Oostends schipje by G.L. - scale 1:20 - Ostend shrimper - first POF - Edition 2

[G.L.]

6.7

The hull has strong curves at the front and the back. It will not be possible to glue the wale (3 mm thick oak) without giving some shape to it.

I make the wale wet, take it with two pincers and bend it, moving it slowly back and forth above a candle flame. Slowly it keeps the curve.

 

[G.L.]

6.8

At the stern side the plank must not only been bent, it has also to be wrenched.

I do it also above the candle flame.

The result is a wale that has more or less the shape in which it must been attached to the frames.

[G.L.]

6.9

The wale is glued at starboard side and at portside.

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by G.L.

[G.L.]

6.10

The result.

[G.L.]

6.11

The second plank is again a challenge. The upper edge of the wale was straight, that is not more the case for all the following planks. To determine the upper shape of the following plank I tape a piece of tracing paper to the hull. I brush past the sharp under edge of the wale with a pencil, marking the edge on the tracing paper. I mark also the middle line of my reference frames. With a pair of compasses I take the width of the plank on the marked frames and bring them over to the corresponding frame lines on the tracing paper. Connecting the width marks I obtain the lower profile of the plank.

 

[G.L.]

6.12

Sawing, sanding and gluing the plank at its place is very similar as described  in my previous posts. Here  some pictures of the results:

 

[G.L.]

6.13

With two planks at both sides, the hull has enough strength to remove the supports. Now the inside hull is accessible. Time to make and place the mast step.

[G.L.]

6.14

Now there is still space between the frames, I place the lower deck beams. They lay parallel with the waterlines, with two small planks at both sides of the keel it is easy to attach them to the frames at the correct height.

[G.L.]

6.15

Planking can go on now.

[G.L.]

6.16

The space between the frames becomes a bit cramped to use  clamps to hold the planks in place. Therefore I nail the planks on the frames with predrilled holes. I drill the holes in the locations where afterwards should be a tree nail. To prevent the fragile frames for breaking when I hammer the nails I use a stick in the bench vise as a prop.

[G.L.]

6.17

The hull gradually fills up. After each layer of planks I mark with a pencil the position of the frames to know afterwards where to put tree nails.

[G.L.]

6.18

Only one layer left to place. As can be seen on the picture, the port side will not be fully planked to keep the inside structure of the vessel visible.

[G.L.]

6.19

It took me 2 afternoons to tree nail the whole hull. Now my boat looks like hedgehog.

[G.L.]

6.20

After another afternoon of sanding down...

[G.L.]

Part 7: Deck gear preparations and sand band

7.1

Some parts of the deck gear like the jib boom support and the fishing winch continue below the deck till the bottom of the vessel. I make their bottom pieces now. I leave them longer than needed. Later, when the deck beams are in place, they can be sawn at the correct  height.

[G.L.]

7.2

The under part of the keel of the shrimper was protected by a steel sand band. To make it I solder some brass strips to each other to form a long band. I file the front and after side round.

157.bmp

[G.L.]

7.3

I drill holes for nails on regular distances. In the bottom side I deepen the holes with a drill of the diameter of the nail heads because I want them to be sunk in the sand band.

[G.L.]

7.4

I want to blacken them with oxidant. It succeeds easy for the nails but the sand band obstinately keeps its brass color even after being coated several times with oxidant. I hope that it will become darker when I color the hull.

[G.L.]

7.5

Time to make a last measurement.

[G.L.]

7.6

The sand band is nailed to the keel.

[Mirabell61]

Hi G.L.

 

beautiful work on the planking, I very much like that you are planking in oak, it looks very authentic, it gives the character of a real working ship. Well done !

 

Nils

[G.L.]

11 hours ago, Mirabell61 said:

Hi G.L.

 

beautiful work on the planking, I very much like that you are planking in oak, it looks very authentic, it gives the character of a real working ship. Well done !

 

Nils

Thank you Nils.

Oak is a satisfactory wood to work with. I am also satisfied of the result. I was the first time I planked a hull.

 

G.L.

[G.L.]

Part 8: Lower deck and upper deck structure

8.1

My shrimper has two thick strakes.

164.bmp

[G.L.]

8.2

I glue the strakes onto the frames using clamps.

[G.L.]

8.3

The finished thick strakes.

[G.L.]

8.4

It is about time to think about the interior of the boat. I have only one contemporary sketch of how the vessel might look like. The sketch is now very precise. For example the crew shelter in the forecastle is not to scale at all. On my model I measure an average headroom of 1.2 meter, but the sketch shows al spacious cabin with two bunks behind each other. If I convert them to the real space I dispose of, I have such a small bunks that if they should lay me in it, I would never get out of them anymore.

167.bmp

[G.L.]

8.5

I try to redraw the interior arrangement of the boat to a more practicable version which sticks as much as possible to what is drawn on the sketch.

[G.L.]

8.6

For the interior work, I start with the deck beam shelves. First I mark the level of their topside by laying a lath from wale to wale. Holding a small piece of wood that has the altitude of a deck beam below the lath, I mark the inner side of each frame with a pencil line.

[G.L.]

8.7

I saw the deck beam shelves as straight bars and soak them for a half an hour in water. Then I slowly bend them with the help of clamps to the to the curve of the model in the position where they have to come.

[G.L.]

8.8

I dry them with a hair dryer and they keep more or less their curved shape. The shelves will be a little bit sunk in the frames, therefore I mark the positions on the frames on the bars (no picture of that).