Bevelling the land for the next strake

The 'land' on the upper, outer edge of the new strake has to be bevelled so that the walestrake would fit at the correct angle all around the boat. On Nanw the strake sits at the same angle as the strake below from the bow till just before the mid ships point whereupon it angles inboard to give her some tumblehome before running out to the transom. I had laid the remains of the old strake along the boat to use as a guide and made the little bevel gauge (shown below) to help transfer the bevel from old strake to new as I planed it.  I had already used a marking gauge to scribe a line showing the width of the land onto the new plank.  On this boat the existing lands appear to be 7/8" wide - i.e. Twice the planking thickness.  I understand that this can vary and each builder may have a different 'rule-of-thumb' but as a restorer I chose to copy the dimensions from the existing strake.

Simple little bevel gauge used to transfer bevels from old strake

Scribing gauge made to mark width of land - 7/8"

Bevel planed to edge of plank to act as 'land' for the next strake

Making and fitting the next strake

After repairing the lower strake I turned my attention to making up the next plank. It has too much developed shape to be cut from the width of board available so I chose a point between two ribs to place a scarf. Each section of strake was marked out starting with the forward one. By careful marking and planing the chamfer (sometimes called the 'gerald') to the next plank was cut - I must admit that this is the job I find hardest to get right.  Then, once happy with the fit at the stem rabbet the plank was laid on the bench and the scarf cut. The scarfs are 3  1/2 " long, about 7 times the thickness of the plank. I cut the scarfs with a slight recess or indent of about 1/16" to avoid a feather edge as the fir seems to be less likely to split finished this way.

Cutting a scarf

The strake was glued and screwed at the stem - on this boat the stem rabbet and apron are generously sized and provide a good 'landing' for the hood-end. The strake was sprung and clamped into place and nailed between each frame. At this stage no fastenings will be driven through the frames (known also as timbers or 'ribs' in small boats) as they are all to be renewed later. When the forward part was fastened the after section was marked, planed and it's scarf cut to match the forward one. The scarf was glued and through-fastened (14 gauge) and the strake fastened round to the transom. The land fastenings on this boat are 10 gauge by 1" long with 1/2" roves.

Forward end of strake showing the 'geralds'

Scarphing in a new section of plank

Before I could make and fit the next new strake I had to repair a short section of the next plank down, starboard side aft. A previous repair had been done here all butt-jointed, silicone and brass screws - driven from the inside! I cut back to good timber and planed and chiselled a scarf each end and fashioned a replacement section which was glued at the scarfs and nailed in place. Luckily the repair is in way of the end of the after thwart and the new piece was sprung around it to give a fair curve.

Scarf glued and clamped- fastenings were added later

New section fitted - end of thwart gave a point to spring it into place.

Once the repair had been completed I marked the width of the land for the next plank and planed the bevel for the land.

Bevel planed on new section for landing of next plank

Preparing to make another strake

After shaping the new wale strake it was laid aside and the rubbing bead and second plank was carefully removed. It was in a very ripe state and had a scarf halfway along its length so I braced it temporarily as I was determined to get it off the boat in one piece to use as a pattern for a new plank. If it were a new boat the plank widths would have been determined by lining and marking from the moulds but here I had, in theory a ready-made template and I didn't want to ruin it.

Once off the boat was laid on the new board. The strake has a pronounced curve and cannot be made in one piece - a mid ships scarf will be needed. Not ideal but 10" is the maximum width of timber stock available to me.

Marking out a new starboard, top (walestrake)

The remains of the top strake were laid on one of my newly acquired boards of Douglas Fir and the shape marked out and sawn. After numerous trials and paring down by hand plane the lower edge of the new strake was made to fit snugly with the upper face of the rubbing strip that had been left on as a guide. The inwale has been found to be a bit 'wavy' and not very fair so the upper edge of this new strake has been left with plenty of 'meat' on it for fairing in later.

Cutting out new strake

Trial fitting new strake

New starboard strake

Assessing what work needs to be done on Nanw

After moving Nanw into the shed and unloading her from the trailer she was lifted onto a flat level strong back and braced to the shed's roof.

I had already given the boat a good assessment for the work required; which is mainly replacement of decayed timber and basically it is as follows:
Replacement of both port and starboard walestrakes
Replacement of second strake down on starboard side - this had been replaced in mahogany at some time with the inevitable fresh water rot.
Complete re-timbering (re-framing).

Firstly the starboard walestrake was removed.  The bodged nature of the previous repairs beggared belief- this plank was made up of five separate lengths of builder's merchant softwood butted together and fastened with the odd screw!

Start of restoration of Nanw

Nanw is a stoutly built 15' rowing and outboard dinghy built in Penarth sometime after 1959. She has been kicking around in Pembrokeshire for quite a while and has had some seriously bodged repairs in recent years that were clearly done by someone not used to traditional construction.
The coating of brown paint is a result of being used as a film prop, possibly we assume, in the making of the Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe that had scenes shot at Freshwater West here in Pembrokeshire in the summer of  2009.

Nanw arriving at the boatshed autumn 2014

Welcome to my little blog about clinker boats.

Here I will share a few of my recent and ongoing clinker boat projects that will include various Redwing dinghies:-

R228 'Pintail''

'Corianne' a 15' Shetland Isles double-ender of uncertain vintage i.e. very old!

'Corianne' hauled out after a sail

A 15' clinker dinghy stoutly built in Penarth and recently acquired for restoration. Now known as 'Nanw'