Apprentice for a Day

Join us on August 8^th when we will launch the traditional Bay sailing and rowing skiffs built by participants in the AFAD program. Sail a Delaware Ducker, a crabbing skiff or a Melonseed, or row a skiff with guidance from Museum shipwrights and captains. Be a part of the fun, develop a new skill or hone old ones, enjoy an impromptu race, find out why we love building these boats. CBMM members $35, non-members $45.

This weekend we are going to bend in half the frames or ribs into the hull and rivet them in place. To keep the boat in it’s proper shape, we bent and fastened on temporary gunwales, to which we fastened spreaders at each station to hold the boats beam. This rail also acted as a clamp pad so that the sheer did not get beaten up when clamping ribs in place.

For rib stock I had left over from the last boat we built, a 1880’s Lawley Tender, some beautiful Sassafras. Not now a common boat building lumber, for large trees are hard to find, our tree was 30″ at the base and 20′ to the first branch. Sassafras other than it’s pleasent oder and tea has some very good properties. As a framing lumber it has very tight and intertwined grain, yet is much lighter than Oak and even Slippery Elm. The only major disadvantage of Sassafras is that you can not drive a copper nail through it when it is steamed as you can with Oak, Every rivet had to be drilled into the rib. As a bending wood it is very plyable as you will hear later.

Rather than steaming the ribs, we boiled them in a stainless steal troth. The advantage of boiling is that other than the initial starting time, I didn’t have to time the ribs. Over steaming will break down the wood fibers, keeping the wood submerged, and slightly lower temperature does not. We put in half the ribs in first thing in the morning, and the last one came out five hours later and was fine.

As a group we had three people per side of the boat, each rotating their job every other rib. One person would bend their half of the rib into the boat, the next person would clamp it in place, first one done would nail at the keel. This would allow you to now tap on the top of the rib to drive it down tight to the hull. The interior crew would point to the third person what lap the rib was the most off the lap, he would drill it then drive the copper nail as the inside was backed with an iron. The person on the outside then held a riveting iron on the nail head while the other crew drove on the rove, cut the nail and peened over the tip. As the day went along it became a competion between sides as to who was the fastest and cleanest in their work.

Buy the end of the day we had half the boat ribbed, and only broke one due to a knot. So starting Sunday morning we were far a head, this was going to be a two weekend project. By One O’clock we had the entire boat framed. With all the spare ribs I had made, we had a knot tying contest. Everyone produced one or two granny knots about 6-8″ in diamiter, so to show off I tied a bowline.

After playing the crew jumped in and we got the interior cleaned up and oiled. This puts us a week a head of schedule.

Friday, again with the help of my volunteers and a few hearty class members who wanted to help, we nailed on the #5 planks the class had fitted last weekend. This got us ready for what was going to be a good work out for the weekend. The last three planks have quite a hard turn at station #12 to the transom. On the original carvel planked boat, these planks are craved, the sheer itself varies from half an inch to five sixteenths in thickness. Our goal is to steam our planks around the transom, rather than create flats for the plank to land on.

Saturday with a group of seven guys, we went to work. One group started to spile the #6 plank, while the other group beveled the lap on the #5 plank. Our planks were lining up so well we are now able to cut and shape both port and starboard at the same time. The first plank went on easy, starting by nailing the center stations first and working our way to the ends. Using an upholstery steamer over the last two feet of plank at the transom. We first nailed the lap with the plank lightly clamped at station #12 then as the steam soften the plank we cupped it around the bend in the transom and nailed it. The plank only had about a half inch of cup which wasn’t to bad.

After lunch we got to work on the #7 plank, this plank had over an inch and a half of cup at the transom and three quarters at station #12. We were able to fit the lap up to station #12, but not to the transom. We then had to hold the plank off the molds but in line with the plane of the #6 plank to fit the last 18″. Our idea of starting in the center of the boat and work to the ends wouldn’t work this time. Being very careful with lots of reference points we started nailing and steaming at the transom. Using clamping blocks cut to the shape of the transom and station #12 we slowly clamped the plank into shape as the plank softened. Once we had the aft end fastened we worked foreward easily using it’s long lenght as leverage. With the one side sucessfully bent and nailed we called it a day.

Sunday with a group of five, we fitted the other #7 and spiled the sheer. As one group got the #7 all fitted, I worked with the other group on the sheer. We got the #7 bent and nailed with no problems. After lunch, we steamed and nailed the sheer on one side. As we were doing this, it started to snow. Normally here on the Eastern Shore, this is just a dusting. Todays flakes were a inch or better and sticking. Most of the class left early, as they were calling for between 4 and 12 inches of snow. We got over four inches by Monday, leaving the last sheer for my volunteers and I for Tuesday to finish.

Starting Saturday we had already fastened on the garboards and the Starboard #2 plank. The Port side # 2 plank just needed final fitting. One group got the # 2 plank final fit completed and nailed, while the other group cut the plank lap on the Starboard side for the # 3 plank.

Since we had both the Port and Starboard planks lined up on the stem and transom we were confident that on spiling would do both sides. After spiling the plank we used spring clamps to hold both planks together as we band sawed them. We left the sheer side edge an 1/8th of an inch wide in case we  had to do any fitting.  Happy,  we went and cut the sheer side to the line.  Each group went to work  cutting gain  samples,  while I cut the first  plank’s.

With the Port side # 3 fastened we went for spiling the # 4 Plank to get us ahead. We had gotten the plank spiled and fitted. We were already to nail down the plank,  when someone in the class  noticed  a stress break in the plank  a foot  in from the transom.  Again, another obsticale to over come!  With everybody working we realigned the plank as far aft as we could without being short at the stem. This required refitting the olank and the gains. By the end of the day we got her nailed down.

Sunday we started with nailing the Starboard #3, as it was already fitted, we started the day off quick. The #4 plank had it shape adjusted the same as the other side, so only the gains and lap fitting had to be done. As one group was nailing the #4 plank on we started the #5 Plank. Due to our being behind Saturday, we never got around to scarfing the #5 plank.

This made for a better class all around. From our rough spiling all of our stock was cut roughly an inch wide. Clamping the to halves onto the molds, over lapping the #4 lap and the sheer side tic marks on the molds, we got the to halves to fit. Squaring off the keel we picked our scarf joint and went and cut them. By clamping the parts back on the mold the class found out how much a 1/16th of an inch on cutting the scarf put the plank out of shape. Our first cut made us miss the stem location by an inch. After re cutting the scarf the rough plank fit. To end the day we glue up the planks on a bench ready for next weekend.

Friday I had two Museum Volunteers help me resaw and plane the rough planks we had cut out last week end. Saturday with 7 people in the class we started to work on the planking. One team worked on spiling rough patterns for the last four planks. The other team went to work on the Garboard on the Starboard side.

To fit the Garboard we used our rough spiling for the keel edge, then left the sheer side wide. Using a gig of roof flashing bent at 90 degrees, with notches every 1/16th we traced a line at the width of the maximum gap, cut it and did it again until it fit. With the keel rebbet fit we ticked off the sheer side to the marks on the molds from lining off. After lunch we were ready to nail the Garboard to the keel, this took about 15 minutes. With our teams switched the first group clamped the rough cut #2 to spile that plank. The second group went on to cut the Port side keel rebbet.

Things were going good, but at station #2 the #2 plank was going to be tiny, but at the stem very wide. So it was time for recovery from a mistake. When transfer the plank lines from Starboard to Port, someone marked the wrong side of a batten which made our Garboard 3/4″ to wide at station #2. Using a batten to re fair the plank, we had to plane down the plank to the shape it was lined off to be.

Even with our delay we had gotten the #2 plank spiled, cut and mostly fit. The Starboard keel rebbbet was finished short of fitting the plank to it. Sunday with a smaller crew, again we broke down into two crews. One team did the final fitting of the #2 plank, while the other team fit the other Garboard. By lunch the #2 plank was ready to nail down, while the second team mostly had the keel rebbet done.

After Lunch everyone practiced clenching nails on a test piece,which we split apart and looked at the clenches. Then everyone got involved with nailing on the #2 plank. The rest of the afternoon we all worked on the final fit of the Port Garboard making sure it matched the other side. By Three thirty we had the Garboard nailed down. The rest of the afternoon the guys talked and just enjoyed looking at the progress we had made. She is starting to look like a boat!

I would like to thank the class for the extra duties, especially Sunday. Due to the Holiday we had over 60 visitors through the shop, that I counted. All of the guys would step in to talk to the visitors and answer qustions They would explain what we doing and go so far as show them the tools they wre using, to samples of what they were cutting. I must say this is a fun project, where even the new person feels at home with guys how have been here for every class.

With  the keel, transom and stem all attached to the molds, we are ready to lay out the planking. We had taken plank locations off the original boat, but is carvel planked and we are going to build in lapstrake. We started by tacking battens to or plank locations, using battens that were 3/4″ wide, the width of our laps. The plank lines looked terrible for lapstake construction.

Starting at the sheer we laid out a plank that looked pleasing but was 3/4″ wider than most people thought it should be until I had them look at the original boat and explained that the plank had to be that much larger due to the rub rail. Then we worked our way to the turn of the bilge and tried to keep the plank dimensions flowing with the sheer. After the turn of the bilge the planks became slightly wider and with more curvature to fill the space to the keel. After lunch with fresh eyes we looked at the lines and made minor adjustments until everyone was happy.

While the battens were on we use 1/4″ Luan to make patterns that would cover each plank’s battens by covering both the upper and lower battens. By tracing the outer most edges of the battens, then band sawing out the shape we had the rough plank shape. Using these patterns we went to our lumber shed were we have about 900 board feet of Virginaian Cedar. Tracing the patterns onto the rough stock, we were able to avoid most of the knots. By Sunday we had rough cut four planks still in it’s rough condition and started the keel rabit.

We started Saturday by leveling our strong-back upon which the molds will be fastened. One group was making the final cuts on the molds, the notches for the keel to lay into, then fastening them to the strong-back. Another group started to lay out the keel from the measurements created when we did the lofting. By lunch we had the molds set, keel and transom ready to cut.

After lunch the crew went out to the Railway Shop to use our ship’s saw to cut the keel. A team took over planing the keel to it”s final shape, while the rest of us went to cut the transom. Things got tricky, the angle was greater than 45 degrees, so we couldn’t cut it on the ship’s saw. First we tried to engineer a wedge to make up the remaining angle, no luck. At this point the entire class got into making a specialized angled base for a jig saw. Two hours went into making a base the right angle for the cut, open enough to see the blade, and to get a blade long enough to make the cut. It was a success and the class got a lot out of how to work your way through a problem that seemed insurmountable.

Sunday we had the same people in the class. The group working on cutting out the keel started on the next step, cutting the keel rabbet. Using a router with a plunge cutter and an adjustable fence, they cut a square rabbet to the average depth and width the length of the keel. The other group started with the stem mold. Using the lofting they laid out the shape, then using 2×4 stock created a jig that we could bend around and clamp to. We used Slippery Elm for the lamentations, at 3/8″ we could bend the wood with out steaming it. Slippery Elm was used historically greatly as rib stock from the 1800’s thru the 1920’s until the Dutch Elm disease killed most of the Elm’s off. In Upstate New York the Slippery Elm is coming back, I have seen freshly milled boards up to twenty inches wide.

As the day drew to it’s end the class had everything milled and bent, even though we had hoped to have it all assembled. As a group everyone was happy with our progress. In spite of the set backs we had with the transom and our other difficulties, they all enjoyed the process of getting the molds and back-bone ready to build the boat.

We started by transfering information from the lofting to what will be our molds. Using velum paper we overlaid it on our body plans. This gives us the hull shape of the boat every two feet. Before we can trace the lines we laid out our grid of centerline,waterlines and baseline. the lofting was to the outside of the hull so we had to reduce the drawing by the thickness of our planking. Once this was done we could transfer our drawing to 3/4″ MDF from which we will cut our molds. By again laying out or grid we were able to transfer our drawing by using a nail and hammer to prick punch the line on to the mold stock then connect the dots after we removed the paper.