June 18, 2020

Steam Launch Blog #24

from June 2018

June 2018

Rick and Jim1 continue fastening the portside garboard while Erik adjusts his music to start the next row of faux oak planking - the broad strake.

Portside broad strake has been fitted and in the following photo Eric is fastening it in place. I hope Rick and Jim aren't still fastening the garboard on the other side, for we're ready for another broad strake! We are a production shop!

Early July 2018

You may have noticed our planks were not long enough, so we use butt blocks (rather than scarf joints) to reinforce the joints. They fit between ribs, so the joint must be in the middle, and there's a little overlap for the next strake. Joint locations are spaced apart in the rows of strakes so that joints don't run vertically and weaken the boat. Had to look at plans to make sure these wouldn't interfere with internal organs - I was learning.

I was certain that HMCo would have had long enough stock so this wouldn't be required on the original but #240 certainly had its fair share. And I've seen blogs about other HMCo restorations where they found a number of these joints. So need to remember that production speed and profitability were paramount at HMCo!

#199 is double planked. Garboard, broad and sheer are single thickness planks of oak, but remainder of strakes are laminated 1/4" thick mahogany over 1/4" cedar. Per Herreshoff "Rules" strakes were glued together with thick shellac, or with white lead if long drying time was OK, Of course they both were screwed together at the ribs. Since they run parallel to each other they are overlapped. Hence, you'll note the rabbet in broad and sheer strakes.