Coming Around the Bend

Poppy is keeping me company.

I've finally stripped down to the point in the stern (the back, or "aft") of the hull where the fantail curves around the sides. On a fantail hull, this is always a tricky part to plank. Using small strips makes it easier, but it still takes a bit of finagling. Here are a few picks of very large planked fantail hulls that I stumbled upon when visiting the Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport this year. (Side note: I had a blast at the show with my sister, brother-in-law, cousin, and cousin-in-law!)

This hull shows a very smooth transition from the sides into the rear fantail.
Exactly what I'm trying to do. 

What's that in the background?!?
It's one of the Miss Budweiser (#T3 I think) 3 point Hydroplanes
from the 1990's! A bucket list item I didn't know was on my bucket list.

This view clearly shows the transition between the planks
coming up from the bottom (red) and the planks coming along
the side. Right between the two big rust spots you can see the
angle towards the rear slowly smooth out to the curve of the
sides. This is the appearance I'm trying to avoid.

First a hopefully helpful diagram showing parts of the boat I'm working on, with labels so you'll understand what parts I'm talking about. (The picture is not my boat.)


This first picture of Unicorn is from the stern looking forward (the rear of the boat looking towards the front of the boat). The clamps at the very bottom of the picture are holding the strips in place against the inwales at a point just before where the fantail stern starts to curve sharply. (The blotches in the wood are epoxy filler.) The next 4 strips have to be fitted carefully to the molds and the inwales as I go around that curve.

The left picture below shows how the lowest plank has quite a twist in it as it goes from the last mold station (just out of view to the right) to the curve of the inwale where the clamp is. I've shaved the inwale down in the right picture so the next two strips don't twist as much. The clamp in the foreground is holding a line (rope) in place that is pulling the inwale in a little to hold it in place.
  

The next two strips have been glued in place against the surfaces planed down in the previous picture. Since the forces on the joints are so high, I had to wait overnight for the glue to really setup to hold the strips in place.
 

It turned out that this point in stripping the hull is also where I will be start gluing the strips onto the inwale and working up, keeping the strips parallel to the inwale, rather than continuing to work down from the existing strips. This means these strips will have to be fitted against those curved strips coming down. Fun times!

The bow also presents a challenge as I have to install the breasthook to hold the inwales in place at the bow before I can put on the first strip along the inwale. While pondering how this is all going to come together (literally!), I realized that the inwale and the breasthook will be trapped under the molds so I won't be able to remove the hull from the form! đŸ˜« I'll have to cut off a little of every mold to free up the inwales, and cut back the forms at the bow (the front) where the breasthook is. I'll try to get a picture of that process in a later post.



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