Beginner Question on Skeg Planking

[PopJack]

I promise I have looked everywhere for an answer on this.  Please feel free to just direct me. 

 

I am on my second small boat (Mare Nostrum and 1980's Swift) that has a pronounced skeg.  I am not sure how these should be planked.  Some builders seem to warp the first layer planking and keep the garboard strake along the very bottom of the keel including the skeg.  The tutorials that show a skeg, however, show the first layer of planking ending at the base of the skeg and the skeg un-planked.  They don't, however, show the second layer..

 

In modern day real boat building, the skeg appears to be added after the boat is planked- but it is screwed and epoxied in place.  Assuming some equivalent attachment was available in the 1700's, then the skeg should not be planked one the first go round because the thickness is the same as the keel.

 

IN THIS CASE, however, there is a question of the second planking- the thin one.  On my first build, I attempted to twist the final wood and cover the skeg with straight strake from the hull.  This, honestly, didn't work well.  I imagine I could have covered the skeg first and then laid the final planking up to it and tried to make a good joint?  OR, should I leave the skeg unplanked and just try and make it macth the keel?

 

Advice, references and photos desperately needed.

[russ]

In the Mare Nostrum's hull, the skeg is left without any planking. The garboard planking follows the frames up to the stern. This is typical of smaller working boat hull design. The bow planking is done normally.

 

Russ

[slagoon]

Here's a photo of what my husband did on the swift for the first and second planking - also similar to Brian, this was his first ship so it may or may not be "correct" but it looks good!

 

 

 

[russ]

Sarah:
I think there is a terminology issue to clear up. The Swift does not have a skeg. It has the traditional backbone that includes deadwood that is to be planked over. The skeg is used in hull forms that have no planked over deadwood. It is a simpler form of construction.

 

Russ

[capnharv2]

Russ,

 

In this case, is it really a skeg that popjack is talking about? I'm used to seeing skegs as fairing pieces for the rudder (on a sailboat) or a small piece added near the transom (on a rowboat) to help provide directional stability.

 

It looks to me like deadwood with a passage for the prop shaft.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

[russ]

Harvey:

Down here, what you describe would be a skeg with a shaft log.

 

A skeg is the same as the regular deadwood, with the exception that the frames are mounted on the top of the skeg rather than fastened to its outer faces.

 

See my current build. The skeg is a series of pieces built up just as deadwood would be built up. The difference is that it is outside of the hull rather than inside.

 

Russ

Edited April 21, 2013 by russ

[PopJack]

The definition question is an interesting one.  I actually looked for the "proper" term so I wouldn't have to say "that pointy bit that sticks down in the back."  I will have to study "deadwood" and see what that means now.

 

I was raised in West Texas about 18 hours drive from the nearest water that could float a boat the size of the Mare Nostrum, so I cheated and used a concrete source of nautical wisdom, wikipedia.  According to that:: A skeg (or skag) is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line. The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard. In more recent years, the name has been used for a fin on a surfboard which improves directional stability and to a moveable fin on a kayak which adjusts the boat's centre of lateral resistance. The term is also often used for the fin on water skis in the U.S.A.

 

(That wikipedia bit was supposed to be funny- hope it is)

[capnharv2]

So if it's term used on water skis in the USA, what's it called elsewhere???

 

Russ, thanks for the term Shaft log. I couldn't remember it.

 

If you look at the evolution of sail driven ships to steam driven ships, early ships converted to steam had a stern similar to what you show. The deadwood was cut away ahead of the sternpost for propeller clearance, and a shaft was inserted down the centerline to drive it. I can see that hull with the area around the propeller filled in and the boat would look more like a sailboat.

 

But I'm no NA so I better shut up.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey