Category: Cold Molding

A method of building up a hull by laminating thin layers together in the shape you want.

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Fitting the Mahogany Layer on the Palm Beach 22

Gluing mahogany planking on the Palm Beach 22
You’ll use every clamp in the shop to hold that mahogany in place while the glue sets.

Our final layer of planking will run longitudinally to look like traditional carvel planking in this build.  That’s where the longitudinal mahogany planks are laid edge to edge and screwed to the underlying frames.  When it’s complete, you end up with a very smooth, fair hull with seams so tight you can’t even feel the transition from one plank to the adjacent one.  Well, that’s the ideal, anyway.  These boats worked because the seams tightened up after the boat was in the water a few days–tight enough to keep most of the water out.  And while it’s helpful to remember we’re building a boat and not a Steinway piano, with a little know-how and patience, we can get reasonably close to that ideal.  We’re going deep into the weeds in the next couple of posts so bear with me. Continue reading “Fitting the Mahogany Layer on the Palm Beach 22”

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Cold Molding the Next Layer

 

Vacuum bagging 2nd layer of planking on the Palm Beach 22
Vacuum bagging the second layer of planking on the Palm Beach 22

Having completed the 1st layer of planking, and being careful to edge glue each plank, we had to make sure we had an air tight surface for pulling a good vacuum.  So we rolled on a coat of neat epoxy and then followed that with a scrape-fill of epoxy thickened to the consistency of mayonnaise. Continue reading “Cold Molding the Next Layer”

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Planking – The First Layer

1st layer of planking a cold molded boat
The first layer of topsides planking is complete. We use full sheets of plywood where we can get it to conform to gently curved areas of the hull. Diagonal strips are required where there are more complex compound curves.

Having set up the framework for the boat, with all the structural pieces glued in place, it’s time to put a skin on it.  Traditionally, boats were either Carvel planked (with seams that are ideally invisible to the eye because they’re flush and tight), or Lapstrake planked (where one edge overlaps the edge of the adjacent plank, creating “strakes”).  In both of these traditional methods, solid lumber is used.  Long boards are attached to the framing with calking in the seams to keep them watertight. Continue reading “Planking – The First Layer”