It makes me nervous that I have not come across any mention of this yet. But Kingsfold is my boat...
When I did a dry-fit recently, I discovered that there is a lot of twisting occurring between the transom and the main bulkhead, but the side deck is flat from there forward. Below is a picture of my solution.
Comments? Is it just me/my boat, or is there really an issue with the design here? [Further details in my blog
http://kingsfoldsailboat.blogspot.com/20...-here.html]
I'll let Weekender builders guide you, but on most of my designs I use a common curve approuch, which is the deck crown (athwartship curve in the deck) is a segment of a circle. This means you can make a jig, which is a section of the spec'd circle, wider than the widest part of the boat. This curve template is used on frame heads, sidedeck beams, bulkheads, deck beams, etc. I'm not sure how Peter designed it, but this is a common theme among many designers.
I like a good bit of deck crown, if only to shed water quickly. It's also stronger and looks better too. Going by eye, I'd say 3" of crown, at the widest beam would look okay and this works out to be a segment of a 34' (yeah, that's right - feet) circle. If 3" seems too much, 2" would be about a 50' diameter circle, that would accommodate this amount of deck crown.
Now these numbers seem big, but you only need an 8' piece of this circle. I just tie a string to a stake and measure out the radius, of the circle I need. I swing an arc and use just enough of it to span the width of the boat.
Before you go too far off the reservation, first try attaching temporarily the deck to the actual bulkheads. On my weekender, the deck is flat the whole way except for the crown at the lazarette. On this particular boat I think you want the deck to lay flat athwart ship because if you ever want to use it to plant your foot, you don't want to be pushed out to the rub rail. If you slope the deck, you will more easily slip off the deck which is not good.Â
I think that the reason you don't see any questions about this is because everyone simply attached directly to the bulkheads and everything was fine. Don't be afraid to put a few screws into your boat that maybe you will have to pull out in order to check how it fits together. You will be covering just about every screw you use and a few extra holes that you will have to fill won't matter at all. Also, if you change the shape of the deck, you might run into some trouble trying to get the cabin to fit correctly.
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There have been a ton of these little boats built in the last 35 years. The plan is accurate. Follow it and you will be successful. In fact, every time I screwed up during my build it was because I didn't follow the plan like I should have.
Al
Thanks, Al.
My boat is only screwed together--dry-fit--at the moment. I am sympathetic with your point of view regarding keeping the deck flat and trusting the long-proven plans. So far I have done so, with the exception of widening the aft end by four inches and raising the cabin roof by three, and now putting an arc in the aft-to-middle portion of the deck.
I just went and looked at my deck again. I am standing by my modification. (Although it does happen to fit more closely with what Paul described above.) The existing slope at the main bulkhead is a gentle one, and I am confident that the anti-skid surface I will apply will easily prevent foot slippage.
Fitting the cabin trunk will be easy. I will just set the depth at the aft end so the top edge aligns with the corner of the bulkhead--as I would do it following the plans in a more strict fashion.
Personally, if I were to build my Weekender over again, I would incorporate some "crown" to the deck like Paul says, and I would also change the sides a bit so they don't stick up above the deck. I'd cut the sides off flush with the deck and round the corner over slightly. Then after the fibreglass and paint, I would attach a toe-rail to the deck at the edge on little blocks so water can run off easily.
The way it's designed, I don't think there's any "crown" to it at all, and even if there was, there are no scuppers. It's a recipe for a wet butt if you bury the rail on one tack and then come up on the opposite tack: the water winds up on your seat. I have thought of some ways to deal with this but am too lazy to actually do any of them.
I am now rethinking my toe rail, when I come to that part of the build. Thanks, Keith. You make a great point, I think.
A toe rail or it's taller brother the bulwark both need to be able to shed water from the deck. Typically you just cut some holes in the rail or bulwark, along the bottom, which lets water get off the deck.
The easiest to do is the stripped plank rail/bulwark. Using a 3/4" square stock, bevel the bottom of the first piece, so it will stand up as you want. The next strips are simply glued and maybe screwed on top of the previous strip. If the stock is well selected, the grain lines will blend in nicely and it'll look much like a solid hunk of lumber someone carefully shaped and positioned on the deck. To make the scuppers in the rail/bulwark, simply cut equally spaced gaps along it's length or cut gaps (again equally spaced) at the low point along the rail.
Below I've shown a few different ways to do them. On Rocky, the bulwark is raised up on little blocks. This allows the rail to be used for tying lines and lots of places for water to shed off the deck. It also means if you drop a screw driver, it'll roll right under the rail (1 1/2" gap) and go "kerplunk", when it splashes in the drink. This is a substantial bulwark, designed to take a beating and also to be removed and replaced if necessary.
The bulwark on Discrete is a classic, builtup, real bulwark. I show this to show the scuppers spaced out along the lowest portion of the sheer. This is where the water will flow to and pool, so these permit it to drain off. The very last one, aft of the running back chainplate really isn't necessary, but I put it in anyway.
The last file shows this strip planked bulwark setup. One is trapezoidal shaped, which makes it stronger, while the other is just straight sided strips (1x2's in this case). You can see the bottom strip has a beveled lower edge, but the rest are just stacked on top.
The last image is a page from a powerboat plan of mine and it shows a number of different ways to make a bulwark. Just some food for thought.