May - June 2018

We were fortunate to have #240 as a big brother to look at, and armed with knowledge of width of its strakes, we could lay out the Garboard. The object is to lay a batten as straight as possible following the lines of the boat so that the ends of the boat have sufficient plank width. Therefore one edge of your plank will be straight and the other will follow the curve of the gap to the keel. With batten straight as the eye and form of boat allows, it is clamped in place. Erik brought an IRYS practice of hot gluing tongue depressors to measure the distance. This form could then be laid against a plank, straight edge against edge of plank, then brads nailed at edge of tongue depressors. A batten would be bent around the brads and plank cut to shape of the strake. All that needed is a little fitting in place.

You may have noticed that Jim1 has his tongue depressors are on the underside. We actually laid the starboard side set up against the portside and found that except for a few depressors at the ends the boat was symmetrical. Whew!

Dutch clamps the fist garboard in place and you'll note the severe twist that would continue to plague us throughout. Planking continues alternating sides to keep forces offsetting each other. Erik screws down the starboard garboard while another team gets the portside one in place, And finally the starboard is place, just a little fairing of strake to stem is required.

And those knowledgeable in wood would notice we thankfully didn't use tough oak. Our budget wouldn't allow. The strake will be hard to see once the boat is flipped and a little stain will work wonders. So faux oak, it is!