Planking Completed

After a few weeks of cutting, gluing, scarphing, bending and swearing I now have a boat! I'm really happy with how she turned out. What a satisfying experience it is to turn some lines on paper into a shapely three-dimensional vessel.

Planking up a clinker double ender using thin plywood was definitely far more challenging than I anticipated. I knew I choose the most difficult method to build my boat, however I'm very happy I did. She looks lovely and I feel as though I've acquired a new skill. Using thicker ply would have been easier as it would have been less likely to edge-set and run an unfair line, however the boat would then have been unnecessarily heavy.

For most of the build I averaged a plank a day, the garboards and sheer planks took a bit longer.

I experimented with scarphing the full size sheets then cutting out the planks; and cutting the sheets into strips a bit wider than the plank, and scarphing them together on the boat. The latter of the two was much easier and used less timber. Most planks had two scarphs while some had three, this worked out well as I was able to stagger the scarphs to eliminate and potential weak spots. Next time I build a glued clinker boat I'd like to try the 'Tom Hill Method' as I think it would have been a good choice for this boat.

Now it's time to start mocking up bulkhead positions and cabin structures. Oh what fun!