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.