Well interesting hour or so messing with the planking...
Its far from perfect, however it sort of proves it may be a viable way forward..
Firstly, a 3d box was snapped into the corners of the notch and then given a thickness of 2mm

I then used the face to face lofting tool which then connected the box faces up on each notch...

Here shows the majority of the first plank, complete with the slight twisting from vertical at the bow to horizontal at the stern...

The 6 main ribs with notches on, should be angled slightly to accept the plank, however with the face to face loft, the faces are always vertical and thus kicking up errors in the bending of the plank


I have thought of another way of doing this and I will try a bit later. Basically I will create some 2D lines as appose to the 3D boxes and use a 2D loft to link together the lines. Then the plank can be thickened. Im hoping the 2D loft will allow the plank to twist and bend, but being 2D, im not so sure. I may be able to use face to face lofting on the 3D polyline.
More soon!
Dan
P.S, this is first time I have ever lofted anything!