Volunteer Views: Full Story
Planking
I have not shown this yet, but you should be really impressed by the excellent progress on the hull planking. We are now within one or two planks of completing the sides right up to the (white painted) Wale, all the way round the hull. Standing inside the hull now, instead of looking like a skeleton rib cage, we look like a boat hull with a row of small windows up near the top of each side.
All credit to Tim and the team for this – it comes at the cost of great skill and lots of hours. Each plank must be shaped, of course but then has been individually steamed to allow it to be bent into place, cranked down with clamps, jacks and ratchet straps. The frames must be flattened to its shape for the width of the plank. And there is, of course, all the waterproofing with the sheet that looks like tar-felt (but probably has a proper ship-wrighting name) between two layers of planking. The hull gives the impression that she’d float perfectly well now, so impressive and solid is the workmanship.
I will show a few more pics of the planking over the next few days. My turn on the volunteer rota tomorrow, so perhaps I’ll see you there?
