CHAPTER IV.
BOAT BUILDING
BOAT building is quite a
step away from chicken house and woodland shack construction, in that
it requires two qualities that are not essential in ordinary
building-thoroughness and exactitude. Things that will "get by" in
building a hen coop, like a crack not tightly made up, or a corner not
exactly plumb, will never do in boat building; but when a boy gets to
sixteen years and older he begins to take pleasure in honest, exact
work, and will not be satisfied with rough and ready constructions, and
it is at just about this age that he takes great interest in boat
building, boat overhauling, boat rigging and all the aquatic sports
that go with the ownership of a boat.
As most youths are much shorter in coin than in ambition,
and as a boat costs but a third as much when you build it yourself, the
way to own a really fine, large craft is to build it yourself, during
the winter months. To do this you need a few tools but these of the
best; for no five-and-ten-cent store articles will do for boat
building. You need a good cross-cut saw, and ditto rip saw, each of
them costing not less than $1.65; a good jack plane, costing $2.00; a
good hammer, of real steel, costing a quarter; a ratchet brace, costing
a dollar; four bits of the twenty-five cent kind; a breast drill with
small twist drills for boring holes for nails (for no real boat
carpenter would dream of driving a nail without first boring for it --
it's the way they so marvelously avoid splitting things); a spokeshave,
costing 40 cents; and one chain boat clamp, costing $1.50. This latter
you call hardly get along without, unless you can borrow something of
the kind from a carpenter, for the strains on boat planking are
tremendous, and far beyond your strength to bend.
You often read, in boys' books, of bending twenty-foot
planks 14 inches wide by hand, the writer slurring over the details of
how you're going to do it because he either does not know himself, or
else does not realize what he is asking the boy to do. As a matter of
fact your whole weight on such a plank will hardly bend it six inches,
while it must bend some two feet to fit the curves of a boat, and this
can only be done with a screw clamp. This clamp (Figure 10) has a piece
of chain attached, and two interchangeable hooks, the keel hook and
plank hook; and you use it either to squeeze the planks edgewise
against each other before nailing fast, as in planking a boat, or use
it to draw the planks to the frame in wrapping them around the molds.
CONSTRUCTION
DETAILS [Numbered Figures]
Going at it gradually, you can soon accumulate this set of
tools, and are now ready for lumber. The best planking is white cedar,
costing about 7 cents a board foot for clear stock free from knots.
Next after it comes white pine; and last, cypress, which latter though
it will never rot is prone to split and is heavier than the other two
woods. For stem, knees, deadwood, frames, keel, etc., the best wood is
sound white oak. There is no use considering anything else, as you can
always get it.
My own boy is now building a 12-foot sailing batteau for
cruising in Barnegat Bay, and as she is almost an exact duplicate of my
boat, the Margaret (described in Part One, Chapter I), that I had when
a boy of his age, we will start by telling how to build her.
SAILING BATTEAU
You want, first of all, a good oak stem, made from a piece
of 4 x 4-inch white oak not less than 26 inches long. Most boys make
the mistake of getting the stem too small, so that when they come to
cut the rabbet for the 7/8-inch side planks there is not enough wood
left in the stem to nail securely to, and the boat is weak where she
ought to be strongest. And you want length enough to allow for the
forward sheer and cutting across the stem at an angle, top and bottom,
to match the sheer.
 Having gotten your stem piece, scribe a
center line down one side and lay out from it two lines, 3/4 inch
apart, which are to be the front edge of your bow. Do not get this any
sharper, for when you have trimmed it round (or maybe put on an iron
stem band) you will find it not any too wide. Lay off the shape of the
stem and rabbet on top and bottom of your block of oak, as shown in the
drawing (Figure 6), and saw off the superfluous wood, or trim it off
first with a sharp hatchet and finally smoothing flat with your plane.
Then saw out the rabbet for the planks. It is easier to saw this than
to chisel it out, as, once you get your rip-saw started right she will
cut you a neat, plane surface that simply needs smoothing with the
plane. The saw, of course, will slot the full length of your stem,
cutting a deeper and deeper kerf until you get down to the bottom of
the rabbet. Do not get these rabbet angles the wrong way (as shown by
the dotted lines). Most amateurs make this mistake and the stem is
ruined, for you then have a great hole in behind the side planks that
will never caulk tight in the world!
You are now ready for the side planks, the lower or garboard pair. Too
often boys' books waste the poor boy's money by telling him to use
these planks just as they come from the mill (Figure 13, how not to
cut), yet a little experiment with a cardboard miniature plank will
show you that the only way those planks can bend around the middle mold
with both edges straight is bolt upright, a most unseaworthy and
landlubberly way for the sides of your boat to be.
No; you must have outboard flare to the planks, and
to get this flare like a regular boat and yet not have her bottom curve
up so much as to spin around like a wash tub and have no grip on the
water, you must cut the bottom edge of the garboard planks with a long
in-curve of some three inches rise, as shown in the drawing (Figure 14).
The upper edge can stay straight, as that will give
her just about the right sheer. Cut, also, the stem end of the plank at
the slant shown and cut up the curve for the counter astern as shown,
also lay off but do not cut the angle for the stern transom. Do not
bevel the lower plank edge as yet.
Both garboards are to be finished alike with square edges
and sawed out with your rip saw. When finished, paint the inside of the
rabbet and the forward edges of both garboards with thick white lead
paste and then tack both planks to the stem with wire nails. They will
lie out astern at a long angle, and, when satisfied that they lie true
to the rabbet angle, bore four holes in each plank with your breast
drill and drive in 2-inch 10-penny galvanized iron clout nails, setting
them in below the surface of the planks to allow for putty above the
nail heads.
You are now ready for the center mold. Suppose you have
chosen fourteen feet for the length of your boat. Planks come in
merchant sizes of 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 feet, with rarely some 20-foot
sizes to be picked up. You will then choose fourteen-foot planks for
the garboard and sheer strake 12 and 8 inches wide respectively, one
each for each side. Tack the sheer strake to the stem, lapping the
garboard one inch, and then lay out on the planks the angle of the
stern transom, measuring down from near the upper corner of the sheer
strake (about an inch from the end of the plank to allow something over
for the bend of the plank), and you will then have the right length for
the garboard plank, and this should he done before sawing it. If the
boat is to be about fourteen feet long (she will come a little less
when the planks are bent) the right beam will be 4 feet 6 inches, and
the flare on each side to throw back the waves will be 6 inches, making
the bottom 3 feet 6 inches wide.
Now for the height amidships; the garboard plank as it
came from the lumber yard was 12 inches wide, of which 3 inches was
taken out amidships by the rise of the bottom curve. This leaves 9
inches for the garboard width amidships. The top or sheer strake will
be an 8-inch board, and will lap the garboard one inch, so that the
total depth of the side amidships will be 16 inches.
Get a rough 10-inch board and saw from it two pieces about
4 feet 8 inches long, cleat them together, making one wide mold some 18
inches high by 4 feet 8 inches long, and lay out on this the lines of
the center mold as shown in Figure 5, with a 3-foot 6-inch bottom,
6-inch flare, 16-inch sides and 4-foot 6-inch top. Cut out a 7/8 x
9-inch notch on each side for the garboard, making the actual width of
the mold bottom 3 feet 4-1/4 inches inside, allowing 7/8 inch for the
lap of sheer strake on garboard strake.
Now you are ready to put in the mold and bend the garboard
planks around it. The mold does not go in the center, but, to get a
pretty sailing shape, it is put 6 feet from the bow and a little less
than 8 feet from the stern.
Now to bend the planks: Put on your chain clamp, with the
plank hook bearing against a cleat tacked on outside the after edge of
the strake and its screw foot bearing on a similar cleat on the
opposite after edge. By main strength you can bring the planks together
maybe a foot or more around the central mold as brace, and then you
catch the chain in the right link to hold what you have gotten. Next,
screw in on the clamp, drawing the plank ends together until they are
the right width to fit in the stern transom. This is made of oak, 7/8
by 12 inches wide and is cut, shaped very like the central mold, with
the same flare angles but narrower. For a fourteen-foot batteau your
stern seat would need to be about 3 feet wide at the top and 2 feet 3
inches at the bottom; allowing for a 7/8-inch notch on each side for
the garboard plank, it makes the actual bottom dimension of the transom
2 feet 1-1/4 inches, and, as the sheer strakes will take 7 inches of
the transom, this notch for the garboards will only be 5 inches high.
(The actual distance you take off the transom cut of the garboard
planks.)
This gives very little to nail to, and certainly not
enough to hold the planks if you take off the clamp. However, bore for
two clout nails and drive them home through the garboard strakes into
the ends of the transom, and tack a board across the bottom with nails
driven into the garboards on the turn of the counter. Then work in two
oak corner knees, 6 inches on a side, to fit snugly in the corners
between the inside of the garboards and the inside of the transom.
These are secured by two No. 14 brass screws 21/2 inches long, driven
through the outside of the garboard, and two more driven through the
outside of the transom. These knees are very important, for strength in
securing the garboards to the transom. Even now you dare not take off
the clamp, but must first secure the garboards by nailing on all the
bottom planking, with the clamp still on the transom.
Turn the boat over and "spot" the garboard plank edges for
beveling (Figure 8). To do this, take a strip of wood 2 x 1 inches,
perfectly true and straight, and lay it across the bottom of the boat
at various places, marking down from it the outside of the garboard the
correct distance that its inside edge is below the under surface of
your strip. Run a thin batten through all these points, and scribe a
line, which will be the bevel line to plane to. Finish smooth and true
with your plane, and then put on your bottom planks, beginning at the
transom.
The plank furthest aft overlaps the transom and nails to
it, so the latter must be beveled to match. When you get forward to the
small planks up at the bow, it is time to stop and put in the keelson,
in which I am a great believer, for the additional strength it gives,
besides keeping the bottom planks from springing (though plenty of
small rowboats have been built without keel or keelson).
However, we will put one in our boat, as she is to be an
able deep-sea cruiser. Get it out of 7/8-inch yellow pine, dressed, 6
inches wide and 14 feet long; and the cheapest thing to do is to pick
out a nice 12-inch board at the mill and have them rip it in half for
you, getting thus keel and keelson at the same time. The keelson goes
inside the boat, from stem to transom, and is bent to fit snug along
the bottom. Each plank is nailed to it with four 8-penny galvanized
clout nails, driven through from the bottom and clinched (first boring
for them with the breast drill) and setting the heads in to take putty.
The keelson will bend up the counter easily if you begin nailing at the
bow end first and cross-cut it half through every inch where the turn
of the counter begins to get bad. An oak knee is worked in from keelson
to transom, thus strengthening the latter.
 All the bottom plank nails are 10-penny
galvanized, driven down into the garboard edges, three to the plank and
set to take putty. When all of the plank ends have been trimmed off
with the cross-cut saw and the rough ends planed smooth, you are ready
for the sheer strake planks, which are now to be nailed to the stem the
same as the garboards. But, as they must come in flush, to fit into the
rabbet, so you must first cut a bevel on the tops of garboards,
beginning about 16 inches back from the stem; and cut a corresponding
bevel on the bottoms of the sheer strakes. In order not to get a thin
shim edge that will not caulk well, cut this bevel with a notch, as
shown in Figure 11. Having fitted them, nail fast to the stem and wrap
the planks around the mold, overlapping the garboards an inch. Nail
with 8-penny galvanized iron clout nails every three inches, boring for
each to avoid splitting the edges of your planks, driving the nails
from outside and clinching inside on the garboard. It takes two boys to
do this, one holding an axe head against the spot where the nail will
come through.
When you get aft nearly to the transom it will be time to
take off the clamp which was on the garboards all this time and you had
best secure them by tacking a few strips across the top of the boat,
here and there, and wrapping a rope around the boat near the stern,
tightening it by driving a wedge in between the boat bottom and the
rope. I once ruined a nearly finished batteau by taking the clamps off
at this time without proper security. It was a single-plank, ten-foot
dinghy, and the strains in bending the planks were very severe. After
nailing on the bottom boards and transom, I took off the clamps without
putting in the corner knees, and while working at them there was a
sudden rending crash, and the whole boat flew apart in a second. The
side planks tore loose from transom and bottom planks, great strips of
wood being torn off the bottom of the side planks, and the only thing
to do was to cut up those side planks until I got to good sound wood
again, a loss of about two inches in depth of the sides. It is a
classic accident; one that will happen to all youthful boat builders
unless warned.
However, we have got to get off our clamp from the
garboards, to wrap in the sheer strakes, so we will do it now, putting
the clamp on as soon as possible and drawing the sheer strake planks in
until they lie flat against the garboards and are snug to the transom.
Then drive and clinch the lap nails aft to the stern, drive in nails
through sheer strake into the transom, and work in two more oak corner
knees flush with the gunwale. Then trim off with a saw any overhang of
the sheer strakes (which should be left long enough for the purpose).
Next, put in the sill for the stern seat. It is a piece of
7/8 x 4-inch oak, and is fitted in on edge about 24 inches forward of
the transom, securing with two screws, one each side, driven through
from the outside. It should come about six inches below the gunwale and
should notch to fit over the tops of the garboard strakes. When this is
in you can safely take off the clamp for good, and can handle the boat
without fear. Turn her over and put on the keel, first trimming off the
surplus stem true with the top sheer and bottom rocker. The keel is to
go under the stem and have a large screw driven through it up into the
stem. But, before this is done, all the bottom planks must be caulked
or you will not be able to get at the seams under the keel. Caulking
takes three operations:
(1) opening the seam with a caulking tool (the
No. 0 is right for small boats);
(2) caulking the seam with cotton, sold for the purpose
in balls of wicking;
(3) "paying" the seam, as painting over the cotton is
called, and puttying over the paint.
It is quite a job, but when done the keel can go on and is
best secured to the bottom with No. 12 brass flat-head screws,
countersunk to take putty over their heads. Slot the keel back four
feet from the stern, with two saw cuts an inch apart, leaving a central
tongue which you will spring up over the skeg. Now screw fast these two
keel sides under the counter, trimming off at the transom. Next, fit
the skeg. It will be about eight inches deep, as you can find out
exactly by bending the tongue of the keel until it comes in true line
with the bottom. Hold an eight-inch board with its edge touching the
bottom of the boat, the board being exactly in the line of the keel.
Now scribe from the bottom with a stick 8 inches long, and having a
pencil on the end of it, making a curve on the board parallel to the
curve of the bottom, or "counter" as it is called at this point. Saw
out with your rip, and you have the skeg, which can then be driven in
snug under the keel tongue, fitting tight in the slot between the keel
strips up under the counter.
Trim off at the transom and put on the stern post, made of
2 x 7/8-inch oak, screwed to the back of the transom with 2-inch brass
No. 14 screws, also driving them through the post into the skeg. Finish
the job by driving screws down through the keel strip into the skeg and
also from the inside of the boat through the bottom planks into the
skeg. We are now ready to take out the central mold.
Before doing it, its place must be taken with something
equally strong, and that is the central rowing thwart. This goes in
just aft of the mold, and you first get out two side braces of 7/8 x
8-inch yellow pine, 16 inches long, and tack to each of them a block 8
x 8 x 7/8 inches to take care of the lap of garboard and sheer strake
planks. These side boards are secured by brass screws driven through
from the outside, and then the thwart is cut, of 8 x 7/8-inch yellow
pine, and set in to come about 8 inches above the bottom of the boat.
It should drive snug, so as to spread the boat a trifle and free the
central mold. Take this out, and the boat is nearly done.
Get two yellow pine 1-1/2-inch half-round pieces of
molding, 14 feet long, to be bent later around the gunwale over the
wash board cracks for fenderwales. Work in an oak breast-hook in the
bow, just aft of the stem and fitting snugly to it.
Two oak knees to the rowing thwart, and the boat is done,
as a rowboat, barring the stern seat, which can be fitted in, in white
pine, leftover.
But we want a sail batteau of her, with deck, washboards
and centerboard. Put in the centerboard first. The construction I have
shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 is the easiest to make and put in.
The sides of the trunk are 12 x 7/8-inch white pine, 30
inches long, and are secured to the posts with brass screws, some lamp
wicking and white lead paste being run along between the posts and
trunk boards, not only to make it tight but to make it a trifle wider,
so that a 7/8-inch yellow pine centerboard can swing freely inside.
Saw this centerboard out, building it up of 4 x 7/8-inch
yellow pine strips, strung on two 3/8-inch iron rods by drilling holes
for the purpose, and finally planing the whole thing flat and true.
About 26 inches long, 12 inches deep at forward end and 16 inches aft
is about right for this board.
Swing with a white pine plug, driven through both sides of
the centerboard trunk and passing through an inch hole in the lower
forward corner of the board. The posts must be long enough to go
through keelson, bottom boards and keel "and then some"; say, 3-1/2
inches longer than the height of the trunk.
Slot through the keel, keelson and bottom boards with
compass and rip-saw, caulk all the seams inside with a hook caulking
iron, and then lay lampwicking soaked in white lead paste around the
slot, set in the posts and trunk and draw down tight with long, 4-inch
No. 16 brass screws, driven up through keel, bottom boards and keelson,
into the bottom of the centerboard trunk planks.
To put on the deck you first want a set of deck carlines,
spaced about eight inches. These are of 2 x 7/8-inch oak, and are
planed with a slight crown on the tops. Secure by toe-nailing to the
sides on top of a "riser" strip, run around two inches below the
gunwales, inside on the sheer strake. The first thing to go on these
carlines is the planksheer, which continues aft to form the washboards.
Four inches wide is plenty, and it must be gotten out in two pieces to
a side. By stretching a string across, from the stem to a point on the
gunwale about 6 feet 6 inches aft from the stem, you will find a place
where the height of the curve from stem to this point and from inside
corner of transom and sheer strake to the same point will be the same
height, 4 inches.
As you want the planksheer to be four inches wide, it is
obvious that such a curved plank can be cut from a board eight inches
wide, but six feet long for the plank-sheer and eight feet for the
washboard. Lay one of the 6-foot boards down on the deck with its outer
edge just touching the gunwale about 3 feet 3 inches from the bow. Then
scribe the outline of the gunwale on the under side of the plank, and
batten a parallel line four inches away from it, which second line will
just end inside your plank corners. Do the same thing with the 8-foot
plank, laying it on the gunwale just touching at a point 4 feet from
the stern, and scribe your line. Run a second parallel line four inches
from it, and saw out both planks. They will meet end to end over a
block placed a foot aft of the carline which forms the nail strip for
the front cockpit coaming, which latter crosses the boat five feet aft
of the bow.
4: RIVETING A TILLER THAT SLIPS OVER THE
RUDDER HEAD
Make the port side plank-sheer and washboard precisely as
described for the starboard side, and meet the two plank-sheers on the
breast-hook, laying one on top of the other and sawing a neat cut down
the centerline of the boat to bring them snugly together. Nail them to
breasthook, carlines and gunwales. The washboards will need little
triangular blocks under them at intervals of about 18 inches along the
inside of the gunwale, these blocks being 4 x 4-inch triangles, gotten
out of 7/8-inch pine, and fitted snug to sheer strake and under side of
washboards.
The cockpit coaming goes on next. About twenty feet of 4 x
3/4-inch oak will do, and it should be molded half-round on the upper
edge. Run this across the front of your cockpit, nailing to the
carline, and around the inside of your washboards, letting it hang down
maybe 1/2 inch below the under side of the washboards. They are called
by this peculiar name, you will find out as soon as you begin to sail,
because these hoards are awash most of the time when tacking. Without
them you cannot sail much in a stiff breeze, because the water will
always be coming over the gunwale, but with them you can "roll her down
good."
The next thing to go on is the king plank, or "mast
partner," as it is called in larger boats, because there are two of
them for large masts, each cut out half-round to pass a big mast. With
a small boat like ours a single 6-inch yellow pine 7/8-inch dressed
plank, five feet long, suffices, and you nail it fore and aft, fitting
snugly into the angle between the plank-sheers, resting on the
breast-hook, and fitting snug against the cockpit coaming aft. It is
nailed to all the carlines, and you then have left two triangles to
fill on the deck, in between the plank-sheers, the king plank, and the
forward edge of the cockpit coaming. Fill these with narrow 2-inch
strips of 7/8-inch white pine, nailing each strip to the carlines, and
then caulk the whole thing, every seam in the deck, for it is just as
important to have your deck tight as your bottom.
Next wrap around your half-round fenderwales, covering the
crack between washboards and gunwales, and then make your bowsprit,
working it out of a piece of 2-inch square spruce, six feet long, and
let it stick out three feet beyond the bow. Bolt to king plank with
3/8-inch galvanized iron through bolts.
 Add a wire bobstay and a galvanized iron,
two-ring withe (Figure 9), over the end of the bowsprit; put your
oarlocks in their proper places on the washboards; put in rudder
gudgeons; main and peak halyard cleats on the cockpit for'd coaming;
two jib sheet cleats on the inside of the sheer strake, aft, just in
front of the stern seat; a main sheet cleat on the inside of the
transom; jib downhaul and halyard cleats on the for'd cockpit coaming;
centerboard cleat on the centerboard trunk; a chain plate to port and
starboard, six inches aft of the mast hole on the outside of the sheer
strakes; and you are ready to rig her, for details of which see Part
One,
Chapter
I.
A word about the lower mast step. This is one of the most
strained blocks in the boat and must be put on with four heavy screws,
well sunk into the keelson. Two screws will not do, as the mast will
surely split the step in half. To get the position of the step wait
until your mast is in, when you can find it by eye. The mast should
rake back about 6 inches, coming forward maybe three inches when you
set taut on the wire rope jib stay.
DORY
A more complicated boat to build than the batteau is the
dory. Except that it has a set of frames, around which the strakes are
wrapped, its details of construction are much the same as with the
batteau. You have the flat bottom to begin with, only this time the
planks run fore and aft, and on these the frames, stem and transom are
first set up, after which the planks are wrapped as described in Part
One,
Chapter
II.
 SHEER PLAN AND
BODY PLAN OF 19-FT SAIL DORY
Click here for large image.
FRAMING DESIGNS
FOR A 19-FT SAIL DORY
TRANSOM FOR THE DORY
CLINKER
When we come to the clinker built boats we are getting
into real fine work and you have hard garboard planks to fit to a
rabbet in both keel and stem. The planking is beveled and secured to
the ribs as shown in Figure 12.
To build such a boat as the various skiffs shown in our
chapter on catboats and knockabouts, you first set up keel or bottom
plank and then on them the stem and stern transom, secured by deadwood
and the stern knee.
Molds taken from the designer's lines are next set up at
equal stations along the keel or bottom plank, and the garboard and
upper strakes are put on around these molds, usually working both ways
from garboard up and from sheer strake down, so as not to come out with
a lumpy, uneven sheer strake. After this the ribs are steamed and
shoved down inside the boat until they touch the planks equally all
around. These ribs are very small and numerous, about 3/4 x 1-1/4
inches wide being right for quite a large skiff. When all are in place
and secured, the keelson is bolted over the ribs where they cross and
all the thwarts are put in and kneed to the ribs, and the clamp (as the
oak strip that runs along inside the gunwale is called) is riveted
through all the rib heads to the sheer strake.
The molds are then knocked out and the boat is ready for
paint.
In still larger boats, carvel built, that is, with planks
nailed to the ribs and abutting against each other so that the skin is
a flush surface, the keel, stem, stern hook and transom are first set
up and spiked to all the deadwood with drift bolts.
Next the rabbet is cut, and, as the angle of it constantly
changes, the "bearding line" or inner line of the rabbet must be found
from the plans and the rabbet chiseled true at various spots, when it
can be cleaned out fair and true joining these spots, and it will then
fit the garboards when they are put on. Next all the ribs or "frames"
are bent to agree more or less with the set of molds taken from the
plans. These molds are spaced from two to three feet along the keel and
battens are run around them from stem to stern to get the fair lines of
the model.
The ribs are then put in and faired up, also beveled to
lie flat against the future planks, fore and aft, and then their floor
timbers are nailed to both ribs and keel. This holds them firm in their
shape, in addition to which battens are tacked across each pair of ribs
and across the bend of each rib, so that it will hold its shape until
the planks are on.
In large boats every third rib is sawed out true to the
next mold, which is taken from the lines. This gives additional
stiffness, as this third rib is always of much larger stock, say 2 x 3
inches for a 30-foot boat, and they further hold the model true, since
they agree with the molds. The two most important planks are then put
on -- the garboards and sheer strakes. To fit the garboards a spiling
is taken of the line it must make to fit into the stem and keel rabbet.
This is always a peculiar wavy line, when the plank is out flat, and,
as it must fit snugly, the only way to find it is to tack on a flat
batten, called the spiling, which roughly fits the line of the rabbet.
The exact fit is then scribed on it by a marker and pencil, the marker
always touching the edge of the rabbet line and thus transferring its
contour to the spiling batten.
Cutting this line out on the batten and laying it on the
garboard planks you mark the bottom lines of each of them. To get the
top lines, each rib is divided into as many divisions as there are to
be planks, the narrower planks being at the round turn of the bilge,
and these distances are laid off on the garboard plank up from the
rabbet line along each rib line as drawn out on the garboard plank. A
batten is run through these points and getting at this line with your
rip-saw you have the outline of the most important plank and the
hardest to fit.
Take time and get it on right, for a leaky garboard means
a leaky boat for the whole of her life. To get these carvel-built
planks on snugly, the chain clamp is brought into play, sometimes
hooked over the keel to draw a plank snug against its lower neighbor,
sometimes hooked over the sheer strake (or taffrail if same is already
on) to hold a plank tight against its upper neighbor while the holes
are being drilled for the nails or the rivets driven through planks and
ribs. Each plank, where it passes a rib, should be hollowed out
slightly with an adze, and the edges of the planks are not cut square
but beveled slightly to open about 1/16 inch on the outer seam (Figure
7), so that you can caulk the wedge shaped crack thus formed, and when
she swells shut she will crush the inner edges of the planks tight. A
boat perfectly planked, with edges meeting square, would simply burst
herself when she went overboard, for there would be no room for all the
planks to move in when they swelled under the influence of the water.
In order not to add up any errors in building up a planked
boat edge to edge, ship carpenters always stop planking at about the
fifth plank up from the garboard and begin planking down from the sheer
strakes. The final plank is apt to be very irregular in shape, but is
not noticeable if it occurs on the side of the ship, while it would be
painful to see if up just under the sheer strake. Further and more
elaborate details of how to plank a large carvel-built boat are given
in our chapter on building a power cruiser.
You will note that making molds or frames from plans is an
essential feature of boat building. The "lines," as they are called, of
many of the boats in this book are given in the illustrations, and you
can build the boat from them. Enlarge to the size you have selected.
This is best done with an architect's rule giving you choice of scales
from 3/32 inch = 1 foot up to 3 inches = 1 foot. Lay off the lines on
coarse building paper, full size, both body plan and sheer plan. The
reason for this is that your lines as enlarged from the body plan will
never agree with the lines as enlarged from the sheer plan, but will be
out from 1/4 to 1/2 inch, due to errors in enlargement, and you must
correct these errors until both sets of lines agree, and yet sweep fair
curves with no wriggles or dog's-tails in them. Then, when you make
molds from your enlarged and corrected full-size body plans, they will
be true and the planks when put on them will run in fair sweeps, with
no flats and hollows.
For boys around eighteen to twenty years old it is not
hard to lay out a knockabout from our plans and build her complete.
None of the timbers are very large, and the construction is, in
general, simple. A centerboard modification of the accepted deep-keel
type is more agreeable to the youth's pocketbook, for a lead or even an
iron keel is not to be thought of for persons of ordinary means. But
sand or gravel ballast is cheap, and simply requires the manufacture of
a dozen 10-ounce duck canvas bags, about 80 inches long by 18 inches
wide, which will each hold a hundred pounds of beach stones, to be
picked up for nothing on any beach along our shores. These are stowed
in the bilges, and you then have a ballast that will insure stability.
The rest is a matter of a few hundred dollars for lumber and hardware,
and you have a racing boat which would cost some $2,000 at the
shipyards.
And, in all boat construction, do not overlook the
knockdown frame idea. It saves a mountain of hard labor and insures a
hull that will be true to design. Buy the frame, knocked down but
fitted, and buy the plank patterns. Lay out the latter on your plank
stock and have your planking sawed at a band saw, and the whole job
will cost but a couple of dollars, whereas if you rip them yourself,
not only is it a back-breaking job, but you are sure to spoil more than
two dollars' worth of planks in mistakes and slips.
Caulking, paying and puttying seams, fitting the planks,
nailing them fast and countersinking and upsetting rivets planing the
skin of your ship to a fine smooth surface that will take paint without
showing tool marks, sandpapering the whole thing to a fine polish,--
all these are long-winded jobs, and quite enough for a gang of youths
to undertake with a large boat.
With a small one all these are but details and the main
building operations are not overlong in time. Even a couple of
twelve-year-olds can make a good job of a batteau; and older boys
around fifteen years of age can make a sharpie which is a batteau some
twenty feet in length with flat or else skipjack deadrise bottom; or
they can tackle a 17-foot sail dory. Around seventeen years a boy has
proficiency and honesty enough to try a lapstrake skiff or catboat. By
honesty I mean intolerance of any faulty work, and nerve enough to
scrap spoiled work instead of trying to make it go in the boat, where
it will worry you from that time on. A boy that is honest enough with
himself to take the consequences of his mistakes in measurements and
carpentry and not try to foist them off on his boat, has learned one of
the great lessons of life. He'll do to trust with a man's job, as soon
as he knows enough!
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© 2002 Craig O'Donnell, editor & general factotum.
May not be reproduced without my permission.
Go scan your own damn
stuff.
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