BYYB Forums

I have begun work on a new boat, using the offsets and drawings for the 14' peapod, provided by John Gardner in his book "Building Classic Small Craft".  Although this will be a glued-lapstrake hull and not strictly in the tradition of tortured ply or stitch-n-glue, the peapod is a plywood boat.  I'll be using 3/8" okoume plywood for the strakes.  It's pretty exciting since this is my first full-blown, round hull, lofted, faired, taken off, rabbetted, spiled, beveled, and planked boat I've ever tried and frankly I'm just a wee-bit intimidated.  But, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and that step was to plot one point on newly purchased (and unbelievably HEAVY) 4x8 sheet of melamine covered particle board that will serve as my lofting floor.  Lofting had seriously kept me away from round hulls before, because of the floor space required.  As many of you know, my "boatshop" at the moment is a cramped basement, so space is at a premium.  The peapod gets around that by first, measuring only 14', and second by having identical ends.  The front half is the same as the back and therefore I only have to loft half of the boat (plus the stations). 

  All that being said, I lofted the first point, and in typical male fashion, panicked at the implicit commitment and ran upstairs to get additional motivation.  Nothing motivates quite like publicity. That's why we invite people to weddings. So, now you know and now I have to post pictures of progress.  I feel better already... 

Progress coming soon...

Good for you!  Keep us posted and enjoy the fun.  I am just ordering plans for a new boat project as well so know how you feel.

Thats great Will I am very ineresred and can't wait to see, and or read of your progress with it.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Now the pressure is on we all know of your new project so theirs the motovation lol.
Cant wit matey, Good luck with her.

Brian.

The Peapod is a fine little boat that can carry a mighty load. You'll wan to ballast her down to her lines so she'll handle well. They also make great little sailors and with their impressive internal volume a commodious camp cruiser.

Pick up John Brooks book "How to Build Glued Lapstrake Boats", if you haven't yet. Though I don't like the way he uses an adjustable spiling batten, nor the temporary lap screws, there's a lot of very useful information in there. John Gardner offers three different spiling methods in his book. Try each and pick the one you like. I like to make patterns directly from the lined off hull, but everyone has their own way. I also prefer clamps to temporary screws, but again to each their own.

(01-31-2009, 11:15 AM)Paul Riccelli link Wrote:Pick up John Brooks book "How to Build Glued Lapstrake Boats", if you haven't yet. Though I don't like the way he uses an adjustable spiling batten, nor the temporary lap screws, there's a lot of very useful information in there. John Gardner offers three different spiling methods in his book. Try each and pick the one you like. I like to make patterns directly from the lined off hull, but everyone has their own way. I also prefer clamps to temporary screws, but again to each their own.

That's funny!  John Brooks' book is in the mail right now from Amazon!  I must be on the right track.  After reading, I like the the intersecting arcs method using a compass, but then I haven't tried any yet.  I had planned on clamping and fashioning some lapstrake clamps with deep jaws from the scrap wood I have leftover from a kitchen remodel.  I have lofted the top of the sheer and the bottom of the keel at this point, just to see how she looks full-size.  I will run downstairs and snap some pics later tonight and post.  Thanks for the encouragement ya'll! 

Don't bother with a fancy clamp design, just some deep throated "U" shaped pieces of plywood will do. Make the throat a little more then twice the planking thickness. Then cut up some wedges from scrap on the table saw. In use you just place the U over the two planks and drive the wedge in to tighten it. Simple, easy and pretty much fool proof. You don't need or want much pressure with this method, just enough to make the planks touch each other and lay fair.

The way I do planks is different. I make templates with a scribing block, much like described in John Gardner's book. You use less template material and it's more accurate to me then the arc method in my way of doing things.

Thanks Paul!  I'll study the scribing block method some more.  I was worried about the accuracy of using a block with flat sides to transcribe a curved surface.  I think I must be missing something about the method.

Here are a couple of pictures of progress thus far.  I had some leftover cherry trim from our kitchen remodel, thus the super fancy baseline batten. Also note the smudges in the second picture from incorrectly plotting the location of the stem on the first go. :-[

If the plans call for 3/8 cedar solid wood planking, and I'm using okoume plywood for my planks, would it be safe to drop down to 1/4 inch ply, or should I stick with the original width?

A couple more pics of progress...

No, don't reduce the planking thickness if switching to plywood. Plywood isn't as strong as solid longitudinally, which is what you need in a lapstrake boat, particularly glued lap. Use 3/8", but use good 3/8" like Okoume 1088. You can find cheaper Meranti (Hydrocore) 6566, which is about half the price, but 20% heavier and slightly weaker.

The eye is the ultimate rule, in regard to plank runs. If you've lined off, taken templates, transferred the measurements to the planking stock, cut the planking stock, then your last task is to eyeball the plank edges. Yep, they'll have some weird, reverse S shaped curves (get over it, this is normal), but do they look "sweet"? If you eye sees something, a bump or hollow, use a low angle block plane, belt sander or what ever and fix it. Insure the planks, while on the table, look sweet and fair. They may not be precisely what the templates said they should be in shape, but if they're sweet, it will not matter.

Trust your instincts, but more importantly your eye.

Hanging a plank is a three stage process. The first is called "presenting". This is where you present the plank to the boat (your first hanging) and pray. You check to see if it hits your station mold marks and if it's fair. Of course it will not, so you mark the changes and yank it off, over to the bench again. Then you take the plank back to the boat (after shaving here and there) and rehang it, using the same temporary fasteners or clamp locations. Does it fit? 'Ye 'Ha, now get over it because you ain't done yet. Yank it back off and cut your gains. I find 18" is a nice length, but whatever you prefer. You can do the half lap gain or my way is the old fashioned single bevel, which I think is easier. With a glued lap job, you can now rehang the plank and move to the next one.

You will usually have to offer up the plank to the boat three times, unless you're not very picky or damn lucky. Once to check edge fit, once to check adjusted fit, maybe gains and laps, etc. and the third time as a final fitting.

The nice thing is, this can all be done at the bench, gains, laps, scarfs, epoxy, priming, painting, all of it. Trust me, this is a valuable thing. If you've ever had to hang upside down, through a little foredeck hatch, trying to chisel in a scarf on a plank repair with the plank on the boat, you just don't know pain. Working on the bench is a real joy.

I'm not sure about 3/8 Okoume plywood. The DF, and spruce we normally get around here is 3 ply. Marine grade is 5 ply, and better suited for your planned changes. Just my .02 cents

Greg