Category: Palm Beach 22

Building a Palm Beach 22 mahogany runabout designed by Nelson Zimmer

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Final Topsides Plank and a Patch

Topsides planking finished
The topsides planking is finished. Next will be the transom and then the bottom planks.

The final topsides plank is fit and glued in place.  Huzzah!  It took a long time to get here because I elected to vacuum bag each plank individually.  I wanted the tightest seams I could get.  And in order to do that, you need to know the plank you’re fitting against isn’t going to move, even slightly.  Without locator screws, which you can use in traditional boat building, you don’t know things will go back together exactly as they did during the dry fit.  The topsides gets a lot of scrutiny on any boat–perhaps not as much as the deck, but it’s what people notice first. Continue reading “Final Topsides Plank and a Patch”

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Fitting the Next Planks Using the Router

Cutting plank edges
The Router Method makes cutting plank edges an efficient process.

Last month, I described in detail the process of scribing, cutting, and fitting the first strake of final planking on our Palm Beach 22 mahogany runabout.  If you missed it, I suggest you go back and take a look.  It’s a necessary precursor to the process I’m about to discuss.

Laying up each plank and fitting it is a time consuming, although satisfying process.  Refining your skill in creating light-tight seams between planks is a worthwhile pursuit.  The better you are at scribing the previous plank edge onto your new blank, the quicker it goes.  It’s a time-honored skill among boat builders.  But let’s take a look at a more efficient method. Continue reading “Fitting the Next Planks Using the Router”

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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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Fairing the Hull Before the Final Layer

Fairing compound on the hull
Low spots have been filled, and the entire hull has been scrape-filled with fairing compound.

After three layers of 1/8″ planking, it’s time to fair the hull.  In some builds, particularly those with a painted hull, you might wait until after the final layer is on.  But with only 3/16″ thickness in the final layer of mahogany, you can see how it’s advantageous to get the hull nice and fair before it goes on.  Sanding through the mahogany to get a hump out would be disastrous. Continue reading “Fairing the Hull Before the Final 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”

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Laminating the Sheer Clamp

Sheer clamp of Palm Beach 22
The laminated sheer clamp in place. Notice the packing tape in the frame notch so the piece can be separated from the frames and faired before permanent installation.

First, what is the sheer clamp?  It’s the longitudinal piece to which the deck and topsides are clamped to make the hull-deck joint.  As you might imagine, it’s position is at the sheer line of the boat.  The finished dimension called for in the plan is 5/8 x 2-1/2 inches.  Continue reading “Laminating the Sheer Clamp”

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Bevelling the frames

Bevelling a batten notch in frame 1
You can see the notch in this frame for the batten is sloped at an angle to match the angle at which the batten crosses the frame.

After my last post, I had a few questions about how to handle the joint where pieces like the chine cross the frames.  The chine, battens and sheer clamp are notched into all the frames.  The notches are pre-cut at 90 degrees to the face of the frames.  But in certain areas, particularly forward of say, frame 4, these pieces cross the frames at an angle that is increasingly far from 90 degrees.  Ultimately, these pieces (chine, battens, sheer clamp) all need to be securely fastened to the frames.  A little old edge like the corner between the face and the thickness of a frame hardly makes for good construction.  So what to do? Continue reading “Bevelling the frames”

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Using the boat as a form–Laminating the chine

Laminating the chine
Laminating the forward portion of the chine using the frames of the boat as a form.

I’m back at work on the Palm Beach 22 mahogany runabout and glad to be making progress again.   Today I want to talk a little about using the boat itself (or what we have of it at this point) as a form to make more parts for the boat.  We’ve got all the frames in place, so now we can use that to make some of the parts for the boat.

The chine is a continuous piece that runs the length of the boat.  It has curve and twist to it, so it used to be made to fit in a wooden boat by steam bending.  But we’re laminating pieces together to make that curved chine log.  The forward section presents a particular problem in that it has considerable curve and twist. Continue reading “Using the boat as a form–Laminating the chine”

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Laminating the Stem

Laminating the stem of the Palm Beach 22 to a very tight curve requires many layers.
You can never have too many clamps!  Laminating the stem of the Palm Beach 22.  Notice the plastic sheet over the lofting board to keep glue from dropping on it.

In my last post I said I would tell you more about making the hatch in the waterproof bulkhead, and finishing it.  Well, I’m still waiting for some of the hardware, so it’s time to move on and we’ll come back to the hatch later.

Time to build the Stem of the boat!  I decided to laminate this stem because it’s easier and stronger than the traditional method of sawing it out of solid lumber pieces and bolting them together.  Laminating is just gluing together multiple layers to produce a larger piece.  It’s also used as an alternative to steam bending wood.  We’re going to do a lot of laminating on this boat.  So let’s get started.

Continue reading “Laminating the Stem”

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Building a Hatch Opening

Framed hatch and opening, almost ready to be installed.

The water-tight bulkhead forward of the engine compartment needs a hatch opening so you can access the area forward of frame 3.  We have to cut an opening and frame it and the hatch.  We’ll have to design the frame for both pieces, determine proper placement of the hinges and opening hardware, and make it waterproof. Continue reading “Building a Hatch Opening”