Welcome, sailers. After upgrading Victoria I decided to get into serious stuff and I’m going to build vintage style yacht. Got the hull ready but dont wanna mess up the most visible and representative part which is the deck. Can somebody give me some tips how to fit the planks, trimms, what kind of glue should i use, etc, etc
Thanks a lot
My preferred method of strip deck construction: Rip the strips to the desired dimensions. The width dimension is contingent on the curvature of the deck in plan view. If it is very curvy then the width should be conservative which means more planks(strips). On IOM sized boats I would keep the plank width to 1/4 inch or less. This presumes that the strips will follow the curvature of the sheer line in plan.
Use a construction board that is flat. That is to say, build the deck in the flat over a piece of wax paper. Use Titebond 2 or 3 to edge glue the planks. The flat building board lets you pin down, wedge, weight, or otherwise hold the planks in alignment while bent into shape. The reason for using Titebond is so that you can wipe down the glue lines with a wet rag while the glue is still wet. That leaves the flat surface essentially devoid of glue which is difficult to sand. That glue is sufficiently waterproof and much easier to use than epoxy. Cheaper too. When the glue has set, sand the surface as needed. Cover it with 3/4 ounce glass and clear epoxy. Finish sanding as needed. Varnish will come later after the deck is attached to the hull.
The deck will be made slightly larger than the sheer of the boat so that you can plane, sand, scrape the edges to a perfect fit.
There are other methods and perhaps some of the other guys will weigh in here. The method described above has yielded some very attractive and durable decks that get some notice. I think that the most laborious part is ripping out all the strips that you’ll need. It takes an enormous number of strips to do a deck on something in the size range of an EC12. You’ll make a pile of sawdust in the process.
Good luck
Thank you very much for your help. The problem is that the hull i got is curving upwards looking towards bow and transom. Whats more I’d like to make the deck round. So the question is if I’m going to be able to stick the deck on 3d shape? That might be very tricky, sticking all the join points together.
What do you think?
A deck with camber (crowned ) as well as having some sweep in profile, is problematic. Building in the flat may not be the solution. The flat built deck will accomodate some mild compound curvature but not much. So it is a matter of degree.
Building a deck on the completed hull is tricky but entirely doable. The most worrisome problem is getting the planks/strips to lie in the same relationship with its neighbor. That is to say that the strips need to lie fair in the up/down direction. If you have deck beams spaced very closely the problem is diminished. Space the beams no more than, perhaps, 8cm (about 3.25inches) apart.
That number of beams in itself presents a problem. All of them need to be faired carefully. Use one of the planks as a testing batten and systematicly lay the batten over every athwartships location on the deck beams. The batten will be going fore and aft and sometimes skewed diagonally. This is strictly a cut and try process that will need some patience and determination.
Once you are satisfied with the deck beam accuracy, lay the first plank at the gunwales. lay about three planks on one side then three planks on the opposite side. continue to build toward the centerline of the boat. Now you will notice that the remaining opening is shaped like a cats eye. You will begin to spile the remaining planks to fit the opening. (Spile; marking and cutting the parts to whatever shape and/or bevel that results in a suitable joint.)
There is another way to do this that may or may not be somewhat easier. That is to lay the deck planks in a herringbone pattern while using a king plank down the centerline. There is an awful lot of careful beveling to be done with this method and obviously a lot more individual planks are involved. It does make a very pretty deck when finished. There are all sorts of possibilities here. Among them; lay the forward part of the deck with the pointy end forward and the aft part with the point end aft. Finish with a diamond shaped piece between the fore and aft planks. This can get you into parquetry if you let your imagination go wild.
It will be useful if you lay out the deck full sized, on a large sheet of paper. Then draw in the plank layout. This is worth doing no matter what method you choose. The idea is to make all the mistakes on paper before you make then on the model. I hope some of this might be helpful. Let us know how you are progressing.
i have built a few classic yacths and even helped with a bluesose.it was during the bluenose that i was taught a good lesson. that you could try is planing with balsa. now here it the trick. my friend decided he wanted1/4 inch plank. so he went out and bought 1/4 inch think balsa. then he glued it to white stryene. this threw me for a bit. but then he toook his sheet to the band saw to cut them into strips. after that he turn the trips on the side. so that one side had a even white stripe. both which are bendabale. and you got a great looking was to simulate chalking. this is also a great way to put the crown on. and make your round deck. it will take some time to get it right. but balsa is easy to sand. and bend. when you have your deck glued into place. just hit it with epoxy resin. to seal it. and strength in.
hope this gives you some ideas
cougar:zbeer: