A progress report. I'm having problems trying to get pics up so I've just given the URLs.
I got my spruce in 3" x 36" x 3/32" sheets and cut it down to 10.5mm strips on the bandsaw, cleaned up the edges on my magic little hand operated thicknesser and wound up with plenty of nice clean 9.5mm x 2.3mm planks.
There were several false starts before I found a way to plank her. I had it in my head that I should start from deck level and run the planks parallel to the deck which simply didn't work. There were abrupt changes of direction and orientation and the planks just wouldn't sit fair and had to be broken off. After five tries at it I gave up and decided to let the planks go where they wanted to go, so I started 3 planks down from the deck amidships and let the plank follow the rib shape and rise up towards the deck at stem and stern.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/labougie/DSCN3767.jpg I’d also found that number 5 rib was almost 2mm proud of the line and was therefore creating a lump (no idea how this happened – I thought was fairly accurate with the cutting and sanding but........). Things were much smoother after I'd sanded it down.
This was infinitely better, I'd previously made a classic cock-up - after trial fitting the ribs to the keel I thought it would be a smart move to put an approximate chamfer on bow and stern ribs before they were glued which I did, then promptly glued the port side number 4 rib into the starboard side keel and vice versa. It's a good job epoxy fills gaps. Rebating into the stem and stern posts works well.
The fourth plank down was starting to exhibit symptoms of the “I don’t want to go there” syndrome which I’d encountered at the start of things – I had to make up a little jig to get the plank to close up to its neighbour. Narrower planks from here on down.
I think I’ll get the same fourth plank glued in to the port side then get a few planks in at the bottom. There isn’t a garboard as such – the central ribs come all the way down to the bottom of the keel.
I envisage a shaped spruce board flat across the keel base – probably extending all the way up the stem and stern posts. The more spruce the merrier! No, I’m not that bothered about the weight – she’s not a racing boat. It seems to me that I should plank in a straight line from the stern at the bottom of the keel and let the planks fall off the keel as it curves upwards. I could curve them up, but wouldn’t I just be decreasing the space available at the bow and thereby giving myself more shaped planks to make?
Any input appreciated. What do people think about a motor and shaft size for this?