SkerryAmp

I'm beginning my build log of the Lauck Street Shipyards POF kit of an Armed Virginia Sloop, an admiralty style kit in 1/32 scale.  The kit arrived in it's box and it is heavy!  The contents are high quality hardwoods (primarily cherry for deck beams, knees, carlings etc. and hard maple for the frames) with lots of strip wood of various species for planking, trim etc.  There are also a large number of 3-D printed parts; this being the first kit to offer them. There are 5 sheets of plans, each 36" X 24" included.  I may alter the kit, and add additional details and possibly substitute some different woods, but I'm basically going to build it out of the box.  Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome!
 
Here is the box, and some shots of the maple and cherry billets containing many of the parts.

JS -
I guess you can call it a "specialty tool," although it's really nothing more than a hand-made broach.
I start out by cutting a piece of scrap wood, so the four sides are as square as possible to each other.  The stock can be either square or rectangular in cross-section, it doesn't matter.  I then cut a slot in one side wide enough so it will take a small finishing nail with the head cut off.  The nail is epoxied in the slot.  Make sure the nail is completely below the surface of the wood.

I then set up my Dremel drill press with the head rotated 90 degrees.  For this procedure, one of those small abrasive disks works well.  Make sure you wear some eye protection when you do this!  These disks have a nasty habit of shattering.  I then start carefully grinding down the sides of the nail, rotating it periodically, so a square shape is formed.  As I get close to the desired size, I start measuring the head with a pair of digital calipers.  I believe the one in these photos was about .045" square.


In order to make the mortise, I start out by drilling a hole that is equal to, or slightly smaller in diameter than the dimension of the broach.
The hardest part of this procedure for me was getting the broach lined up properly over the hole.  For that reason, I would highly recommend  that you make yourself a miniature T-square.  I have a small collection of various triangles and squares that are some of my most usefull tools.

Take the square, and mark off the limits of the hole on two sides.  The other two lines can be drawn by dragging a compass along the edge of the plug, with the lead lined up with the edge of the hole.

Carefully line up your broach with the lines, and gentley tap the broach a few times.  This should give you a slight impression in the wood.  If the impression looks good, put the broach in the depressed area, and tap a little more forcefully.  Check it periodically as you do this.

I messed up a couple of windlasses trying to do this, so I would recommend you practice with some scrap before you commit to the actual piece.  I apologize for being so "long winded."   I hope you find this useful.
 
BobF

Out of curiosity, how did you get such beautiful consistent square cuts? Are you an expert X-Acto knife user or do you have a specialty tool you used?

I've started working on the mast, boom, gaff and bowsprit.  Here are some photos of the bowsprit temporarily mounted in position.
 
The first two photos show the barcket that is mounted at the heel of the bowsprit.  NMM models show a square tenon inserted into this bracket, so I soldered a piece of square brass tubing to some brass rod.  The tenon is actually a 1/16" square piece of boxwood inserted into the end of the bowsprit.  Per NMM models, I also inserted this bracket into the first thwart, rather than into the floorboards.  The brass rod protruding below the thwart, still needs to be trimmed.


 
The next two photos show the other bowsprit bracket, which was made with some soldered brass tubing and trimmed flat stock.
 


 
I didn't want to press the brass pin all the way in, since I wasn't ready to mount it permanently.
 
BobF

If you look at contemporary long boat models, all the windlasses seem to have a curious conical taper at each end.

   I found this too intriguing to pass up, and decided to try duplicating the shape on my lathe. An easy way to chuck up an eight-sided piece in a three jaw chuck is to use a brass sleeve that has a slit cut in it.  This allows the sleeve to compress as the chuck is tightened.  The only drawback to this is whether or not you have brass tubing suitable for the piece you are working on.  The fact that I planned to use this sleeve is also the reason I made the windlass plug as long as it is.


First of all, I needed to center drill the windlass at one end so it could take the tailstock.


The sleeve was then moved to the other end of the piece, and mounted in the lathe.

The only problem I encountered with this procedure, is that I had to be careful not to damage the sharp edges of the four flat surfaces at each end while creating the tapers.

If you go back to the first photo in this particular post, the mortises in the contemporary windlass are offset on adjacent surfaces.  For what it's worth, I found that duplicating that on my windlass made any misalignment problems less obvious.

 
Here are some photos of the windlass and thwarts in position.  However, they still aren't glued in place.  I'd like to get some other procedures done on the model before I commit to that.
BobF
 

That was such a fantastic log to follow,  not only detailed work but detailed description and an incredible final project.
 
Congratulations on one HELL of a beautiful ship - amazing!!

Looking great Larry!   Love the colorful builds - need to find one myself someday.
 
The mast footing bit, while I didn't run into a footing (since the one I finished didn't have footings per say) I did have an over-sized hole for the mast and basically did what you mentioned.   Fill it a bit, insert mast - find proper rake and brace it in place until it set up.
 
Having a footing piece you may be able to just shim it a bit and avoid the permanency of epoxy unitl you get it just right then set it up once in position.

Things are moving along here at Glacial Boat Works. 
 
I've learned a lot building this small humble work boat.   My method of planking is similar to how Chuck P is planking his Cutter Cheerfull.  Chuck P posted a 'tutorial' on planking which I highly suggest checking it out.  Also, read through all of the following questions, lots of good questions and answers there!  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8131-hm-cutter-cheerful-1806-148-scale-by-chuck/page-22#entry292745
 
New parts! 
 
I turned the mast from a square blank last October when it was still warm outside (this was really messy!)  But it had lots of fittings that needed to be made and added,  So I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top! 
 
The blue prints are a bit vague on how the boom is connected to the mast.  Instead, I followed the online photos and made an iron yoke and painted it light blue. I'm holding off drilling the holes for lacing the main sail, these holes need to line up perfectly with the seams on the sail.
 
The gaff is close to print, but I omitted the pivoting block.  I really need a drill press to get all the parts to align. I could 'fake it', but it would look fake.
  



 

 
 
After investing this much time and effort, I wanted to rig using better quality rope and blocks and ordered replacement rope and blocks from Syren.  The rope is great, I mean super fabulous great.  However, based purely on economics, I need to seriously think about investing in a rope making machine, also a serving machine. 

 
Check out the difference in the blocks, the kit blocks, ME blocks and Syren blocks.  Corel deadeyes are really nice and I will use those. 

 
 
Next up is making the sails.  The kit sails, well, maybe they will make nice dust rags. (If anyone wants these, send me a pm.)  I need to make a run to Vogue Fabric store in Evanston, one of the finest fabric stores in the country.  I'll be looking for fabric for my sails.  Along with the fine threads and other notions needed to finish off the seams and edges.  
 
These will be my first sails.  I used to sew all of my own clothes, so I'm going to experiment with various techniques.  I have some very fine thread, 0.06mm / 0.0025" which will be interesting to try sewing with.   
 
I'm also going to experiment with making sails from tissue paper, similar to how Wefalck made sails for his Zuiderzee botter.  Wefalck's Zuiderzee botter build is one of my favorite builds.  Check out Wefalck's sails here:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/68-zuiderzee-botter-by-wefalck-artitec-resin/page-2#entry47886
 
Maybe, just maybe I'll finish this model this month - or next month!
 
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my update.
 
Dee Dee
 
Edited to add second, close up photo of Syren blocks
Edited to test photo upload compression.  Shakes head.........

The hull is finished and I'm doing the happy dance!  Well, almost done.....  The gloss coat above the water line still needs to be added, but most likely the paint will get a bit nicked / scuffed up while working on the rigging, so I'll wait.  In general, I like it!  Yes, it could be better, but that's OK, I learned a lot of skills that will carry forward to my next build.  
 

 

 

 
Here you can see the bow stem and the cleat for the jib line. This cleat is a fixture on small and large coquilliers. Check out the photo in the October 20, 2014 post, (post #51) for more info about this cleat.  

 
  Some of the paint has worn off of the stops on the bow thwart.  I want the finished model to look like a real working boat, so I think I'll leave it as is.     And finally, a couple of photo's of the rudder. When I put on the third / top set of P&G's, it's not aligned with the other two sets and is pulling the rudder up, as can be seen.  I'm definitely not happy with this and I need to rework these.  The tiller is not attached and will most likely be one of the last parts to be permanently added.
    Up next is adding all the fiddly bits and bobs for the rigging.  The mast has already been turned from a square blank, but now I need to add all of the little bits to it.  The Corel instructions are less than logical, so I came up with my game plan. 
 
It's supposed to get chilly this weekend, so maybe I'll make some progress. 
 
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my build log. 
 
Dee Dee
 

I still cannot wrap my head around the skill necessary to do what you are doing.  Such an incredible looking piece of work and such work going into the incredible looking piece.
 
Just amazing man, just simply amazing....

My build is moving along at a glacial pace.  Primarily because I take my time to think things through and figure out how it's all going to fit together.  As I gain experience, maybe my pace will approach the speed of grass growing.  
~~~~~~~~~~~
The hull is painted!  I really don't like painting, but it's a skill I need to learn.  Paint will either showcase your planking or hide your planking.  I like the way my planking turned out, so I want to be able to see planking through the paint.     

 

 

 
Back in post #52 I lopped off a bit of the hull / keel so I could add a stern post.  It was a scary move, but I had thought it through and this is how it turned out!  I like it.     

 
Figuring out how to build the rudder / tiller and when to add the hardware took some time.  The tiller is removable so the rudder can be installed.      

 

 
Before I could add the bowsprit, I had to build up the bow stem.  This is another item that should have been done on page one.  I did my best and it's a bit off.  But with the bowsprit, it's not as visible.  I couldn't find the walnut square that I was planning to use for the bowsprit, so I glued up a blank from four pieces.  The bowsprit is supposed to be unpainted, but decided to paint it to hide the glue seams.  The aft most section is square and rests on the bow thwart between two stops.  These two stops were a pain.  The first wood I used didn't like to be glued and broke off AFTER I finished retouching the paint!  

 

 
I keep on finding more and more little detailed parts that need to be added.  My rolling TO DO list has 25 items and none are related to the rigging!  The kit rigging is overly simplified using only single blocks.  On the Shepherdess from Domremy, half of the blocks are double blocks and I think there's one or two triple blocks.  So, I need to draw / diagram the actual rigging plan and determine how many blocks and how much line I'll need and order from Syren. 
 
As always, thanks for stopping by.
 
Dee Dee
 
(Edited to fix photos)

This update is a bit overdue.  I've been waiting over two weeks for a sunny day to take photos. The last sunny day was three weeks ago, lasted about 30 minutes and I was on my way to a race.  The next forecast for sun is next Sunday - SURPRISE!  We had sun this morning!  SURPRISE!  My camera pooped out this morning while taking photos!  The mirror got hung up while taking photos and I'm getting error message.  I can't complain, I've been using this camera a lot for eight years, took well over 100,000 photos and never a problem.  But I did get a few good pics before it pooped out and also took some with my little point and shoot to finally do this update! 
Bye - Bye Mr. Sun!  Hope to see you again soon!
~~~~
 
Cap rail are done!  After I added the last interior plank, I used an 8" hardwood sanding plank to get a smooth, even and level (glue) surface for the cap rails to sit on.  To understand all the pieces of this puzzle, I made a 'mock up' cap rail with coffee stir sticks and figured out the angles at the transom and bow.  I added the cap rail, starting at the transom and worked my way to the bow stem, five sections per side with butt joints and it's done!    Phew!  Only two of the eight butt joints are slightly visible.  Going forward, I want / need to learn how to do scarph joints.
 
 
The bow stem is a wee bit on the short side, as in 'non existing', so I need to add some height to it.  I like these bow bitts, but I'm thinking they are a bit too tall.  The good news is I'm thinking they're tall enough to lop off a few inches and they will still look right.  There will be just enough room for the bowsprit and it will look good. 

 
Way back I added 4" to the height of the transom and thought I would need to remove 2".  With the cap rail added, it's just barely enough.  Still need to make the square opening for the tiller.  

 
In the last update I added the mast thwart and knees. The splash board was sanded down to height and added knees.  All but one of the kit metal cleats have been replaced with wood cleats of various types or belaying pins.     
The hull is only 3mm thick, not enough for the deadeye strop nails to hold onto.  Since I don't want the ends of the nails poking through, I'm thinking about going to order some scale hardware nuts and bolts for the strops and hull struts.  Blackened / painted, these will blend in very nicely.  

 
Painting is a necessary evil and I'm learning.  Preparation is key, I'm using gesso as a prep.  I'm getting nice results.  While making the rudder, do make sure it had an even bevel, I decided to give it a coat of the black paint.  And while I was at it, add some paint to the lower part of the hull, to get an idea how it was going to look.  I used the canned spray paint I've used twice before with excellent results.  The next morning the paint was gummy, like a heavy coat of crayon.  Ickky!  So that all had to be scrapped off and then cleaned to remove residue.  It was a mess!  
 
It seems like the more small parts I do, the more small parts there are to do!  The rudder is almost done, need to install the rudder and open up the transom so I can get the right height on the rudder for the tiller.  Then there's the belaying pins, hull struts, bow sprit and a few other parts.   
 
As always, thanks for stopping by.  Your suggestions are always welcome.  
 
Dee Dee
 
Wishing you and yours Happy Holidays.
 

 
(Edited to change photos to smaller sized photos)

I've made some progress......  finally!
In post #22, I made adjustments and increased the height of the hull, but it was not enough, so I increased the hull height by another 1/16".   This interior planking is closer to the SoD than the kit.  Since I didn't drop the height of the cockpit floor, I made a couple of adjustments, to give the hull the appearance of being higher.  

 
When I extended the length of the foredeck, I forgot to take into consideration the spacing of the false frames.  But all is well as the spacing in the cockpit worked out almost perfectly.  I was lucky this time!   

 
The main thwart covers the seam in the cockpit planking.  The top of the thwart still needs to be painted.   

 
Waterways are not part of the kit, but they are a nice bit of detail.  On the foredeck, the added height helped with the visibility of the false frames.  Still need to add one more inner planking board, the cap rail and splash water.  But with the added height, I now need to increase the height of the bow stem so I'll have room for the iron band for the bowsprit. 

 
The mast thwart, knees and splash board are courtesy of Starbucks coffee stir sticks.  The port side knee turned out fabulous, the starboard side not so well and needs a drop of filler.  I added the knees after the thwart was installed.  In hindsight, I should have made the knees with the thwart and installed them as one unit.  The splash board will be reduced in height.

 
Frames on the transom are a bit uneven, but once I add more parts, it should be less noticeable 

 
Next up is adding the cap rail  The cap rail will sit on a base of four layers of planking / framing that is 3/16" wide.  I'll also start working on the rudder. 
 
Thanks for stopping by.  Your thoughts, questions and comments are welcome.
 
Have a great weekend! 
 
Dee Dee

Finally!  I reached the next target point in my coquillier build - All decking installed. To get here, I made a list of every little detail for the deck / floor planking, face planking and more.  It was sort of anal with 38 line items, but once I started working on the list, the work flowed smoothly.  
 
In the end, I got the effect I was looking for and I'm happy!    
 
It would have been easier to 'fake' the fish well planking details.  But it was worth the time and effort to add detail.  Now, when someone asks me about the couquillier, I can do a 'show and tell' about the story of the couquillier.   Plus, I learned a lot of little build details that will carry forward to future builds. It was worth the time spent!  An 8" / 8mm thwart above the seam will partially hide the gap.  The cockpit floor boards were finished with a gray paint wash.

 
It only took a few days to loose one of the plank, specifically, the starboard side curved plank!  That was way too easy to loose, so I made a few changes:  The curved planks are glued to the bulkheads.  The 7 loose planks on each side are now glued together.  Instead of the 3 short loose planks aft of the mast, I scored a line to give the impression of the 3 loose planks.  

 
Don't tell anyone that this (false) seam is in the wrong place.  When all of the boards are in place, no one will know!   

 
The height of the transom was increased by 4".  This might be a bit too high, I'll decide after I add the cap rail.  I left the excess width on the transom to protect the planking from eroding away.  It will be removed when the cap rail is added.  The opening for the tiller will be added when I install the rudder. Most couquilliers have storage under the fore and aft deck accessible through doors.  I'll add cleats and hinges to define the two aft deck doors.   

 
I scraped down the foredeck planking a bit too much and lost some planking definition - lesson learned.  The red paint is intentionally uneven - it's a work boat!  Since the foredeck was extended, a few adjustments are needed for the mast thwart and trim.  That little blue strip near the bow stem is an example of the waterway, it will be painted before installing.  

 
Next up is all of the interior planking, waterway, false frames, thwart knee, mast thwart and a few more parts that are shown in the photos of the Shepherdess of Domrémy
 
As always, I appreciate the time you have taken to stop by to read my build log.  Your feedback or suggestions are welcome.
 
Dee Dee

My problem in post #41, was how am I going to get the planks to land all straight, neat and tidy on the keel as shown on the drawing (the purple section.)  

 
This is how the stern looked after I finished planking last week. Not very promising. 

 
So, I took a deep breath and cut off a section of the planked keel and added a walnut stern stem. 

 
 
And the planks line up straight, neat and tidy!!

 
 
The transom was planked before adding the stern stem

 
Working on the framing around the fish wells, have a few more parts to figure out, but it's looking good. 
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
Dee Dee

 

 

And then there were two planks.....  then one plank and (almost) done with planking! 
 
The 2nd to last plank was made same as the others with updated measurements.  The last plank was made almost the same.  The major difference is the final plank was beveled on both edges so it could 'press fit' for a snug fit.  Added some glue and called the planking almost done!  Before I sand the bump and lumps, I'll add a layer of epoxy on the inside of the hull. 
 
The ends of the planks will be trimmed up to a nice straight line.  The garboard strake, in addition to needing a bit of filler, is a bit too wide at the front.  

 
The starboard bow needs a bit of clean up. The planking got a bit snug at the bow, but ALL planks run the full length of the hull with no add / dropped planks. 

 
And then I did THIS to the deck!  I got carried away when opening up some of the false deck to add the epoxy.  I decided to add the wells, framing, mast shoe / step.  Good idea, until I figured out, that to do it right, I should have done some of the prep work on the false keel for the mast shoe / step and individual bulkheads for framing (back on page 1).  Oh well, I'll figure it out!  It won't be right, but it will be close.

 
In this photo of the Shepherdess from Domrémy, you can see the cockpit floor boards are in two sections.  From the thwart forward, the floor boards are loose to access the fish wells below, and aft of the thwart, the floor boards are fixed.  The oyster would be stored in the (wet?) well below the floor boards.  At the end of the day, the boards would be put back and head for home. 

 
While I'm trying to figure this out, I'll add a layer of epoxy to the inside of the hull and try to get rid of THAT bump on 14 & 15 and work on the stern post. 
 
As always, thanks for stopping by. 
 
Dee Dee

Bob,
I'm a 'puzzle person' and planking any hull is a puzzle!  Too much fun!  I tried my best with single planking and I learned a lot about planking!    
 
Keith,
Scary kewl, but I understand most of what you wrote!  Sort of!  A puzzle with thinner tape would definitely be interesting!  I'm thinking the results will either bring total order or some really kewl '60's Pop Art'. 
 
 
Here's the fun part of this puzzle.
By feel, I know there's a ridge on the port side due to the 14th and 15th planks aft of the 6th bulkhead.
In the tape puzzle, theoretically, there should be no gaps between the strips of tape. 
However, the stern view photo shows a gap between the blue / green tapes and the green / black tapes and the gaps start when the tapes cross planks 14 & 15.   
 

I enjoy planking, it's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle with all rectangular pieces and there's no picture. 
 
Here's the puzzle:  I laid out 6 strips of art tape, (same width as the planks) on a piece of glass and fixed them with the strip of gold tape.  The tapes were transferred to the hull (parallel to the keel) and each strip of tape was then laid flat following the contour of the hull.   The views from the bow and stern show the puzzle the best.    

 

 

 
 
 
Just a few more planks to go. 
Here's a quick review on how I made each plank:
Each plank was steamed, edge bent, then shaped to size.  The measurements at each bulkhead was taken, then divided by the number of planks to go.  My goal was +/-0.03mm at each bulkhead, bow and transom. I averaged 45 - 60 minutes shaping each plank, it's a process that just cannot be rushed.    
 
This target measurement here was 3.58, I got 3.57.  The amount of pressure applied on the calipers will change the reading, so I just tried to be consistent with my process of measuring. 

 
This is the port side #17 plank, it just needs to have the top edge beveled and it will be ready to glue. 

 
Port plank #17 glued and partially sanded.

 
Three more planks to go!
 
There's a slight ridge on the port side, on planks 14 and 15.  It's not visible on the bare wood, but I'm thinking it might become visible after the hull is painted.  So I'm going to follow Cap'n'Bob's suggestion, add some two part epoxy on the inside of the hull, just in case the wood gets a bit thin while sanding that ridge.
 
The kit wood for the cockpit flooring is about 12" wide, way out of scale.  So I'm thinking of going with some maple, 3" wide  and staining it to the gray weathered color.   But before that, the mast thwart is too wide, so I need to extend the foredeck a few inches.  It's really kewl to have an actual boat to refer to.  
 
Thanks for stopping by, suggestions are always welcomed!  
 
Dee Dee

Due to the hull shape, a few planks had sever edge bending.  I was doing well, until 'SNAP!' and I broke another plank.  It wasn't going to get better and didn't want to chance breaking any more.  To relieve the edge bending for the remaining planks, the next two planks were undersized from the 6th bulkhead to the transom.  So instead of 4.42mm, the planks tapered down to 3.0mm. 
 
This photo sort of shows how the last two planks were undersized aft of the 6th bulkhead (in the middle with the cracked plank) to ease the edge bending. 
 

After I get this posted, I'm going for an easy short 35 mile ride today up to Old School and back.  The winds are favorable, so I'll have a light tailwind home.     
 
SO!  I added that last plank and that brings me to my next planned build update.  Original planking plan was 18 planks + Sheer + garboard = 20 total.  12 planks done, 8 more to go.  I picked this point for a planned update, because this is where I will re-measure the remaining distance to be plank on each bulkhead and make any adjustments. 
 
The planking has been going well.  It takes well over an hour to completely shape each plank, (the planks are only 12" long and I have 8 measuring points.) So far, the planking on the port and starboard sides have a 1.0mm or less variance.

 

 
At the bow stem, the variance is only 0.50mm, 27.04 and 26.54.  Most of that is from the first plank on the port side, which is a bit too high.  I'll sand it down so it's level with the starboard side and the variance should be close to zero. 

 
Somehow, this garboard strake was chipped, I'll fill that in with a little bit of filler.  I keep the bow stem wrapped in layers of tape to keep it from being eroded away.    

 
The tail ends of each plank still need to be sanded even with the transom.  I've kept the stern covered with tape to keep a crisp corner.  You can also see the edges of the keel have been lined with a strip of walnut, to prevent the wood from eroding away.  

 
 
Next up, redo all the measurements and plan out the final 8 planks!
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
Dee Dee
 
 
Edited to add length of measure
Edited to change 'final 8 planks' to 'final 9 planks'   
Edited to change 'final 9 planks' back to 'final 8 planks'   oops!

Eamonn,
 
Thanks for stopping by!  Good catch sighting Andy trying to slink thru Montreal during the F1.   
 
I just finished the thriller called "As the Plank Snaps!"  In the stillness of the evening the next plank is being added.  The quiet was broken with a loud and distinctive "SNAP!".  Yep!  the  starboard plank #5 snapped off aft of the 8th bulkhead, right where it makes a twist and edge bend.  Oh fiddle stixs!  But, there was a happy ending!  It's fixed and it adds a little character to the hull!

 
Now I'm trying to figure where / why these black lines are appearing on the edges of the planks.  It looks like a gap between the planks, but the planks fit very tight.  In the second photo, you can see the snug fit on the ends of the planks.  It's not causing any problems, just curious.
 


 
After I add three more planks, I'll start planking up from the garboad strake.  
 
Back to the ship yard!
 
Dee Dee

I've made some progress, so it's time for an update!  
 
The Corel instructions / prints are, shall we say, a bit less than vague about the top plank, garboard strake and planking.  So I made my plan for the planking and got started.  Before I added the first plank, I defined the line where the planking needs to land on the keel.  After the first plank, the garboard strake was added.  This was an adventure, as every mm of this strake needed to be shaped to get it to fit tight against the keel.  The first five planks and the garboard strake are smack dab on the line.  

 
I'm using the fan / tick method for planking and decided on 20 total planks per side.  I made tick marks on the port side, the planks taper from 2.3mm at the bow, to 5mm at bulkhead #7. So far, the planks are hitting the targeted tick marks and landing on the line.  The blue tape around the stem is to protect it from getting banged up.  To protect the keel from getting banged up, I added a 1/64" / 0.4mm strip of walnut.  

 
In my last post, I mentioned how the instructions / construction drawing do not match the blue print.  The planks taper from 2.3mm at the bow to 5mm at the 7th bulkhead.  I'm thinking it is possible to plank with the first four planks being straight as shown in the drawings / prints:  The number of total planks at the bow would drop from 20 total to 16-17 with 2-3 stealers.  But stealers are not shown on the prints.......   

 

 
In this photo, you can see the top plank run back to the transom.  The tops of the bulkheads will be removed when the planking is completed, so I'm trying my best to use minimal glue on the bulkheads.  

 
Like the garboard strake, the last plank added in this photo had to make a 90* turn, but this one was a bit easier since I had 2.5" / 65mm to make the turn.  

 
If I was to start over, here are some changes I would make:  (Hey!  I like doing the research and I want to make it right!) 
-Currently the cockpit floor is 23" below the top of the cap rail. The top plank and the decking need to be raised / dropped to increase this height closer to 36". 
            Remake all of the bulkheads/keel and increase the height 5-8" to raise the top plank. 
            Drop the height of the cockpit floor 5-10".  I'm thinking for the reason the current cockpit floor height is due to the false
            framing that is added after the bulkheads are removed.  But that would be an easy fix. 
            The transom would also need to be raised.  
-Make a rabbit in the keel for the garboard and bow planking. 
-Add a rabbit on the stern edge of the keel.  I'll add the rabbit above the garboard strake and the garboard strake will need some major reshaping.
-The first planking is 5mm x 1.5mm, 4mm would have been better.  The second planking is 6mm, if I was doing a second planking, I would replace it with 4mm. 
 
I'm definitely enjoying this build.  The planking is going well, but I'm not taking any chances!  After I add 3 or 4 more planks, I'll re-do all the measurements and make any adjustments.  Even though the hull will be painted, I want the hull planking to shine through the paint. 
I like the quality of the wood in this Corel kit!  All of the strip stock is straight and nicely finished.  Also the plywood for the decking was flat (unlike the decking for another kit on the shelf.)      
 
SO!  That's where I'm at and I'm really liking this build! 
 
Thanks for stopping by!  Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. 
 
Dee Dee    

Normally, between build posts, I like to accomplish more than I have with this post, (adding just one plank.)  However, I came across something that is so "WOW?" and wanted to share with you.  Whilst this is a bit long, if your planning on building this boat, you might find this helpful.     
 
The transom height is one of the planned changes, so before I glued the transom, I layered on a piece of 1/32" birch plywood.  I glued the transom to the false keel and started playing with the first plank and fitting it along the tops of the bulkheads.  For some reason, it just did not look right. 
 
This construction drawing shows the first plank following the tops of the bulkheads, even spacing between the top plank and each deck and the top of the plank level with the top of the transom.  It wasn't happening, not even close. 
 

 
I did some comparison measuring of the blue print of the distance from the top of the decking to the top of the top of the top plank and some variances showed up.  The blue numbers are measurements in mm from the blue print.  The red numbers show what the measurements would be if the top plank was aligned with the top of the bulkheads.  With the exception of the aft deck (5.0 vs 3.3), it doesn't look like a lot of variance, but it all compounds and there is no way to get that even spacing. 
 
(Please note:  I made an oops with the bow deck actual, the 8.1 should be 7.5)  

 
It took a while, but I finally figured out how to resolve.  The critical section is the cockpit and that distance measures 19mm at each bulkhead.  Since the planking is 5mm wide, I measured up from the top deck 14.5mm (0.5mm fudge factor) and marked off where the bottom of the first plank would line up with.  This line was carried forward to the bow deck and aft to the aft deck.  This will make more sense with pictures. 
 
This first photo shows how short the cockpit bulkheads are.  The first plank was glued on with an even spacing for the length of the entire deck.  (I wanted to raise this plank another couple of mm, but the bulkhead in the middle only half of the plank is attached to it.)    

 
Here's the bow and the even spacing continues, the top of the deck is 8" below the top of the plank.  The cap rail will add another 2".     

 
The fore deck and main deck

 
Well, it looks like I didn't need to add the extension to the transom!  The extension is 10mm and was planning to take it down to 3".  It's only 1/32" thick, so I will just leave it on and make adjustments with the thickness of the transom planking.
 

 
This may not seem like a big deal, but it will be a big deal when I start adding the inner planking.    
 
Thanks for stopping by and wading through this long post.
 
Dee Dee

Thank Crackers. 
This is the only project I have going.  
 
Eamonn
Yep, you're in from the Get Go!  Welcome aboard!
You are spot on the coquille is similar to the Galway and Kinsale Hooker.  So far, the major difference I see is the sides of hull on the Galway and Kinsale Hooker curve inboard, whilst the sides of the coquille are vertical.  Here are some prints from the Galway and Kinsale Hooker. 
 http://www.tradboats.ie/index.php

 

 
 
Sails?  Yes, I will be adding sails.  The coquille kit came with sails, but they are not the best quality, so I will make my own.          
 
 
Josh,  thanks for stopping by.  Hope the house hunting in the Big Easy is going well.  From New Jersey to the Big Easy, that is definitely a 'Culture Shock!'   The boats of the
 
Check out Russ' scratch build Biloxi Schooner.   
 
 
Thanks again for stopping by
 
Dee Dee  

And the build begins!
 
First part to be added to the false keel was the bow filler.  The leading edge was faired for added glue surface for the planking.
  
 
 
Bulkheads #3, 4 and 5 were added using blocks to keep them square.  The cockpit false decking is integrated with the 5th thru 9th bulkhead, so these were all fitted as one and then glued.   The false deck made it easy to make sure the bulkheads were square and level. 
 
The false decking has tabs that fit into #5 and #9 bulkheads.  

 
Forward false decking tab

 
Aft false decking tab

 
Cover photo from the kit box.  

 
 
Before I start the planking, I need to do some planning and make final decisions on the changes I want to make and when I need to make them. 
 
Thanks for stopping by, comments and suggestions are welcome. 
 
Dee Dee