Boat Repair, Restoration, Building
Having settled on the option of hand laying the deck, it was time to start milling wood. Take a look back at the first post in this series, Working on the Riva Foredeck. Look closely at the picture of the overall deck. See how the pinstripe holly lines are symmetrical about the centerline, and how they line up fore and aft from the outboard panels to the center panels? That’s what is going to make this a beautiful deck. Continue reading “Layup of the Riva Foredeck”
One fine June day, a 2013 Riva Iseo showed up at the shop after the owner asked if I could do varnish work on a wooden deck. He had purchased the boat used from someone in Miami, FL. Continue reading “Restoring the wood on a Riva Iseo”
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”
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”
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.
The transom bows are the curved top and bottom pieces that give you the shape of that beautiful transom you see on classic runabouts. Nelson Zimmer’s plan calls for a 5 foot radius curve. He also calls for a deck crown or “camber” of 2-1/2 inches at the transom.
So we’ve got two pieces to make, bent to a 5 foot radius. And the top one has to have a curve cut on top of it to support the crown of the deck as well. Continue reading “Making the Transom Bows”