Arctic Tern Build
August 12, 2017
Spiling and making 2nd strake pattern
It has been quite some time since I have been able to work
on my boat. Partly due to summer and
many family activities, but also due to my lacking confidence in the next steps
which includes beveling the edges of the garboards, cutting the gains, and
preparing the planks to fit to the garboards.
I did take a break and spent a week at Wooden Boat School
taking a class in building a Nordic Pram.
A Nordic Pram isn’t anything like the Arctic Tern, but the course itself
provided me with the needed instruction and practice on cutting gains and
beveling the laps which in turn provided me with the confidence that I could
perform this successfully on my Arctic Tern.
Thus, I am now back at working on my own boat.
I first marked on all of my stations with marks to show
where the planks would land and overlap.
I then made saw cuts into the garboard lap to match the angle that the plank
would need to be. I also used a straight
edge to make sure that there was a smooth/straight transition from the garboard
plank to where the 2nd strake plank would land on each station.
The next step was to use a spiling pattern in order to
determine the size and shape of the 2nd strake plank. This required beveling some of the stations
so that the spiling pattern laid properly along each station as it approached
the stems. Once the spiling pattern was
marked I nailed it to the material that I was going to use to make a pattern
plank (1/4” plywood). I transferred all
of the points from the spiling pattern to the pattern plank and then using thin
wood strips (battens) to connect all of the points together.
I did find that I need to make myself a set of longer
battens as the ones I was using had to be taped together to obtain the total
length required.
I then beveled the edges of the garboard plank on both the
starboard and port sides. After fitting
the pattern plank and making some adjustments I was satisfied with the pattern
and how it laid on each of the stations.
I cut the Okoume plywood into 12” wide strips that I would
need for the two planks.
