More Planking (but finally some progress)

Ok, I've just had three days of intermittently interrupted days for getting some planking done and I have to say it's finally starting to get somewhere.

These photos show Wednesday's results (lots of interruptions that day).







Here's Thursday's results.



And finally Friday's. She's actually starting to look like a boat.



Fitting the garboards proved to be interesting. They need to be beveled where they meet in the center, which sounds much simpler than it actually turned out to be. I started by using my freshly sharpened chisels but it was slow & awkward in work and the result was pretty ordinary.



So I opted instead to set up my trusty sanding station in the back yard & set the shelf thingy roughly to a 45 degree angle. Then, donning mask, I quickly sanded the bevel on the garboard planks.



In the end, the angle I'd arbitrarily used was too sharp, meaning that the edges don't have too much surface contact but I decided to use them anyway. I'm planning to triple up on the layers of fiberglass in this area, plus I'd hate to waste such beautiful wood. Besides, the join does match up pretty good otherwise.





Then I managed to get another couple of levels of planks in as well. The Japanese Pull Saw is an excellent tool for the precision work of cutting the hood ends (even with the teeth starting to fill up with glue). I was able to get quite accurate, which surprised me no end.





So far, one potential problem that has had me stressing has been the edge-setting of the planks in the ends. I've found it very difficult to get the planks to lay completely flat, meaning that in some parts it is almost a clinker type finish. I don't know whether or not this tendency has been exasperated by my leaving the end molds with the extra width.
Gary's book says that you can tape up a small strip and staple to it between stations to help maintain edge alignment, but because I'm hoping to have the topsides finished clear, I didn't want to leave heaps of staple holes between the molds. I'm really hoping that I can still fair it all in without losing too much timber. Since I'm planning to paint below the waterline, I'm not so worried in that area because it's a simple matter of fairing any hollows with filler, but that's obviously not an option if it's an area that's to be finished clear.

Oh well, nothing for it but to wait and see how it looks once I've scraped the 3.75 tons of dried glue off & sanded/faired the whole hull. It'll be a terrible shame if I end up having to fill & paint the topsides & cover up all that nice timber grain.

I've entered the crap part of the roster again, so my next window of opportunity isn't until Tuesday. With a bit of luck, I may get the planking finished then.