The Whiskey Stick
The last piece of planking on a wooden hull is sometimes called the Whiskey Stick because it is tradition to celebrate "closing in" the hull with a toast of whiskey. (I don't drink, but I indulged in a tiny sip of Hot Damn Cinnamon Schnapps!) On a bead-and-cove strip planked boat like Unicorn or practically every strip built kayak or canoe, the whiskey stick is almost always a very thin piece that must be fitted into the final slot where the last strips come together.
Here are some pics leading up to the installation of the Whiskey Stick on Unicorn.
This is the last slot on the port side. It was filled with one long multi-tapered strip that took some creative clamping to hold it in place. The starboard side was similar but took 2 strips to completely fill.
Left picture in the Port side, right is the Starboard side. That block of wood in the right picture is very strategically placed to push on the thin strip with just the right pressure to hold it in place.
I installed all the final strips except the Whisky Stick in one day. There was a LOT of trial fit, plane a little off, trial fit, plane a little off in a different place, trial fit and on and on. In the end it was very satisfying to see them fit relatively tightly. Then the next day, the Whisky Strip!
Starboard side final slot, and Whiskey Stick installed
I bought a belt sander (Ryobi to match all my other Ryobi tools) and sanded away. I didn't keep track but today is Friday and I think I started on Monday, sanding for a several hours each day. The neighbors must have been quite annoyed at the sound. There are several goals to the sanding process: smoothing the strips, taking down bumps in the glue joints, and "fairing the hull" which means making the large curves all smooth and "fair". This last step takes some doing.
This brings up the issue at the bow that I alluded to in the last post. The breasthook is curved a little right where the inwales slot into it. (Refer to previous post.) That curve, combined with how I installed the strips going up from the inwale, caused a large concave surface in the hull near the bow on both sides. I tried to photograph it but it doesn't show up in a picture. The result was a whole ton of sanding and fairing in this area to minimize the indent. I'm a little concerned it will show up when the light is just right but there's really not much I can do about it. Sad Face.
The other issue unique to this hull is the large pieces of plywood. The plywood is 3/8" thick, the strips are 1/4" thick, so the plywood edge had to be sanded down to match the adjacent strips. This took a LONG time with the belt sander. The plywood looks so messy and unpleasant I may paint that part of the hull so you can't see it.
So, after hours and hours of sanding with the belt sander, and then by hand with a finer grit sand paper, the hull is ready for fiberglassing. Here are some pictures of the sanded hull.
Before and after sanding of the inner bow stem and strips. These pictures clearly show the bead-and-cove on each strip. Theoretically the strips should line up on both sides of the inner stem. Close enough!
Port side bow Starboard side bow
Port side stern Starboard side stern
Detail of joint between side strips and bottom strips.
I am particularly proud of how this joint ended up on both sides of the hull.
And The Whiskey Strip! The grey line is epoxy fairing compound to fill in a small gap. I may spend some more time sanding to reduce the width of that stripe so it doesn't show up so much.
The fiberglass and epoxy resin was literally delivered while I was writing this post. Applying the fiberglass is the step that I am most concerned (read: stressed out) about. It has to be applied perfectly the first time. There is no correcting any mistakes in how the cloth lays onto the hull. If it comes out perfectly, then I am planning on leaving it clear so the strips show thru.
Maybe, hopefully, something like this.
Wish me luck. 🙂
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