Up to the Centreline

Today we reached the centre line with the planking. A straight line was then cup along the center line and planking was continued on the other side. This is were the progress slows up as each plank ends have to be fit up to the centre line. Althought the bottom of the boat now becomes a good workbench.

More Planking

The planking continues.

Planking begins

And so the planking begins. Paul can be seen stapling the planks down to the moulds. Each plank is edge glued to the previous one and glued to the apron.

Fairing off the apron

The next step was to fair th eqpron so the planks lie flat against it. Onec this was done the sheer plank was fitted and checked for fairness. On the side of the building box are all of the strips used for the planking.

Setting up the moulds

I began the process of setting up the moulds today. Each one has to be centred and leveled.

The second mould being put up.

Lastly the stem jig and the last mould were added to the box.
The moulds are ready for the boat construction to begin. You can see the rough shape of the boat now.

Laminating Stem and Apron

The next job was to laminate up the apron and stems. This was done by applying thickened epoxy between thin strips of sitka sprue and clamping them around a former.To allow the stem and apron to be laminated at the same time, apeice of polythene was used to ensure that they didnt stick together. The picture below shows the stem and apron around the former.

To allow both the stems and aprons to be laminated up in one day they were baked to allow the epoxy to cure faster and this also post cures the epoxy.


Cheers!