Planking the hull

The framework is now ready to be covered in plywood.  The hull is covered in four 6mm (approx. 1/4”) thick plywood panels: a two-piece bottom that joins at the keel, and two sides. The bottom and sides join at the chine log.

The first step is to make 16’ long plywood panels for the bottom and the sides by joining two 8’ lengths. There isn’t a lot of extra plywood so I made cardboard patterns of the side and bottom pieces.  I was very relieved to verify that the hull was symmetrical (i.e. that both sides matched)  


I then laid the cardboard templates out on the actual plywood pieces to verify they fit before joining them and found that I had to join the panels at an angle for the template to fit it because of the curve of the side.  

I joined the pairs of 8’ panels into16’ panels using a scarf joint - a very shallow taper cut in the end of each panel so that they overlap about 3” at the joint to provide a large glue area for the epoxy.  I made a sled for my router to taper the sheets. I stacked the sheets with a 3” setback between them (the length of the taper) and slid the router sled with a flattening bit across and up and down it to cut the tapers:

I then epoxied the pieces end to end on the tapers to create the 16’ long sheets.  After glueing up the 16’ long panels, I installed the sides on the frames using epoxy and 3/4” silicon bronze screws every 3” along the edge. The sides didn’t have too much of a bend so i they were pretty straightforward to install.

For most of the length of the boat, the sides are trimmed flush with the chine log so the bottom can overlap the sides. Near the bow, where the hull becomes V-shaped, this transitions to a butt joint so the side and bottom panels meet on the chine log.

This required careful hand planing to get the bottom and side pieces to fit tightly. 


The final bottom plank was likewise fit in place by hand and held in with a lot of screws.


The bottom pieces had a much more severe bend to them, so I used steam from an iron and boiling water poured over a towel on the panels to help them bend.

Once the panels were installed, I trimmed all the edges flush with a hand plane, sanded them smooth, and cut out the slot for the centerboard trunk. A little more sanding and it’ll be ready for fiberglass and paint.


This feels like the biggest milestone yet!  It looks more boat-like than ever.  I just have to fiberglass, paint, flip the hull, install the deck, apply several coats of varnish, build the mast, boom, centerboard, and rudder, build and install seats and floorboards, rig it, and learn to sail! So almost done :)


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