Chuck Seiler

Spacer has been removed and the transom cleaned up. Part of the port side caprail installed. The curve below the flying transom still needs to be cleaned up, but it doesn't look right. I don't like the way the plank ends are just flapping around in the breeze. It seems like there should be edging or a fashion piece. I know it will be covered with decorative carving, but.... Plank ends cleaned up but it still doesn't look right. (Wipe on Poly applied. It looks a whole lot shinier with a flash. That shine will eventually go away.)

I had all sorts of problems trying to get the flying transom seated in the existing planking. I decided to place a spacer aft of the true transom, then glue in the flying transom. So far so good. Avert your eyes from the glue gobs.

The turtle has turned into a tub. The barge has been removed from the buildboard and bulkheads removed. As part of the process, 2 of the frames broke free from the planking. I guess I didn't glue very well. In the picture below I have reglued and clamped in place All fixed and nestled in its handy dandy cradle. Let the sanding and smoke & mirrors begin.

Yeah, now that I think about it, that makes sense. Understood. Your second part received in the spirit intended. Fair the hull and bevel the edges exactly as you did? Heck, I can't fair and bevel the port side the same way *I* did it on the starboard side. <doh!>

So, you are saying that even though the planks are pre-spiled, we still need to line off the hull?

Progress continues. Planking almost complete. Bow-on shot showing planking completion. Upper three strakes complete as well as the garboard strake on the right side...or what we in the planking business call the starboard garboard. You see larboard garboard in progress. Side view.

I have used scalpels vs Exacto for many years. I went to the #7 handle at the recommendation of Toni Levine. Swann-Morton.

I'll experiment with QAB. My plan is to stain. Should I nail before staining or wait until after to avoid glue gop issues?

Titebond or Weldbond for the monofiliment? I seldom have success with Titebond on non-wood material.

Your admiral's head on a pike DOES tend to dampen morale. This appears to be somewhat plank on frame. Could you partially plank it, similar to Chuck's Queen Anne Barge, or doesn't it lend itself to that?

Apparently the hotel has opened up other dates for the NRG rate. I received that from Mary at NRGHQ. Will provide more details when I get home and contact hotel. Who else is going?

If I had gone the CA glue route I wouldn't have had to clamp.

For the record, Plan B was leave plank 2 unattached to the transom until plank 2 is complete on both sides. Use the rubberband method to clamp the plank to the curvey transom. The offsetting twists balance out.

I had more problems with twisting than breaking. No breaks so far, except that previously noted. You see how I have the RBs set up to clamp the plank to the transom. It ended up twisting the transom. I had to unglue the plank and go with plan B.

Working on second strake using highly sophisticated clamping system.

Thanks to all for tuning in. Chuck, how was Philly?

Regular planking begins. I had to slightly sand the frame edges to remove traces of Polywipe. The location of the bottom of the lowest plank was marked per Chuck's instructions. Planks 1 and 2, port and starboard were cleaned up and top edge beveled. This is important to get right since the next plank will lay flush with the bevel. A clean bevel will avoid gaps. Planks 1 port and starboard were soaked, then clamped into place to dry. They are very flexible and handle the twist easily. I will take my time to hopefully avoid errors. First strake is in place. Bow on shot. The lower stake on both sides are in place. In this picture they appear to be uneven, but in real life they line up fine..

I just made hotel reservations for the conference. They only had the special rates available for 25, 26 and 27 October. I want to spend a little more times there (24-28) and had to make three separate reservations. I was told I will be in the same room the whole time and the rates for Wednesday and Sunday were pretty reasonable, so no big deal. Just be prepared to be on the phone awhile.

Except the glue is on the opposite side of the plank.

I am spending the rest of the weekend on some side projects. First, I am testing out different stains that I intend using on the keel and unpainted planking. I like the "Golden Pecan" I used for the interior of my PHILADELPHIA. That was on boxwood. We'll see how it works on cherry. I am also considering "Natural". Next, I am laying out the lines for the garboard strake to see if the scrap cherry (or spare planking) supplied in the kit will suffice or if I need to go with plan B. Due to the nature of the scrap available I will have to use 3 planks in the strake. The center plank is an easy straight run. In the below picture, I have applied blue painters tape to the areas that will be most complicated. Close up of stern area. I removed the tape and stuck both pieces to a 3x5 card, then cut out each form. They are both pretty straight, no upward curve. This makes it easier (and options of wood more). I fitted both bow and stern to both sides. Almost perfect fits. It will be easy to fabricate (he sez). The below picture shows the stern plank fitted and clamped in place. It has been soaked and clamped in place to dry. Huzzah!!! First plank in place. I will do the other side, then wait until I have all the rest of the exterior planking done before proceeding with the rest of the garboard strakes. I won't know what 'lumber' is available until I get the planking done...with or without snapping the planks.

Faring of the hull has been pretty much completed. I still have a little touch up to do, but that is minor. I think Chuck refers to medium grit sand paper. I started off using 120. Later, in reading the Medway Longboat log I noticed he mentioned using finer grit. I switched to 220 and had easier time of it. Less 'grab' on the sides. I had to change paper more often, but the results were better.

At this point I want to make a declaration. We will see how well it works out. Before I started building I decided I wanted to strengthen the keel area. I won't get into details here but I anyone is interested, I can explain later. The plan was/is to install the garboard strake. In retrospect, it will not only provide strength, it may help with the unsightly keel joints. Making it won't be a problem (famous last words). What to use is. My original plan was to get some 1/32" boxwood and use it for the garboard strakes as well as the 2 unpainted strakes, using the existing planks as templates. That way all the exposed planking would be the same. As a lazy SOB I am rethinking. Plan B is to use extra planking material for the GS. That will depend on what the GS needs to look like and how many planks I break (and where). After all, I don't need to use cherry for the PAINTED strakes. I will have a better idea once I make a template for the GS. Hold that thought.

Did you plan to plank it? Since you already started to paint it, probably not....however.... When I built the solid hull SULTANA I decided to plank above the wale and just paint below. It turned out great. Wale=black and above the wale=natural wood.

Of note, the black flag is still used today as a symbol of anarchy.

I have done a bit of work and am now going back and documenting. The next step was placing the frames into the build board. Almost all were overly tight. I tried to sand them so they were not too tight, but also not loose. At first they were fine, but as I repeatedly inserted and pulled, testing the fits, the frames ended up getting looser with the working of the wood. I should have used Chuck's "blue tape" solution. They ended up being sloppier than I would have liked. We shall what impact, if any, this will have. Another problem I had was with the keel joints. Chuck said not to sand the char from the slots, so I didn't...kind of. The frames were all too wide and needed to be thinned in order to fit in the lots. I made a single pass with an emery board to get the big chunks of char, but otherwise left the slots alone. I tried to be careful not to sand the frames too much so that there would be a tight fit. My experience with the frame tops was fresh in my mind. Test fit of frames individually and as a group proved successful, however when I applied the glue dab for the final placement the frames did not insert fully into the slot. Something expanded. 😞 I let the assembly dry 24 hours and tested it. There was still some wobble in the frame-to-keel joint so I gave each joint a shot of CA glue. It doesn't look as good as I would like, but I have a plan. 🔨 Faring begins. I am just getting around to reading Chuck's build log on the Medway Longboat in detail. I like the idea of tape reinforcement on the frames. I wish I read it sooner. The assembly is quite delicate, so slow and easy