Venti

Thanks Trevor! I am happy that the planks ended up at least symmetrical. Got some more done! Steps 12-16 are done. That is Skeg, Bilge Keels, Dagger Board Case, Bottom Frames, Inwales, and Stern/Bow Quarter Knees. Everything went pretty smoothly, thankfully. The Skeg and Bilge Keels needed very little sanding to fay (new term learned) with the bottom of the boat. Dagger Board Case was very straight forward as long as you keep everything squared up. Bottom frames were slightly annoying due to my ineptitude of lapstrake planking. Or maybe it is just the nature of lapstrake planking that the frames didn't line up well with the planks without lots of adjustment. Even then there were lots of gaps between the two. I plan to fill these with some wood filler and clean it up while keeping the holes in the corners for water draining. The inwales went extremely well. I think mostly because they are slightly larger than on the Dory and easy to handle. The quarter knees were also very quick and easy and came out well. Partially because of my incident early by thinking the bow quarter knees were the transom knees 🤣 they were already sanded and basically ready. All that was needed was a small amount of sanding to match the angle of the transoms. Side note: When warned about the char rubbing off on the planks from the molds, I decided to try coating the molds with a very thinned out pva glue. After removing the ship from the building board, I am pleased to say that there was not a single mark from the laser char on the planks.

Very good day today! Finished all of the planking and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I'm still not a fan of this planking technique and I'm ready to learn POF/POB. I'm glad I am painting this since the ends of the planks didn't turn out very good. Especially on the planks I tried to make the gain like they explained in the book. Somehow the planks on the stern side ended up much higher ok the stern transom than they did on the bow. I'm not sure if this is a big deal and just plan to translate the curve to where it needs to be to match the planks. Just realized I put the keel plank on upside down hahaha so I just drew some center lines for the skeg.

Yeah after I said it and started thinking about it, I don't think it's a great idea... especially with the gains. Hmm... My brain is not seeing how the bow knee contacts the keel plank like the stern knee does without the step in the transom. I will sleep on it, but will probably end up doing much the same as you have. Add a piece between the bottom planks below the keel plank and make it look like an extension of the knee. Again, I super appreciate your help!

I got the bottom planks and keel planks bent pretty nicely! The iron works so well! It's very forgiving if you mess up a bend or just want to change it after you bent it once. I had to do some editing of the build board after test fitting the bottom planks... the stern most mold was either not centered or I had it in backwards (or both). but it made the bottom planks not line up with the stern transom at all. Of course I glued the mold in extensively (yes even though the book says not too 🤪) so I needed to use some alcohol to break it out and once I turned it around everything lined up very nicely. I now have 1 issues that I'd like some input before I proceed... the bow transom knee does not seem like it will be flat against any of the planks... And with this same thing, it seems like there will be a gap between the two bottom planks at the bow transom. Not just because of where the planks naturally lie, but because I don't think the two planks will be wide enough to go across the entire bottom of the bow transom. I saw Kenchington add a piece of wood between the bottom planks to fill in the gap and I will likely do the same. I'm confident it will be fine looking at the front of the boat, but how does the inside of the boat look with this? Is the bow transom knee supposed to connect to the planks on the inside of the boat? I'm worried if I don't do something about it now, it will be MUCH harder to make look good. It's obvious I will also need to makes some adjustments to the bevels on the stern transom to make them line up better with the bottom planks, but I hope that isn't too bad.... I might get all the planks prepped and dry fit them to make sure my angles all work out 🤔 Then I can mark the transoms and hopefully get them right. Anyways here's some pictures. everything so far is lining up better than I hoped and I think that's a good sign 😁

Hey Trevor, thanks again for your insight! I do plan to paint it so I'm not worried about it staining the wood this time. As for the curve between the bevels... This was caused by my poor decision in how to sand the bevels and lack of a desk vise... I ended up sanding too much towards the center so I planned to get the planks close to ready and see how everything will fit and then adjust as needed. I'm pretty sure I'll need to use some wood filler for these spots.

That does help a lot OldeManToad, thank you! Got a little bit done today! Got the building board built and the transoms built (with the correct knees this time). I'm not extremely happy with the bevels on the transoms but I think they will be fine... I need to not overwork them or I won't have a transom left haha... I think I put the knees a bit too high and so when I did the first bevel to match the knee, the other ones ended up not lining up with the laser marks. I glued the transom holders in and plan to just cut them off afterwards. Got a nice little wedge in there and some pins to prevent anything from moving too easily and I'm about ready to start planking! After watching Chuck's planking videos I got me a little baby iron and will try to bend the planks with it. I hated having to wait most of a day for the planks to dry after soaking them in hot water.

Ah thank you so much you guys! Yes you were right, Trevor. And yes Palmerit, there is indeed a sheet with the the parts and it is labeled! That will be very nice moving forward... I got the knees swapped out to the correct ones and added a couple strips to the bottom of the building board to make it a bit more sturdy. Credit: Kenchington

Well quick update. It looks like most people in build logs are using the larger knee-looking piece with a hole in the corner for the stern transom knee... It looks better so I am going to swap to that as well.

Hello all! It's time to start another one of these as I just got the boxes with the pram and smack in it! 😁 I just want to start this out by asking for a suggestion on desk vises. Specifically ones that will work for the pram, smack and then the larger size ships I will be doing more of in the futures. I used to have a nice ball vice to use for stuff but not sure if I want something as mobile as that for this hobby. I've been going through the other build logs for it and read through the instructions already! Pretty excited to work through this one. One thing I've kind of annoying so far is that it's not clear at all which pieces are which on one of the wood sheets. There are multiple pieces that look like they could be the transom knees... or they could be stern/bow quarter knees... I thought it was the ones right next to the bottom half of the stern transom but it looked much smaller than in the pictures so I went with the two from the empty sections shown below. It looks correct comparing the transoms to the pictures in the book so we move forward! Will update soon. Thanks in advance for all the help/suggestions!

I did see your build log a few weeks ago and will definitely be looking there again when I get started!

Yeah that is the biggest reason I'm going to do more of the shipwright series. With the credit, the pram and smack will cost very little!

Thank you Trevor! That is a good idea also. @Jacques next will be Pram. I might as well do all 3 of the shipwright series. After that I am thinking I'll do the Vanguard HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne. It seems like a great next step into getting into the larger ships with guns

Well, I am officially done! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I need to figure out a better way to make the square strips round like the Thole Pins... Mine are not very round... The oars came out pretty good but they are much bigger and easier to work with. I appreciate everyone's help and welcome any suggestions/tips for what I did or could do better! ❤️

I love the idea of using a different wood! I don't currently have any, unfortunately. I'll look into getting some for future builds but it's hard to know what thickness sheets to get. I've got it glued back together and I think I'm just going to sand it (more carefully) and paint it the green like the kit suggests. Another lesson learned haha.