The structural floors were in and fastened off a couple of months ago. The next step was to fasten in the lower bilge stringers. These were steam-bent, scarfed and tapered earlier and clamped out of the way higher up the hull while the floors went in. They rest in notches in the extremities of all of the floors, fastened with copper nails and roves right through the planking. This boat has a considerably stronger floor arrangement than most of the original boats of this class, most of which have had problems leading to considerable work in the area of the garboards (after 50-70 years it must be said!) There's now at least three coats of primer on every item from the stringers down to the keel which will be enough for now. The light blue-grey is International Yacht Primer, the dark grey in the depths of the bilge and on the keel is International Primocon in case this area has to cope with bilge water. You will notice I have laminated in a wide landing in Silver Ash for the main bulkhead in the way of the mast. More on this when I'm up to fitting the bulkhead. The last job before priming was to pour blackjack (pitch) into the crevices where the planking meets the stem and the sternpost and stern knee. I heated the putty-consistency blackjack until it ran almost like water and poured it into each crevice, starting at the high point so that once each bay filled up it would flow into the next bay down. This prevents dust and moisture building up in these difficult-to-access areas. I still need to fit the mast step across floors 3 to 7 (from frd), and the engine beds on floors 11 and 12, but now I'm going to get back into the planking.
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AuthorIan Smith, Boatbuilder (ret'd) Archives
January 2024
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