Planking

There is one last detail before we get to the planking.  Anywhere  there is a keel joint that intersects the Rabbet, the notch that receives the boat planking in the keel, there needs to be a "stop water" which does just that.  It stops any water that might get into the Rabbet from  outside  from traveling along the junction of the keel piece into the inside of the boat.  Here the junction is the intersection of the knee which backs the Stem (front piece of the ship) and the top of the keel.  Stop waters are typically soft wood dowels pounded into the hole you drill at the junction of the keel pieces and the rabbet.

At the bow of the ship the planking requires a bit of twist to hit the Chine, the Rabbet and lay flat on the stringers.  Here we have steamed the bottom planking (5/4 SYP) and are imparting the necessary twist into the planks by clamping them with some wedges.

As mentioned previously, unlike the upper planking, the bottom planking is both thicker (5/4 vs 1X) and is vertical vs horizontal (Maryland style bottom planking).  The planks are attached with deck screws, galvanized screws and galvanized ring nails.  Although probably overkill, I also used 3M 5200 to bed the entire Rabbet and to the Chine for the first dozen planks or so forward.  The remainder of the Chine was bedded with just tar aft.

clamping and screwing

5200 and galvanized screws into Rabbet

Tar bedding at frame and stringer

Fully planked

horizontal planking fore and aft

Stringers

Above the Chine the boat is planked length wise, horizontally.  Below the Chine the boat is planked "Maryland style" with the planks running vertically from Chine to Rabbet.  To support the span from Chine to Rabbet, Stringers are installed by notching the frames and nailing/glueing support pieces- Stringers, to which the vertical planking will be attached.  

The Stringers are comprised of two layers of 1X4 SYP glued and screwed to the notched frames.  The first pic shows the first layer in place and the second pic shows the full 2 layers of SYP comprising the stringer. Where the bottom of the hull is at its fullest there are 4 rows of stringers between Chine and Rabbet.

Before we plank....

 So the frames are standing, the engine and fuel tanks are in, the Transom and stem are up, there are still a few things that need to happen before we start planking (and remember, there will be two layers of plywood that goes over the planking later on).

First, before the cross bracing can come off the standing frames, we need a little more infrastructure to the framework of the ship.  Where the sharp angle or Chine of the hull turns up, there needs to be some solid wood built into that angle that gets notched into the frames.  In the photo to the left you can see the Chine which we have laminated out of SYP and Doug Fir (3 layers of 1X stock).  The laminated chine was easier to fit to the curves and mitigated issues around butt joints (because planks don't come in 44 foot lengths ;-0 ).  Later, the planking will be fastened to the frames, chine and stringers (on the bottom part of the hull).

Next we needed to make and install Deck Beams to the frames.  The Deck Beams become the frame work for the deck which is also the cabin ceiling depending....

The Deck Beams were cut from whole pieces of 3 X 8 Douglas fir with a 3.5 inch crown.  Many builders laminate the deck beams on a form but I chose to cut mine out of whole timbers.  They were sanded and then oiled with Tung oil.  You can see the curve (or crown) which sheds water that hits the deck and the difference in finish between a coated and uncoated beam from photo above. 

After a final fairing of the frames, the last step before planking is to put in the Stringers on the bottom (next blog topic).