cut two of these out. One is flipped to be a mirror image of the other. This gives me the first plank, (garboard) for each side.

 

I apologize for the lack of photos for this proccess. I got carried away in the work and neglected to take any photos  Here is one of the planks after they were on.  A small batch of thickened shmoots (peanut butter thich epoxy) is mixed and applied to the transom, keelson, and stem where the strake will be clamped. Screws are then driven thru the strake into the keelson and stem to hold it in place while the epoxy cures. These screws will be removed and the holes filled with epoxy during the second plank application. I coat the screws with a little bar wax (soap) to help them come out and keep the epoxy from sticking to them.

 

Rolling bevels

With the garboard strake cured I can remove all screws and clamps. Then begin the beveling of the lap area for the second strake.  This is done much like the way I beveled the transom. Laying the edge of a plane on its side and checking the angle all along the length of the strake with each of the forms.  This rolling bevel will allow the next strake to glue flush the the garboard strake. 

Rebait or Gain

 

At the bow I make a rebait (gain) starting about 7" back from the point and easing down all the way to the last ply at the point. This is so that the end of the strake eases in flush with the first.  This is only done to the bow ends of each strake.

 

The same proccess is continued again and again for each of the 8 strakes (per side).

Monday morning and I have 4 of the 8 strakes on each side now. I will attempt to get 1 strake on each evening during the week.  With the addition of the keel and skeg in between glueing of these strakes.

If all goes according to plan, I should be ready to flip the hull by the 4th of July weekend.

From Stem to Stern

Throughout the past week I beveled the keelson, transom, and the inner stem by hand. Keeping a good sharp plane and sharp chisles is key to a smooth even bevel.

Laying battons across the forms gives the angle at which each strake will lay at the stem.

With a Japanese pull saw I make a thin cut into the stem at the angle the botton shows. This will be my guide for planing. Each cut for each strake has a slightly different angle and when joined together by planing, will give a smooth rolling bevel.

This same proccess is followed again  for each strake land on the transom.  Very slow but relaxing work, as you bring the wood into shape for the planks. The feel of the wood shaving off is very zen like.

At this point I have put about 35 hours into the project and feel very comfortable with the progress that has been made.

The Forms Take Shape



Transom blank ready to cut.

With all the forms transferred and cut, I now mill the mahogany for the inner keel. Taking a some time aside to build up the forms for the inner and outer stem laminates to be bent around for lamination using the strips that were milled the other day. 

Next I transfer the transom pattern to the glued up blank and cut it out.



Now with a coat of thickened epoxy resin slathered in between each of the slats that were milled earlier. I slowly clamp the whole sandwich to the form; which has been covered in duct tape to keep the final laminated stem from sticking to it. setting this aside for 24 hours to cure.

Clamps and wenches remove

Once cured the the stem is removed from the mold cleaned some and covered with duct tape, as it then placed back on the form and the next set of slats are glued up for the outer stem. These are then clamped to the form against the inner stem. With this process, the outer stem will be sure to match exactly the inner stem when they a joined up after planking is complete.

By the end of the weekend and with a lot of sweat in a 80f shop the forms are mounted an aligned with the transom, keel, and inner stem glued in place. Next step is a lot of hand work, planing the bevels onto all of these parts so they will accept the strakes (planks).









It all starts with a plan



The Plans



Plans arrive and the proccess begins. The plans include 3 sizes ( 7'.5', 7' 8', 7'10") and 3 versions (rowing, sailing, or a small outboard). I will build the 7'5" sailing/rowing version. Using Sipo mahogany and Cypress for all solid wood parts and the strakes will be 6mm (1/4") Hydrotek maranti plywood.

In order to avoid damaging the origanal plans I like to trace them onto drafting paper before doing the actual transfer to the 1/2" MDF.



Pattern Trassing



Time consuming but very worth while as I will be reffering to theses plans alot and in my slightly crowded woodshop--paper plans can get destroyed fast.

Next order of business is to create the strong back. A perfectly square and very ridged table with 2 main Railes or bearers as they are called, that run exactly parallel to each other. This table is anchored to the floor so as to maintain this alighnment during the hull building proccess.



Strongback built



The strongback with a piece of 1/2" MDF on top, acts as a perfect work surface for transfering the full size patterns to more MDF to create the station molds.



Transom glued up



In between tracing and transfering the patterns to the mdf, I mill and glue up the 3/4" Sipo Mahogany for the transom. I aslso take this time to mill around 15 pieces of 3/16" thick X 2.5" X 38" strips of the same wood for creating the laminated inner and outer stems.



Where should I Start

Here's my story. I started building boats about two and a half years ago after building furniture and whatnot for most of my life. I had always wanted to build a kayak, so that was the first one. I build a CLCboats.com Wood Duck 12 from plans only (I refuse to use kits) This turned out great and so My wife insisted I build a hybrid version for her. At that time one of my daughters decided to have another child.

This led me to build a Baby Tender cradle (designed by Jordan Wood Boats) again from plans only. I now have experience in Stitch and Glue, Strip built, and Lapstrake style boat building.  My mother liked all the boats so much that I decided I would build her a rowboat/sailboat of here very own. She missed going out on the lake that she lives on ever since my father passed away and this would get her back out there.

I hope to be able to post a complete step by step of my building of the Iian Oughtred Auk/ Acorn dingy for others like myself that enjoy following along with the boat building process.

 

Follow me and tell me your thoughts and ideas for making this blog and Moms boat a success.