I had fitted a temporary sole of MDF to make it easier to walk around inside the hull, but with the cabin joinery next on the list I needed to fit the permanent sole as the bunk fronts land on the outer edges of the sole. I originally planned to use Kauri boards which was commonly done back in the day (even if they were painted), but with Covid disruptions and shortages in the building industry I was unable to find suitable boards in Queensland Kauri, Fijian Kauri or Malaysian Kauri (Damar Minyak), let alone New Zealand Kauri. So I settled for Queensland White Beech (no relation to Northern Hemisphere Beech), which was commonly used in laid decks, as it is durable and weathers to a light silvery grey. I don't expect it will go grey in the cabin for a long time, but I plan to leave it bare. If it shows the dirt too much I will eventually oil or clear finish it. The boards with the finger holes are loose, the others are tongue-and-grooved together, screwed but not glued down. I plan to make all of the interior joinery relatively easily removable. This will make it easier for future generations of repairers. I have painted the bilges and the other side of the sole boards with white International Bilgekote (sold in Europe as Danbolene), from one of two 1 litre cans I was able to secure. There is still a shortage of some International Paint products. In the cooler weather I have been getting into fairing the hull. I faired the upper topsides last year before fitting the lower sponsons, and now I am moving down to the lower topsides and below the waterline. I hope to finish it in the cooler months. Its a big job and I will be pacing myself by interspersing bouts of fairing with the interior joiner work.
The photo shows a selection of the tools I use for fairing. Most of the work is done by planes. All of the convex and flat surfaces are planed with the Record No3, planing in all directions but mostly with alternate diagonal strokes. The concave surfaces are planed with a selection of round-soled wooden planes. The flexible fairing boards pictured with 40-grit paper are used to remove the plane marks and do the fine tuning before priming. The concave surfaces are sanded with the paper held on a rounded block of foam and a selection of rounded items such as large-diameter plastic water pipe. The other photo shows the Port stern quarter and the raised deck section of planking above the sponson which have been roughly faired receiving plugs in the fastening holes.
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AuthorIan Smith, Boatbuilder (ret'd) Archives
January 2024
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