Kågen (Cog, kaeg) by Wintergreen - FINISHED - 1:30 - Swedish clinker built work boat - SMALL

[paulsutcliffe]

Nice job though on the planning hakan

Particularly like all the c**p behind in the picture ha!!!!!

Regards

Paul

[Jim Lad]

Still coming along nicely, Håkan.  I wonder if you're cutting down the top sides of your planks just a little too much near the ends, thus having the accumulated error resulting in the effect that you see in your hull?

 

John

[SJSoane]

Håkan,

That first photo shows just how complex the bevel must be to roll from clinker to carvel at the rabbet. Well done.

Mark

 

 

[Wintergreen]

Again, thanks for likes and comments!

Just a quick status update here.

 

Paul - I dislike cleaning just as much as my teenagers. It's done on a need to-basis. Not before.

 

John - that is also my conclusion. Not that the planks are cut down, but the curve too wide. Tapering needs to start from the 2nd station going forward and dito aft. Otherwise there will be this build-up that my hull shows.

 

8th row in place and I think it is time to do the restart. At the stern it is clearly visible that the planks don't meet in height. Otherwise I am surprised over my accomplishment in this build. I never thought it would come this far without a mental break-down somewhere along the way. 

The weather forecast looks promising for shop time and not so much for varnishing on the 1:1. A fair bit below zero coming week.

Lets see where that takes me in this.

 

To be continued...

[gsdpic]

Really cool build.  Looks as much like a piece of sculpture as a boat.  I'll follow along the rest of the way...

 

[Wintergreen]

So, there he was, peacefully cutting pieces for a new mould. Everything was in order and the "flow" was with him.
Sanding bulkheads, cutting slots and all. Dry fitted every bulkhead on the backbone to see it was a reasonably tight fit.
When all slots were cut (nice fit all over) and a closer inspection was carried out it dawn on the builder that, somehow, someone, had cut slots in the backbone to the wrong side of the station line. Leaving no option to sand a bevel on any bulkhead, bar no 5, which is the deadflat one.

Well, it was time for coffee anyway...

 

Returning to the shop the builder carefully cut a new backbone. Carefully cut new slots to receive bulkheads, this time slots were cut on correct side of station lines. Nice fit all together. Dry-fitting. Needed a square block for gluing parts together.
Finding clamps and on went Titebond. One in place, square and all. No 5 it was. Looked for 4 or 6 as next option only to realize that no 5 still was resting on the tabletop... quickly eased pieces apart and decided it was time to call it a day...

To be continued...

[Jim Lad]

Oops!  We all do it, mate! 

 

John

[KeithAug]

Oh dear, sometimes life is such a trial. 

[vaddoc]

Yes we ve all been there. I remember spending days to laminate and sand a stem in 1:12, only to realise I had sanded the wrong side...

Looking at your photos again Hakan, it looks like the garboard needs to rise very little in the bow and be quite narrow and that in the original boat, the bottom planks are heavily spilled to achieve this wide beam.

Why don't you try using battens? You can divide the frame in maximum beam to get the widths, as you have done, but the battens also will allow for a fair curve and also will show you where the planks should lie in the rest of the frames and you ll be able to define the start and finish points at the bow/stern. You could use light black fishing line to see how things work and then use card to get the patterns.

 

Just an example

 

 

Regards

 

[Wintergreen]

Vaddoc, you are quite right.

 

I did try both with battens and lines, but the hull is so small and it all was too fiddly at the time. Maybe I give it another go later. Will see.

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

Hi Hakan,

       Looking forward to your second try, but from what I see she's gonna look really nice. Your planking skills are v

VERY good.

[Wintergreen]

So, for what it's worth, here goes...

During a return trip from my parents the Admiral and I talked about why I only seem to do small work during the holiday season every two or three years and not continually through the year?

We pinpointed a couple of things,

one - there is always something big to handle/renovate/build

and two - most significant - my pathological inability to keep the "boat yard" sacred and free from stuff (be it paint tins, rags, general crap or whatever).

 

So, now that most of the work is done on the big boat (aka my 36" blue water sailboat) and on the house, I decided to straighten myself up for the last shivering days of 2020 and on wards.

 

Let me present "the Yard" after an hour or so cleaning and rubbing off old stains and varnish drops and all kind of goey stuff!

But, and there is a small "but" - don't expect miracles, please.

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Wintergreen

[bolin]

Nice to see you back at the yard. It looks nice and clean. Ready for many hours of joyful modeling.

 

Looking forward for the continuation of Kågen!

[mtaylor]

Great to see you back and at the bench, Hakan.    Old habits are hard to break, like keeping the work area spotless.  

[vaddoc]

I was hoping you 'd pick this up again Hakan! Have fun building your model, I ll be watching from the back rows.

 

Vaddoc

[Mike Y]

Hope now you will spend more hours in your cozy work area  Glad that you are back to this build!

[Wintergreen]

Guys, thanks for the encouragement! Much appreciated 🙂

 

You are all very polite also... in my previous post I mentioned my "big" blue water sailboat. Not being used to the imperial notations I got the quotes wrong. 36" = 3 feet is not very big 😮 of course it should have read 36' (just above 11 metres). Well, cudos to you who didn't rub it in 🙂 

 

There has actually been progress.

In the first attempt 3 yrs ago I didn't get the run of the planks where I wanted.

Back to the drawing board and mark out the runs, then another printout of the bulkheads. 

In this first picture you can se the template held in place and on it shady grey lines marking every strake. Consequently I marked every strake on every bulkhead.

 

My pencil scribblings are not exact but at least somewhere close to where the planks should be.

After a couple of days work I've managed to get the yard "busy". Only with modelling paraphernalia mind you 😉

 

A progress shot. The black rubber thingies are bicycling tubes spending there afterlife as hold-me-downs. The old rubber bands had gone bust but the glue was okay, though it required some heavy excavating of the nozzle.

 

And this is where I end this post today with a couple of strakes in place. Carefully sanded to shape. At this stage it does not differ very much from my first try. Moment of truth will be three of fours strakes later.

 

 

Cheers for now!

[vaddoc]

This is a good start Hakan. The 2 planks look good, I think you are planning for 9 planks a side. Interesting to see how they ll run.

 

By the way, our aging eyes have trouble distinguishing ' from " in a 14 inch laptop, "blue water" though we did get! Come on, show us the boat!

 

Regards

EG

 

 

[Wintergreen]

The boat will have 11 planks. Originally the lower 10 were out of pine and the topmost was in white oak.

 

The boat you say Vaddoc?

Of course!

A couple of pictures from this summer when we sailed in Stockholm archipelago together with five other boats of same designer.

Our boat is a OE36 from 1980. We've had it since aug 2015 and are only 2nd owner.

For those who know boats it bears a resemblance with the first Swan 36. Why so you may wonder?

OE stands for Olle Enderlein, a Swedish yacht designer in his prime from 1960:ies well into the 1980:ies. Olle studied yacht design at Sparksman & Stevens and Olin & co at S&S designed the Swan36 sometime in the 60:ies. Olle carried S&S ideas with him when he designed the OE36 1968.

Around 150 OE36 were built from 1969 to 1982:ish. Ours is no 117.

 

No modelling today since I've been at said boat to fix things.

 

 

[vaddoc]

Very nice Hakan! Seems to carry a lot of sails too. Yes, I would think maintenance should keep you busy year round!

Back to your model, you still have 9 planks to squeeze in your bow and stern. This second plank looks a bit wide but maybe it is the angle of the photo. Very interested to see how it will turn out, as I have two boats almost ready to be planked-one carvel, the other clinker.

 

Vaddoc

[Wintergreen]

2 hours ago, vaddoc said:

Very interested to see how it will turn out

I am too!

The actual width of the planks at stem and stern are quite accurately scaled down from the original. The first is 11" and the 2nd is 15½" real world dimensions. In my model they are actually a little shy of those measurements. Subsequent planks will be wider midships and narrower at stem and stern as per the original. Still, it is a challenge to get it "right".

[Wintergreen]

Some more progress today. 

 

Two more strakes at each side. I found that if I could be a little patient it payed out to do and fit the planks in pairs. Well, constantly learning or finding small tricks along the way.

 

And last picture for this side of new years. May 2021 come with less panic and more content! 

One could always make a pun about "to infinity and beyond" 😉 

 

Happy New year everyone!

A small note on the progress. I am not completely doen with the fourth strake shown in above image. Still need to eyeball the run at stem and stern. But the strakes basically meets the timbers where they're supposed to.

[Wintergreen]

What a good start to 2021! First a hard session on the bicycle trainer and then boat building 🙂 

(Not to mention the American pancakes with crunchy peanut butter, bacon and maple syrup for lunch 😁)

 

Thanks for the Likes also! Always good for the mind and spirit.

 

Anyway, today I think I have found the key to a smooth clinker built hull. It appears that, at a specific angle the strake should appear straight leding in to stem or stern. At all other angles the strake is far from straight on the other hand.

Pictures below will explain. 

IF the strakes are trimmed to appear straight leading in to stem or stern the shape falls into place, so to speak.

2nd attempt now has 6 strakes done. For comparison the 1st attempt is shown as well.

 

2nd attempt, straight line. Bow view.

 

1st attempt, not so straight. Stern view.

 

From another angle, 2nd attempt. Bow view.

 

And 1st attempt from another angle, appears not so different from 2nd attempt. Bow view.

 

And finally side by side. Sorry for the focus on the 4x4 in the background...

Quite different looking hulls from this perspective. Stern view.

 

 

[Wintergreen]

Since progress is painfully slow I thought I could post my way of planking.

As with Windows operating system there are at least 3-4 other ways to accomplish the same, but this works for me.

 

1. The upper 5-6 strakes are equal in width and to determine that width simply use a bit of tape. Mark where the sheer is and where last plank is.
2. Use a proportional divider (or simply measure and divide the math way) set at number of strakes (5 in this case).
3. Transfer dividend to paper and then on to divider of choice. I don't like the idea of using the prop divider as anything else than what it's aimed for therefore a sturdy divider is chosen.
4. Mark each edge on bulkhead. Then repeat for all other bulkheads, or every other or just eyeball it. Depends on what accuracy you aim for. In my case I marked two more bulkheads and then eyeballed the rest.
5. Tape again. Transfer marks from mould to tape. The orthogonal mark is where the plank should end.
6. Trace marks and rough cut the plank. After some fiddling about to get accurate shape, use first plank as template for its mate on the other side.
7. I wet the planks for less than a minute then clamp in place. Wait to dry and finally glue in place.
8. Repeat.

 

And some pictures to be a bit more graphical about it.

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

6.

 

7.

 

8.

 

Will post again when I think I have something to share or show.

Enjoy your Saturday!

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Wintergreen

[bolin]

19 hours ago, Wintergreen said:

Anyway, today I think I have found the key to a smooth clinker built hull. It appears that, at a specific angle the strake should appear straight leding in to stem or stern. At all other angles the strake is far from straight on the other hand.

 

 

An interesting observation. I did check against my two current clinker hulls and the one that is best (the long-ship) shows the same symmetry. The sloop deviates slightly, but on that one I made some mistakes when determining the width of the strokes.

[vaddoc]

Much better run of the planks the second time!

 

A few observations from my studying of lapstrake: that might interest you:

 

1. Due to the shape boats have, an illusion of a flat sheer at the bow can be created. To avoid this, some times it is good to have an "exaggerated sheer" at the bow.

2. Generally the garboard should not rise too much at the stem. Some times though if it does, it pushes the rest of the strakes higher at the stem so the planks have a more pleasing curved run.

3. The strakes at the maximum curvature of the hull should be less wide, to accommodate the curve. Also, looking from the side the planks bellow the waterline are viewed at an angle so can be made wider as they will appear more narrow to the eye. (the hull is quite straight there as well)

4. The sheer strake will not have the overlap but will be covered by the rub rail so the width needs to be adjusted accordingly

5. After the initial marking, a 2x2 mm strip can be used to mark the position of the edge of the plank on the rest of the frames ensuring a fair curve. A 2x4 can also be used and will show how much the plank needs to be spilled, the less well it sits on the frames, the more spilling will be needed.

 

Indeed, the hull ultimately needs to be eyeballed. I have noticed the same, that if the strakes appear somewhat straight when installed, they won't be far off.

 

Looking good Hakan, carry on

 

Regards

Vaddoc

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by vaddoc

[Wintergreen]

Thanks guys for shown interest.

Bolin, cool that my finding was somewhat applicable to your builds.

 

Vaddoc, thanks for sharing your insights.

Re no1. Yes, it is very subtle what defines the "handsomeness" of a boat. 

Re no2. This build follows that of a replica. Seen here is the hull exiting the workshop. Stem first. It's a prominent feature that the garboard and 2nd & 3rd planks are quite wide while the upper planks are a lot narrower. 

 

Re no3 & 4. Absolutely, I'm with you on those.

Re no5. As I mentioned in my post, you may accomplish the same result with a different approach 😉 

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up.  That planking is looking very neat.

 

John

[wefalck]

Me also missed this interesting project so far. Building clinker boats has always fascinated me. To date, I have only one small-scale specimen (downscaled from the paper model in Eric McKee's 1979 brochure on clinker planking) to my record.

 

Will be watching this now with interest.

[Wintergreen]

Wefalck, you are most welcome! There is coffee and biscuits in the back and free seats up front.

 

Planking is progressing nicely. Takes time and a crazy sharp chisel to get it right, or at least descent looking.

Yesterday I was aiming to get rounds 9 and 10 in place, but after a hizzy-fit (i.e. small mental breakdown) where startboard front plank came off with a rush I decided against that goal and called it a day. Round 9 was in place though.

 

On the replica build the sheer plank is in white oak, while all other planking is in pine. Therefore I will do the sheer plank in apple, which the center line is also made of. A slab is put into picture to show its "raw" form.

 

Some cutting, planing, more planing and then ripping. The pine piece is there just to get some distance between the blade and fence.

 

The ripped piece is ca 1.5 mm thick, hence over to my home made thickness sander to get it down to just shy of 1 mm.

I guess apple is a little like pear with not to prominent structure. Birch, which is used for the planking is known to bend well, but apple I didn't know about. A small test was made, and well, there will not be any problems with bending apple...

 

Finally so round 10 is in place. One round to go... 

In preparation for fitting out, which I intend to do with the boat right side up a slipway is under construction.

Base is some scrap white oak glued together.

The screws are just tapped directly into the base, no nut or so. If not abused, tapping threads in wood holds surprisingly well.

To finalize the slip some kind of end support needs to be figured out. Will google around here on MSW to see what ideas can be useful.

 

Last pic for today. I am fairly satisfied with the planking. Actually, this is the best lapstrake/clinker planking I've ever done! Well, to be honest, it is the only clinker planking I've done bar the first attempt, which was never ment to be more than just an "attempt".

 

Tomorrow is bank holiday and after that my free time diminishes to that of regular, working people.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by Wintergreen