hi there,
Mr Tait, I am very grateful for your photographs - they will be a great help. I am in desperate need of photographs of the deck area of the vessel - do you know someone who could give me that information???
On the last photograph Dave has supplied - on close examination you will see a circular hole in the bow - is this hole a chute for discharging fish guts/unwanted fish/undersized fish? Any ideas there??
Derek, to answer your question - I very rarely add matting to the inside of a hull - the only time I do that is when I have planked in balsa wood. I find that just coating the inside with a good coating of pure resin and allowing it to soak into the timbers, adds sufficient strength and stiffness as well as a good water absorbtion barrier. There is very little flex (if any) in the planking on this model, due to 2 factors:
1) the frame spacing is very close together - i.e. within 2 inches of each other
2) with using 6mm wide planks I have a great deal of 'edge bonding' between planks with the glue, which increases the overall rigidity of the plank.
aye
john e
bluebird