Purple goop (and whiskey)

Planking is complete, hurrah!  The "whiskey plank" went on about a week ago, and I took a little break from the project to catch up on some other things...and recover from the Dickel ha ha.  But I'm back at it, and here's the latest:

Nice sunset coming through the side windows...ahh the romance of boat building.

The last plank going on.  By the way, the splotches you see all over the hull is putty for filling various holes, dings, etc.

With the planking done,  I've taken out about half the molds to make it easier to work on the inside of the boat.  

Mea Culpa!  The purple patches that you see is fairing putty made from epoxy and West 407 filler.  These two planks have flat spots that, unfortunately, I didn't notice during planking.  So I'm using a little "liquid  carpenter" to take care of the problem.  The starboard garboard is shiny because I also coated that with epoxy.   Once all holes and dings are filled and the hull sanded, I'll give a coat to the rest of the planks.  

I also added a coat of epoxy to the bottom/garboard on the starboard side.  In theory I could just start painting, but coating with epoxy helps keep water out of the wood, provides some scratch/ding resistance, and acts like a primer in that it fills the grain of the plywood.  In theory, the boat should last longer and the paint job will be nice and smooth.  So I'll be coating the outside of the boat, and at least the bilge area of the inside.

With the planking done, I figure I'm about one-third done with the boat.  There's still LOTS to go, including the outer stem and skeg before flipping the boat over.  Then deck beams, bulkheads, deck, seats.  Then lots and lots of sanding, painting, and varnishing.  Not to forget the spars, which I haven't gotten around to start yet!  So stay tuned.

Almost time for whiskey...

This update will be a short one, just to let you guys know that I'm almost done with planking. Since last time I got the fifth plank on the boat and, this morning, I got the sheerstrake installed...but, alas, only one side. Some people say the tradition of the "whiskey plank" is to simply celebrate the completion of planking by enjoying a wee dram.  Others take it a bit further.

The sixth plank--the sheerstrake--is now glued and screwed to the boat.  Well, at least on one side.  Once the "whiskey plank" (the last plank) is on the boat, I'll be able to enjoy a nip.

The other sheerstrake is cut out--you can just see it on the floor next to the boat--but alas I didn't have time to put it on today. I'm afraid real life sometimes interferes with boat building! From this view you can see splotches of epoxy putty appearing on the plywood planks. I've started puttying various holes and divots, getting ready for the epoxy-sealing that will take place once the planking is done.

The transom view.  Hmm, a few dings on the transom to sand out once planking is done.  Darn.

While completion of planking is definitely a major milestone towards the completion of the boat, there's still plenty more to do.  I figure I'll be about one-third done once the planking is all done.  There is, after all, the keel and outer stem to fit to the outside of the hull, plus the deck and cockpit to build.  Not to mention three spars (mast, boom, and gaff) and the rudder and tiller.  Not to mention a lot of sanding and painting and varnishing.  We've had some very nice sailing weather recently--warm but not hot, nice breeze--and it is frustrating that the boat is not further along.  But one thing you do learn in building boats is sheer perseverance.  Just keep at it...the boat'll be done when she's done.

Three four, knock at the door...

Well here it is a couple of days after Memorial Day and I've got four of the six planks on the boat.  Things are moving faster now, so I'm hoping to have the last two done in reasonably short order...we'll see!

The 1/4" ply is a bit "floppy" between the molds, so I'm using full-length battens (about 1/2"x1") to stiffen up the edge of the ply while the glue dries.  This photo shows the test-fitting of plank number three.  You've got the drill now, right?  First the spiling, then the cutting out, then the test-fitting, then the glue up.  Once this plank is glued on, I'll be half done with the side planks, hurrah.

Transom view of plank numero tres.

With one of the #3 planks in place, I sprung battens just to see how the next couple of plank lines will look.  Looks fine to me.  The horizontal cleat that I've let into the molds is the future seat riser (you can also see it on my construction plan).  My original plan was to glue this into the boat as planking progressed.  The riser is level (horizontal) to support the back edge of the cockpit seats,  so it overlaps multiple planks.  In this photo, the bow end is just sticking into plank number two.  More on this later...

I've been using sheetrock screws to temporarily fasten the plank laps together while the glue dries.  To ensure better fairness of the plank laps, I'm now screwing directly through a batten instead of using separate pads as shown in previous photos.  The small pads work fine with 3/8" plywood, but the 1/4" is easy to "deform" into an unfair shape.

Number four going on, same process.

Same plank, seen from the transom side.

As mentioned earlier, my original plan was to glue the seat risers to the inside of the planking as I went along.  However, this hasn't worked out so "Plan B" is to finish the planking and glue them up once the boat is flipped over.  I thought it would be easier to glue them to planking while being held in position by the molds, but, unfortunately, when I tried this the 1/4" planking was "sucked in" and became unfair.  Rather than risk an unfair hull, I'm going to either glue them in after plank number five is installed  or wait until the planking is finished and the boat is flipped over.  The plank laps

On the plus side, the shape of the boat is really starting to show.  Here's a photo flipped upside down--to show more what the hull will look like after completion--just for fun!

This upside-down photo shows the shape of the boat at plank number four.  Just two more to go.