The first plank!

This is a bit of a milestone. I put the first plank on (well a boatbuilder would call it a strake - hence lapstrake being the style of construction because the strakes overLAP). Because of the overlap you put the bottom strakes on first. The bottom strake is called the garboard - I have no idea why.

Its a bit of an involved process because the strake has to be exactly the right shape. I got some cheap 3mm MDF (medium density fibreoard, otherwise known around here as craftwood) to make a pattern first. The MDF is cut to a bit bigger than will be needed and clamped down to the moulds. Then the marks on the moulds relating to the garboard are transferred onto the pattern. The strake turns from flat to horizontal at the stem on the garboard strake which makes for quite a curve.



Once the pattern has been marked and cut out it is tried on (offerred up) again to make sure its just right. (which it usually isn't and needs a bit of modification) It pays to be patient and measure twice cut once because i the shape isn't quite right the whole thing is going to look wonky when its done.

When the pattern is finally right it is clamped to the marine ply (4mm) and marked out. Ideally you would clamp it to two pieces and cut both at the same time to make super sure they were identical (one strake for each side) but this reuires lots of room and I don't have that. I cut out one then used the pattern to cut the other. Then I clamped both together and planed the edges until they were identical (well OK I should have planed them but I used a random orbital sander beacuse it was quicker)

Anything you don't want the epoxy to stick to, such as the moulds, you cover in plastic tape which is imune to the sticky super powers of the epoxy. The epoxy is mixed up (its just industrial two part glue like araldite) and then mixed with filler powder so its the consistancy of honey.










The keelson and stem are epoxied and hen the strake clamped from middle to the ends. This is bloody fiddly. The epoxy lubricates the two pieces of timber and they want to squirm around as you clamp them. You also have to be really careful where you clamp so that the strake is still following a smooth line and not a series of bent straight lines.

Essential equipment

With any set of building instructions come a list of equipment you will need. To be honest I don't think I've yet built anything while in posession of all the required tools. Hell, I carved a wooden rocking horse with nothing more than one square chisel and the liberal use of a belt sander and it turned out just fine.

For every tool you don't have you will need to be a bit more inventive or take a bit longer but a lack of fancy tools shouldn't stop you having a go.

There are a few things I think every shed should have. Some of these don't even have an immediately obvious purpose, but you will be the poorer without them. To this end I always like to have a dog somewhere nearby. The dog I use for day to day shed work is a large kangaroo dog called Baby Des. He serves several purposes. When too many small pieces of off cut timber are lying around Des will kindly remove a few and chew them to bits. If the air is becoming too clear and sweet scented he can remedy this with his own special formula. Most importantly he is the safety officer. I'm not the mosst tidy person and as a project progresses the shed becomes more and more cluttered with junk. This includes dropped or discarded screws and nails. I've trodden on these before and had them go deep into my foot which can spoil your whole day. Des is able to interpret the task for the day and exactly where will need to be to perform this task. He will cleverly position himself in such a way that I have to step over him the maximum number of times, thus ensuring I am always looking down to avoid both dog and pointy objects.

The keelson

The keelson is also called a hog, I don't know what the difference is. Its the bit of timber that this bottom planks (garboard strakes) are attached to. It is planed so it will match the angle of the planks (strakes).

A notch is cut into the moulds to hold the keelson.

Because the keelson has to curve a fair bit it is made out of two laminates. Now a real boat builder would use Brazillian Mahogany or the like. I am not a real boatbuilder. As each blog post reinforces, I am a tight arse. I bought some meranti architrave from the local hardware shop and ripped it down to 70x10mm planks.

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At the appropriate spot according to the plans I cut the centreboard case slot once the keelson had been epoxied, clamped and dried. I did this by cutting a hole the width of the slot and then using a jigsaw to do the rest.

The stem part 1

The stem is effectively the front of the boat to which all the planks attach. If you want to be pedantic the outer stem is the front most part of the boat, but its really there just to finish off the look of the boat and protect the rest of the structure when ramming Japanese whaling vessels.

The stem can either be cut out of wide planks or laminated. Because the stem for the Auk is a gentle curve it would need to be cut out of cery wide planks, and as it has already been established that I am a tight arse I will be laminating mine. It so happens I have some left over bits of thin marine ply (3mm) so i don't have to buy anything and my tight arse is a happy one.

The shape for the stem is derived from the plans and marked out on a flat bench. Blocks are then screwed to the bench, to which the stem will be clamp
ed. I've made the curve just tighter than the stem will be because it will rebound just a bit.

About six strips of thin ply were cut. I did a dry run to make sure they would actually take the bend and not snap. 3mm play is petty bendy!












They were then covered on both sides with thickened epoxy, (thickened to the consistency of phlegm). This is all sandwiched together, wrapped in glad wrap and clamped to the blocks from the middle out. The epoxy hardens in 24 hrs. It only rebounded about 5mm in the end. The glad wrap got stuck in the epoxy that oozed out and I had to sand it all off together which buggered a sanding belt. It's really strong.





















Then I attached the stem to the building frame. I made a little bracket to hold the stem onto the first mould. Below is a photo I took of the stem once the keelson was attached to it (I'll talk about that next). I've started to shape it.

Moulds

The moulds are the shape template for the boat. They're like cross sections at regular stations - that is points at right angles to the centre line of the boat. Full size patterns of one side of each mould are usually supplied in the plans. Its just a matter of draw a centre line on the mould timber. (anyting flat and thick will do - Mine is a mixture of 12mm MDF and 12mm ply which were previously moulds for my Dad's Thames rowing skiff) Then mark out the shape with a hamer and nail, or fancy spike thing for doing this job.


You turn the plan over and re-use the same holes to do the other side of the mould. The dot are joined up and then cut out with a jigsaw.

Everything is lined up on the strongback (building frame) along the centre line which is a string line running on top of the buidling frame. In the horizontal planeeverything is lined up with the level of the top of the building frame. The moulds are attached to the building frame to align with these two requirements. This is fiddly on your own. In this case the moulds are so close together its hard to get a screwdriver inbetween them.



Above are the first two moulds. I'm a tight arse and skimped on ply by not continuing the mould all the way to the building frame. I'm using bits of off cut.

Here you can see all the moulds in place. Having built them all I read that you can actually leave every second one out in such a small hull. Oh well. I plan to use light ply to minimise the weight so having all the moulds will prevent the light ply from sagging between stations.

After mounting all the moulds they are checked from all aspects with battenns to make sure the moulds are fair (smoothly curved). Bit of adjustment needed on the nearmost mould below.

Lastly the moulds are all held vertical by reinforcing one mould towards the front and one towards the back, then screwing spacers between all the moulds. By now its all really stiff which is good because attaching the boards will want to twist the whole thing.

What and Why

I've read Wooden Boat magzine for most of my adult life. Finally having built a house and a few other things I've got around to building a wooden boat of my own. I've already built a chesapeake twin sea kayak to get the hang of epoxy. Its amazing stuff.

In preparing to build the boat I would have loved to see some photos, not diagrams, of a small lapstrake ply and epoxy boat being built. This will probably descend into obscure jargon occassionally but I will try to make it as straight forward as possible. I think boatbuilding need not be any more difficult and therefore inaccessable than any moderately complex task such as


This isn't me but it is one of the few good photos of the Iain Oughtred designed "Auk", a ships tender. I plan to have a sail rig for it so it will have a centerboard and rudder as well as oars and rowlocks.

I'll be building a particularly small version (it can be a bit either side of the stated 7'8" - 2.36m by changing the interval between the building moulds. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly the longest plank will just be able to be cut out of one sheet of 2440x1200mm ply if I keep the length to 2.16m. The second reason is it will be lighter when I have to carry it over to the dam to let little people go for a row.

Construction will be a fairly standard combination of old and new technologies. The form is pretty ancient dating back to the ninth century AD. Its called either lapstrake or clinker depending on where you were born. The material, timber, is old too. Originally the hull was made of planks now I'm making planks of marine ply. The fastening is all new technology. Epoxy resin is used a sealer when applied neat and as a filler when mixed with fibre dust. Its amazing stuff you can do almost anything with. The boat is so much stronger without he need for half the internal framing.