Planking Bow

[Loracs]

Greetings all, A small question about planking at the bow.  Let assume that the ship is divided into 4 sections for planking.

 

In logs, I often see peoples tapering more aggressively at the 2 middle sections, but only lightly at the upper and the lowest section.  Is it the right approach?  Or do you taper uniformly in all sections (at the bow).  Any advantage of one approach versus the other?

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

I'm still learning...

Edited September 20, 2023 by Loracs

[allanyed]

Hello Mr. Lorac

Study the planking expansion drawings in the RMG Collections site.  You can download into a drawing program then measure each strake to get an idea if they are consistent in tapering.  Go to the collections site (https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections) and type in "planking expansion plans".  Be careful that you are looking at outboard, not inboard expansions as some drawings show one or the other and others show both on the same plan.  Woolwich 1785 and Squirrel 1785 are good examples.

Allan

Edited September 20, 2023 by allanyed

[druxey]

Planking is both a science and an art. The 'scientific' part is mathematical: dividing the vertical distance to be covered in an appropriate number of strakes. The art is to adjust the run of these until they look right to the eye from all angles. Sometimes the  adjustment needed is very small, in other hulls there needs to be larger tweaks. There is no one way of doing this. However, the strakes should appear to taper or widen evenly.

[Geoff Orchard]

New Member and have only built 1 kit which had 5mm planks. Decided to get adventurous and build Anteo which had plans available, and I used 10mm planks. This created some difficulty and probable gave me more problems than if I had used say 6-8 mm planks.
Is there any guide?, or is it personal preference?.
Great site, and looking forward to much browsing and learning. Just turned 79 and wanted a hobby that was a little challenging, and I think I have found it. Cheers!!

[allanyed]

Welcome to MSW Geoff!!!

Planking varied in width but the widest portion along a strake was in the range of 10 inches to 12 inches.   Look at some contemporary planking plans to see how they tapered.  https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/search/planking expansion drawing

 

 As the taper at the bow was in the realm of half the widest portion midships, using the wider planks makes sense.  Once tapered, you still need to shape them as you cannot just glue them in place without having lifting problems.  Study the planking tutorial by David Antscherl in the Articles data base here at MSW if you want to learn how to spile planks  and if you are going to use strip stock, study the four part video on planking by Chuck Passaro.  

Allan

 

[Loracs]

thank you all, appreciate your help very much.  Chuck tutorials was indeed very informative. I applied the technique to my current build. Spiling was indeed the key to a clean flow of the planks at the bow.  thanks again. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Loracs