Boat Repair, Restoration, Building
Eventually all boats leak. And with a rivetted aluminum boat, a likely culprit is the rivets. The working of the hull from various stresses that happen during use eventually takes its toll and starts to “wallow out” the rivet holes that were so nice and tight when the boat was new. Continue reading “Fixing Leaky Rivets on an Aluminum Boat”
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”
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”
Having re-established the shape of the hull for the 1958 HiLiner, it’s time to flip the boat over so I can get to the outside of the bottom and remove the rotten spots and fix the leaks. When I was in boat school, we assembled all the students in the school and manhandled the 22 ft. boat we were building to turn it over. I think we had about 50 people to turn that boat over. This contraption I have now allowed two men to flip this boat. Continue reading “Flipping the HiLiner”
We recently got a new project in the boat shop. A 1958 HiLiner came in with the complaint that it leaks badly. I took a look and found the bottom had lost its original shape over the years. The keel had compressed up into the boat, and some of the frames had separated. It’s not unusual for this kind of thing to happen to these classic boats over the years. After all, this boat is 63 years old. That’s older than I am (not by much, but still). Continue reading “1958 HiLiner – Reshaping the bottom”
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”
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”
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”
Mr. Zimmer called for steam bent intermediate topside frames in his plans to join up with the intermediate floors. We could steam bend these, but I’m more inclined to laminate them. So off to the table saw we go to start cutting strips! I found that I could get the curve I needed at the chine with a 1/8″ thick strip of Douglas Fir. These frames are 1″ wide and need to be 1/2″ deep with 1/2″ blocking added between battens. I milled my strips a little oversize so I could clean them up and plane them to final width after gluing. Continue reading “Laminating the Intermediate Frames”
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”