vaddoc

Nice to see the little grey cells are still operating, Håkan. 
 
John

Edit: I wrote almost this entire post until the answer dawned on me... lets see if you catch it. I will continue this edit at the end.
 
Time for a question, or discussion if you like. And quite a lot of pictures.
It has to do with the stern buildup, rabbet and bearding line in combination with future planking.
In the screenshot below the text is quite unambiguous. "Siding: 440 in way of sterntube, to be streamlined aft of rabbet to rule siding 260".
The rabbet is clearly marked and the bearding line is sweeping down in gentle arcs.
 

 
However, the difference between the rule siding of 260 and then 440 is 180 mm, right? But the planking is only 65 mm, hence 130 mm for both sides. Is it really plausible to leave a gap of 25 mm on each side between the planking and the deadwood? The other members of the stern build has quite clearly their dimensions given, 310 mm.
 
Some pictures from the book to add to the equation.

 

 

 
And what I've filed down to so far.

 

 

 

 
I have penciled in the rabbet and bearding line. But it still puzzles me what to do with the gap of 25 mm. The planking will cut in to the deadwood for most of it thanks to the "streamlined to rule siding". But still. From the book I can't really see anything else either.
 
Edit: Well, the key-words are "aft of rabbet to rule siding 260". Because, forward of the sternpost the member has a siding of 310 mm, which deducted from 440 is...yes, 130 mm, which also by coincident equals the planking thickness. 
 
It is funny how you sometimes have to post pictures to see the imperfections (or areas of possible improvement) or, as in my case above, a tricky question, that turned out to be not so tricky. 
After all, its a tricky business trying to understand a 2D building plan and translate it to a three dimensional piece of timber.
Now, that I've solved this mystery it is back to the yard again. Ha!

Plodding along slowly. But better slowly than not at all.
Working on the stem build and details. Horse shoe on old ships, here a simpler form. Still, it takes some tries to get them right.
 
First, using the template as... template, cutting along the lines.

 
Then, no matter how big your bench is, it gets crowded in no time at all.

 
Here are the blanks for the plates. I cut the wide and filed down. Seems the most common approach, which also makes sense since the cutting with pliers distorts the pieces.

 
After some careful and tedious scraping the brass plate fits. Nailed in place with CA glue and copper rivets.

 
I plan on painting the hull according to the real vessel. Therefore I'm not too bothered about small imperfections or glue spots from CA.
 
Thanks for likes and shown interest in my build 🙂 
 
 

Håkan, you're going to need a bigger bench!
 
John

Hi all and thanks for likes and comments.
As I said, the stem is maid anew and then onto the stern part, aka deadwood.
Being the first time it is somewhat of a challenge to get the pieces to mate square and true. I give myself some fraction of a mm of leeway since it is a learning by doing experience.
The deadwood might look funny but the plan states clearly that the sternpost shall have a siding of 440 mm in way of prop tube to be faired down to 260 at keel and rabbet. 
 

 
This particular joint I glued three times before I got it right...

 
Not too shabby, if I say so myself 🙂 

 
Yes, this is about all my small clamps. Since the apple does not have straight grain the keel was a bit wavy. Gluing together with the false keel I hope to straighten it out a bit. All the rest will of course also help in keeping the keel straight and true.
I have a ruler between the keel and the level to have a straight edge and the level gives firm ground for clamping.

 
Next up will be more pieces aft and the finally putting the three items together.
 
Cheers!

Preface
§1 Expectation management
It will be quite some time before any sawdust is made here, probably not before late fall. If you wonder when that is, well, that is October where I’m located at about 58 degrees north. Maybe already in 2021...we will see…
 
§2 Pogress
To quote @mtaylor: “The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient."
For you as an audience, I urge you to stack up properly with fizzy drinks and popcorn, because this will take some time. However, there are a couple more boats I like to build down the line; hence this build will not take forever, hopefully.
 
§3 The builder - me
Just on the upside of half a century old, maintaining a full time day job, summer holidays spent sailing, managing five to seven kids (or actually young adults now) and half a handful of grand kids I will disappear from time to time. See §2.
 
§4 The captain is always right. Period.
 
§5 In the unlikely event that the Captain is wrong – refer to §4.
 
§6 The ship
When investing so much time and effort into any project there needs to be something that makes you “tick”. There is no shortage of plans and kits of almost any kind of ship. Af Chapman comes to mind, but he will appear later in my boat building career. We have a plethora of leisure crafts, mainly small. Our Swedish constructors didn’t draw them like Fifie of Scotland, GL Watson or NG  Herreshoff, the Wizard from Bristol RI.
 
My mind finally went for Atlantica.
 
Atlantica is a gaff rigged ketch of English smack heritage. Built in Denmark and launched 1980. The main mast is cutter rigged, meaning it has more than one head stay. It also has a bowsprit. More details and specifications for the ship, see below.
The ship is in full service today as a sail training vessel owned and maintained by SXK Seglarskola (SXK Sailing School) which is a sub-branch of the Swedish Cruising Association - SXK (Svenska Kryssarklubben).
More information about the Sailing School can be found here: http://www.sxkseglarskola.se/
 
The site is in Swedish but use Chrome browser and Google translate. The site translates really well. Needless to say I’m a member of said Cruising association and have know of Atlantica and her sisters for a long time.
 
§7 Type of ship – English smack
For some reason I’ve been attracted to this type of hull form, mostly known as a pilot cutter. It has a straight, almost vertical stem, a keel that slopes considerably from stem to stern, a large rudder and either a cut of transom or rounded one. The hull is quite narrow with one mast flying a gaff main sail and topsail. Add to that three headsails and a retractable bowsprit and it makes a handsome vessel.
 
The hull and sail area makes for a fast and seaworthy vessel, which was a demand for piloting. It was a race to get to the merchant ships, first come – first served, any day of the year in any weather.
 
The smack was used in dredging and fishing and was very similar in hull form to the pilot cutter because it also needed speed under sail. First, it takes speed to be able to tow the dredger. From what I’ve read it needs to be above 2 knots. Secondly, when fishing is done, the race was to get home first and land the best deals on the fish market.
 
As with any evolution the smack was not so big from the beginning but grew over time. When the boom grew too large they went from cutter rigged to be ketch rigged. However, as a type, they weren’t that big, usually under 75’ or ca 25 m length on deck.
 
In their hay-day at the end of 1880 the smacks were counted in thousands. 1887 there were just above 3000 registered smacks sailing out of Grimsby, Hull and Brixham. At the turn of the century Grimsby had only 34 left, Hull none.
 
What was the reason for the quick decline? The industrial revolution with steam powered boats swiftly killed the sail powered competition.
 
Back to sailing, a smack usually had a crew of four to five men and a boy, hence the boats could not grew too large.
·         The ships boy also with cooking duties. Signing on at 12 years of age. Apprentice for 5 to 7 years. Did not get paid usually.
·         Deck hand, also an apprentice. Had some pay, but not much.
·         Third hand, an able seaman that was given responsible for watches alone.
·         First mate, captains right hand. Could take full responsible for the ship.
·         Master, or captain. Answered only to God when at sea and when in port answered to the ship owner.
 
§8 The ship – Atlantica
The name is from one of the sponsors, an insurance company. She is built on the lines of her sister ship Gratitude, albeit a fair bit bigger. Again, see http://www.sxkseglarskola.se/ and menu item “Fartygen”. Gratitude is the real deal. She originates from Lowestoft, after her fishing career sold to Sweden and rebuild for cargo carrying.
 
Atlantica, main specifcations
Length on deck: 85’ or 26,2 m
Length on spars: -
Breadth moulded:  20½’ or 6,27 m
Breadth extreme: 21’ or 6,4 m
Depth: 10½’ or 3,2 m
Sail area: 5810 sqf or 540 sqm
Displacement: 134 tonnes
No of bunks: 32
Building material: oak on oak with laid deck of keruing
 
§9 Plans and other sources
In short - a book and a bunch of PDFs’.
 
Why, or where I got the book I can’t remember. I used it to spice up the hull of Regina (see my signature), my previous build back in early 1990, that I know.
The book is in all essential a build log but in printed format and from 1980 well before internet forums. It is full of b/w images and short descriptions to each picture.

 

 
What about plans then? Yes, after a fairly short search I was directed to a fellow model builder. He was involved in the process of the Atlantica build and had gained access to all relevant plans as scanned to PDF. He sent me the lot free of charge! To show my gratitude I donated a sum for the new main mast of Gratitude. The mast came tumbling down when out on an autumn sail this last fall. No one was hurt and not too much damage either bar the mast.
With the help of CAD I have already started to draft the ship. I use Wayne Kempsons’ treatise on “Drafting ship plans in CAD” as a guide. See https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/DraftingShipPlansInCAD.pdf
 
For the actual layout I will look at the plans from EdTs’ book Naiad.
 
§10 It feels good to end the preface in double figures
Tools and equipment might be of interest. At the moment I do not own a miniature table saw, no small lathe or a fancy milling station.
 
But what I do have is a full size jointer, a full size planer, a full size (2 m) band saw, full size table saw that can take blades of 12” diameter, a wood lathe and a drill press. The lathe can be converted to a disc sander and a thickness sander and for the table saw I will source some thin blade, probably 1,5 mm to try to mill delicate planks. Fall back solution will be a fine tooth blade for the band saw and then a couple of runs through the thickness sander. In the future I might buy me a Proxxon table saw since the Byrnes one is out of reach with VAT and shipping. Until then I’ll make do with what I have.
 
In addition to that I have a cupboard of ordinary carpenters hand tools.
So it will be down to basic skills and a lot of trial and errors during this build.
 
Let the work begin!
 
 
Index
1. Plans and drafting
1.1. Preparing for lofting frames
1.2. Frame lofting party
 
 

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Dear friends
 
Planking is finished! But what a difficult boat to plank!
 
With great difficulty I managed to scrape a few moments here and there to work on the boat. My 3D plans I am pretty sure are correct, but I think they did not transfer that well to wood as some of the lines looked a bit wrong. In any case, with a lot of eyeballing and using the 80 - 20 rule, it all came together. But it was not easy!
 
It is not only that the planks need to bend and more importantly twist a lot, it is also that the largest distance keel to sheer is near the bow and not midships. On top of this, batens cannot really be used due to the very curved bow. The scarfs also made a fair plank curve difficult. That was a mountain to climb. 
 
My planking I think is more or less correct but if I was to build this boat again, I would change the run of the planks a bit at the bow.  A few photos:







Perhaps the planks could end a bit lower at the bow but I do not think this is too significant, there is plenty of room.
Another issue is that gaps have appeared between the planks. The wood database mentions that beech has large movement in service and indeed, the planks have shrunk considerably after they reached their moisture balance.
I will use filler but I cannot sand the hull just yet, the screws need to go which means all the ribs need to be installed, the temporary frames to be removed and all the screws exchanged for tree nails.
 
So we now move on to the next stage: steam bending ribs! And also making a few thousand tree nails...
I started cutting parts of the frames to open up the space



This is as far as I was able to get, at least I managed to not go into hibernation.  But I am really sorry I have not been able to keep up with your logs and updates. 
 
Till next time
My very best wishes to all
 
Vaddoc
 

Dear all
 
Many thanks for your likes and comments.
@BobG Yes Bob, for the scales I work at 1mm screws are fantastic. They hold things accurately and securely, can be removed and hole filled with tree nail. I ve used many thousands so far, go for stainless steel to avoid head rounding off.
 
Modelling has slowed down as other priorities have stepped in. One is family, wife and two daughters 5 and 7. Work (of course) but also a need to increase physical fitness. During lockdown I put on a lot of weight that really started to affect me and something had to be done.
So, spare time went to Tae kwon Do, cycling, gym etc. It did work, along side a sensible diet and I am 14 kg lighter - about 31 pounds and much fitter. Still a bit more to go though!
 
Now, modelling has slowed down for two other reasons. One has been the very low temperatures, my garage at -1 C is pretty unpleasant. The other reason was that things have become more complex and difficult. Repair/restoration is much more difficult.
I ended up taking more planks off, more than the photos bellow show, to correct gaps or defects but also because their shape was a bit off, collectively changing the run of the planking. The two plank halves had to be split as the aft part can be reused for some of the planks, Isopropyl alcohol dissolved PVA very effectively.
 



I used the existing planks to re-arrange the run of all the other planks. This time I must stick to the markings, even if the planks end up with pigtail shapes.


I hope the new markings will give a better plank run, we ll see
 
Till next time
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Many thanks for your likes and comments.
@BobG Yes Bob, for the scales I work at 1mm screws are fantastic. They hold things accurately and securely, can be removed and hole filled with tree nail. I ve used many thousands so far, go for stainless steel to avoid head rounding off.
 
Modelling has slowed down as other priorities have stepped in. One is family, wife and two daughters 5 and 7. Work (of course) but also a need to increase physical fitness. During lockdown I put on a lot of weight that really started to affect me and something had to be done.
So, spare time went to Tae kwon Do, cycling, gym etc. It did work, along side a sensible diet and I am 14 kg lighter - about 31 pounds and much fitter. Still a bit more to go though!
 
Now, modelling has slowed down for two other reasons. One has been the very low temperatures, my garage at -1 C is pretty unpleasant. The other reason was that things have become more complex and difficult. Repair/restoration is much more difficult.
I ended up taking more planks off, more than the photos bellow show, to correct gaps or defects but also because their shape was a bit off, collectively changing the run of the planking. The two plank halves had to be split as the aft part can be reused for some of the planks, Isopropyl alcohol dissolved PVA very effectively.
 



I used the existing planks to re-arrange the run of all the other planks. This time I must stick to the markings, even if the planks end up with pigtail shapes.


I hope the new markings will give a better plank run, we ll see
 
Till next time
Vaddoc

Oh dear. One step forward, many steps backwards!
But first thing's first. Many thanks to all for your comments and likes!
 
Jan 6: I continued with the planking. I fitted the next plank which was wildly off. Still, I heated it up and fixed in place, to be sanded to shape later on. This is when I eyeballed the planks and thought: "Something is wrong".


Jan 7: I tidied up the shipyard! 

And then continued with the planking. With some aggressive sanding, the plank fitted fine:

Something was not right though. The plank had a funny S shape at the stem, did not look fair at all. Also, the general run of the planks is rising too acutely at the bow. Due to the very rounded shape of the bow, it should be a much more subtle rise, following the shape of the sheer to a degree. Something is not correct. See how after the last frame, the plank goes horizontal-this is wrong.

At the most forward frames, the planks should rise a bit higher before meeting the stem.




Jan 8: It is not possible to proceed with the planking. Something is really wrong. There is too much space to be covered at the first 3 frames, the planks do not have a fair run and become too thick near the stem, there is not enough space at the stem and it seems that the sheer should be going a bit higher at the stem - despite the CAD saying otherwise.
 
Even following the current markings which are probably wrong, I have made this plank too narrow.


This plank is clearly wrong. The next plank would need to be very thick at the bow to close the gap.

I thought it would be ok having this plank a bit more narrow - wrong!

Despite these concerns, I went ahead and made the next plank on both sides. The shape looks properly wrong!

I tried to re-arrange the plank widths at the stem but I could feel the main issue was elsewhere.

The new plank fitted in place. Looks absolutely horrible.


It is very obvious that the previous plank is cut too narrow near the bow and is too thick at frames 6, 5 4 & 3.

There is also this very ugly massive gap at the plank further down. Not sure how this opened up but it is not really acceptable.

So decision taken: one plank from port side and two from strarboard need to come out. Here they are:



This was painful but necessary. I should be able to salvage the aft parts of the planks and make again the scarfs.
 
January 10: I redid the run of the planks again. I tried to make them equal width but my primary concern was to have a more pleasant run and to follow the sheer. I think it looks ok. The bow is so curved that it is very difficult to use battens and to eyeball the hull.




Comparing the new with the old markings (not too clear on the photo), it is clear some of the frame were way off.

So here is where we are now. I think the contralateral plank will need to be removed also.

So next: transfer the markings to the other side, quite possibly remove the port plank, fill the screw holes and continue with the planking, hopefully I ll be able to salvage the aft halves of the planks.
This is a very difficult boat to plank!
 
Have a great new year everyone!
 
Vaddoc

Brian, Gary and to all that hit the like button - many thanks!
Indeed, thankfully the family seems to be on the mend.
 
Planking continues at a very slow pace. I thought the bow end of the planks would get easier as I get closer to the sheer but this is not the case, it is still difficult to get the shape right and convince the planks to bend and twist. 20 seconds in boiling water though does miracles, beech really responds superbly to wet heat.
 
A few photos, still some way to go.



 

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Dear friends
 
Planking is finished! But what a difficult boat to plank!
 
With great difficulty I managed to scrape a few moments here and there to work on the boat. My 3D plans I am pretty sure are correct, but I think they did not transfer that well to wood as some of the lines looked a bit wrong. In any case, with a lot of eyeballing and using the 80 - 20 rule, it all came together. But it was not easy!
 
It is not only that the planks need to bend and more importantly twist a lot, it is also that the largest distance keel to sheer is near the bow and not midships. On top of this, batens cannot really be used due to the very curved bow. The scarfs also made a fair plank curve difficult. That was a mountain to climb. 
 
My planking I think is more or less correct but if I was to build this boat again, I would change the run of the planks a bit at the bow.  A few photos:







Perhaps the planks could end a bit lower at the bow but I do not think this is too significant, there is plenty of room.
Another issue is that gaps have appeared between the planks. The wood database mentions that beech has large movement in service and indeed, the planks have shrunk considerably after they reached their moisture balance.
I will use filler but I cannot sand the hull just yet, the screws need to go which means all the ribs need to be installed, the temporary frames to be removed and all the screws exchanged for tree nails.
 
So we now move on to the next stage: steam bending ribs! And also making a few thousand tree nails...
I started cutting parts of the frames to open up the space



This is as far as I was able to get, at least I managed to not go into hibernation.  But I am really sorry I have not been able to keep up with your logs and updates. 
 
Till next time
My very best wishes to all
 
Vaddoc
 

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Another quick update
 
I started steaming and installing the ribs. As expected, beech responded wonderfully to wet heat becoming as pliable as boiled spaghetti. My steam box is working great and in no time I had bent half of the ribs.



I made a simple spacer to make sure the rib is placed at equal distances from the frames


Then I started screwing the ribs to the planks. 


Regards
Vaddoc

Hi @Gregory
I do not come across any specific information, but these are my thoughts:
Probably transoms were made from a few pieces, edge to edge like the planking but thicker. It is much easier to find very wide short segments so maybe it would only take 3 pieces to make a Transom. Most of the transom is well above the water line so no caulking would be needed. I do not think any particular framing would be needed as usually there would be a sternpost or at least a knee, and also the planking, to keep the transom securely in place. In the boat I am building, each transom piece would be nailed to three planks on each side.
In more modern larger vessels, on top of the sternpost there are extra pieces of timber as the photo bellow shows. This would be easy enough to use also for boats and would result to a very strong transom. However in "The boats of men-of-war" by May, for a 22 ft long boat it states:
Transom: Broad or moulded at the upper part 3ft 9 in, thick or sided 3 inch, knees sided 2 3/4 in. 
No mention of framing.

Hi @Gregory
I do not come across any specific information, but these are my thoughts:
Probably transoms were made from a few pieces, edge to edge like the planking but thicker. It is much easier to find very wide short segments so maybe it would only take 3 pieces to make a Transom. Most of the transom is well above the water line so no caulking would be needed. I do not think any particular framing would be needed as usually there would be a sternpost or at least a knee, and also the planking, to keep the transom securely in place. In the boat I am building, each transom piece would be nailed to three planks on each side.
In more modern larger vessels, on top of the sternpost there are extra pieces of timber as the photo bellow shows. This would be easy enough to use also for boats and would result to a very strong transom. However in "The boats of men-of-war" by May, for a 22 ft long boat it states:
Transom: Broad or moulded at the upper part 3ft 9 in, thick or sided 3 inch, knees sided 2 3/4 in. 
No mention of framing.

Hi @Gregory
I do not come across any specific information, but these are my thoughts:
Probably transoms were made from a few pieces, edge to edge like the planking but thicker. It is much easier to find very wide short segments so maybe it would only take 3 pieces to make a Transom. Most of the transom is well above the water line so no caulking would be needed. I do not think any particular framing would be needed as usually there would be a sternpost or at least a knee, and also the planking, to keep the transom securely in place. In the boat I am building, each transom piece would be nailed to three planks on each side.
In more modern larger vessels, on top of the sternpost there are extra pieces of timber as the photo bellow shows. This would be easy enough to use also for boats and would result to a very strong transom. However in "The boats of men-of-war" by May, for a 22 ft long boat it states:
Transom: Broad or moulded at the upper part 3ft 9 in, thick or sided 3 inch, knees sided 2 3/4 in. 
No mention of framing.

Dear friends
 
Planking is finished! But what a difficult boat to plank!
 
With great difficulty I managed to scrape a few moments here and there to work on the boat. My 3D plans I am pretty sure are correct, but I think they did not transfer that well to wood as some of the lines looked a bit wrong. In any case, with a lot of eyeballing and using the 80 - 20 rule, it all came together. But it was not easy!
 
It is not only that the planks need to bend and more importantly twist a lot, it is also that the largest distance keel to sheer is near the bow and not midships. On top of this, batens cannot really be used due to the very curved bow. The scarfs also made a fair plank curve difficult. That was a mountain to climb. 
 
My planking I think is more or less correct but if I was to build this boat again, I would change the run of the planks a bit at the bow.  A few photos:







Perhaps the planks could end a bit lower at the bow but I do not think this is too significant, there is plenty of room.
Another issue is that gaps have appeared between the planks. The wood database mentions that beech has large movement in service and indeed, the planks have shrunk considerably after they reached their moisture balance.
I will use filler but I cannot sand the hull just yet, the screws need to go which means all the ribs need to be installed, the temporary frames to be removed and all the screws exchanged for tree nails.
 
So we now move on to the next stage: steam bending ribs! And also making a few thousand tree nails...
I started cutting parts of the frames to open up the space



This is as far as I was able to get, at least I managed to not go into hibernation.  But I am really sorry I have not been able to keep up with your logs and updates. 
 
Till next time
My very best wishes to all
 
Vaddoc
 

Dear friends
 
Planking is finished! But what a difficult boat to plank!
 
With great difficulty I managed to scrape a few moments here and there to work on the boat. My 3D plans I am pretty sure are correct, but I think they did not transfer that well to wood as some of the lines looked a bit wrong. In any case, with a lot of eyeballing and using the 80 - 20 rule, it all came together. But it was not easy!
 
It is not only that the planks need to bend and more importantly twist a lot, it is also that the largest distance keel to sheer is near the bow and not midships. On top of this, batens cannot really be used due to the very curved bow. The scarfs also made a fair plank curve difficult. That was a mountain to climb. 
 
My planking I think is more or less correct but if I was to build this boat again, I would change the run of the planks a bit at the bow.  A few photos:







Perhaps the planks could end a bit lower at the bow but I do not think this is too significant, there is plenty of room.
Another issue is that gaps have appeared between the planks. The wood database mentions that beech has large movement in service and indeed, the planks have shrunk considerably after they reached their moisture balance.
I will use filler but I cannot sand the hull just yet, the screws need to go which means all the ribs need to be installed, the temporary frames to be removed and all the screws exchanged for tree nails.
 
So we now move on to the next stage: steam bending ribs! And also making a few thousand tree nails...
I started cutting parts of the frames to open up the space



This is as far as I was able to get, at least I managed to not go into hibernation.  But I am really sorry I have not been able to keep up with your logs and updates. 
 
Till next time
My very best wishes to all
 
Vaddoc