18th-Century Merchantman Half-Hull Planking Kit by Dan Poirier - NRG - 1:48

[Dan Poirier]

I hope to improve my planking skills by doing the Nautical Research Guild's 18th-Century Merchantman Half-Hull Planking Kit.

 

The first challenge turned out to be gluing the plan to a piece of foamboard. It was my first time using spray adhesive, and I discovered that there's no room for error - once the glued paper touches the glued foamboard, it's pretty well stuck. It did seem for a few seconds that I might be able to carefully peel the paper off and reposition it, but in no time I had completely destroyed my paper.

 

Luckily, I was working with a copy of the original plans. I was able to make another copy and try again.

 

This time I stuck the left half of the paper in place with post-its, then folded the right half back over it. I sprayed the back of the right half and the right half of the backing board, waited a minute, then very carefully unfolded the right side and smoothed it down starting from the fold. Then I folded the left half over the right and repeated the process. It worked so much better.

 

(No pictures, since the plans are proprietary.)

[Jim M]

@Dan Poirier i am so glad i have some company with this project. Very excited to see your finished product along with your log. 

 

jim