Phil Main
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Once the cockpits had been completed, it appeared that I would have to create framing and rip the 1/2” basswood planks on my Preac, to continue planking at 45 degrees. This seemed like a lot of extra work for something that would not been seen on the finished boat so I have chosen to bend the planks from at 90 degrees to the keel. It’s not difficult to heat the basswood in a kettle to 180*, shape it with a simple attachment to a small soldering iron, then tape it in place to cool and dry. Since the heat softens the cellulose in the wood to make it pliable, and not the water sometimes I heat the wood for a few seconds in the microwave. The downside of using the planking at 90* is the possibility of losing some of the subtle curves as the deck narrows and changes shape as I work aft. I will try to avoid this pitfall.
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I began planking the foredeck again with planks at a 45 degree angle to the keel, then realized I had jumped the gun and work needed to be completed in the two cockpits and engine compartment, before the planking on the top deck is completed. The most recent pics show progress on the fore cockpit with the floor and seatback glued in place and installation of the sidewalls underway. Note that the mahogany parts in the cockpits will be finished prior to installation. Over the years, I have used tung oil on my models as it brings out the grain of the wood and the gloss can be controlled by the number of coats I apply. i.e. The more coats, the shinier the finish.
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Note that just as on the original Chris Craft boat, there were two layers of planksOnce the legs on the bulkheads had been cut off, the boat was flipped to continue from the topside.
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The scale is 1” to the foot, so the 30’ model will be 30” long. Once I understood that the legs of the bulkheads which rested on the building board needed to be CA’d to the building board, everything went as planned. The biggest challenge was locating the longitudinal pieces on the stem. I solved this by photocopying the plan and using this as the template directly on the stem. Next week I’ll begin the first planking layer in which the bottom strakes are glued at a 45 degree angle to the keel.
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Bluejacket kit of Mahogany Runabout: I have been building something from wood since I was 10 years old starting with soapbox cars including one with pedals and chain from a discarded bicycle. In my younger years, model railroading was my past-time, but what do you do with a growing family which requires a move to a larger house. So for a few years, I built R.C. airplanes where the planes I built were admired, but I was a lousy model pilot. For the last 30 years I’ve been building model ships, some of which have been accepted for display in a local museum. Recently, I completed a scratch build of the San Juan, a Spanish galleon sunk in 1565 near Red Bay, Labrador, located and studied by Parks Canada marine archaeologists. So now I’m a senior with the master bedroom of my apartment converted to a model building shop. The are a number of ships and boats which I have thought about building for decades, the first of which is a mahogany runabout.
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