Gunwales, Kabes and Rouths

Each outwale is in two sections, fitted to the stems first and then scarfed up on the hull to give the precise length – scarf shown here

clamping arrangement for scarf

scarf after gluing, it was then passed through the thicknesser to clean up the surface

Port outwale glued and clamped to hull

Port outwale glued and clamped to hull, stbd taped up ready when the clamps are available

Port outwale glued and clamped to hull, showing masking tape to reduce clean up

Port outwale glued and clamped to hull, from above

Port outwale, clamps removed and Stbd outwale glued in place

Because we are installing scuppered gunnels the ‘horns’ at the top of the frames are removed and the frame faired back to an appropriate depth.

Adrian and Richard continuing with the eternal clean up

Gluing the capping strip to the sheerstrake

Outwales and capping strip in position

capping strip before cleanup – it is made a few mm oversize to allow for cleaning back flush with the ply

more capping strip prior to clean up

Capping strip after initial clean up

trying out the steamed and laminated breasthook for size

The steamed and laminated stern breasthook, commonly known as the bumhook – designed to give a good backrest for the cox

bumhook glued into position

breasthook glued into position on top of spacing blocks

production facility for inwale spacing blocks

wetting out the inwale spacing blocks

detail of inwale spacing block

the castellated skiff

inwales laminated and clamped up and inwale spacing blocks clamped

‘dummy’ kabe used to establish position of inwale spacers under routh.

some of the 73 clamps used in this operation, could have done with many more.

inwales and inwale spacers glued and clamped

clamps, clamps and yet more clamps

inside bottom edge of inwale rounded over to be kind to our hands

routing the under edge of the inwale laminate. note use of outwale?spacer blocks as ‘workbench’

prepared inwale glued up to spacer blocks, from bow

prepared inwale glued up to spacer blocks, from stern

The scuppered gunnel in all its glory

detail of the gunnel – plywood boat, where?

Turning larch offcuts into dowel stock to form the gunnel trennels – would the Vikings have used a glorified pencil sharpener if they had it?

The finished home made Larch dowel

Using a small mirror to aid a second pair of eyes indicate when the drill is square to the gunnel side

How not to drill the dowel hole, staged for the purposes of illustration

Tophers jig for cutting the wedge slots on the dowes. a pencil mark on the dowel at the saw groove acrosds the jig ensures registration on both end of the dowel.

Gunnels drilled out for insertion of the dowels – all 52 of them, wedged at each end.

Glued and wedged dowel, our belt and braces approach to holding the gunwale together

the dowel arrangement by way of the frame – because we opted for scuppered gunnels the ‘horns’ were removed from the frame so we ran a vertical 3″ wedged dowel in to strengthen the joint.

wedged dowels cleaned back to the Gunnel, when varnished these will be an attractive feature as well as being extremely strong fixings

The port gunnel at the stern cleaning up and blending in the roundels of the scuppers proceeding. Tedious and repetative work but we can already get an idea of the finished look once all the edges are softened.

The port gunnel looking towards the bow

detail of the cleaned up wedged dowels at the stern

Most of the sawdust and accumulated rubbish cleared out of the hull – looking good

Lowering her onto her bilge makes it easier to get towards the bottom for cleaning up

One I missed – our QCM, Adrian, spotted a missing wedge! easily rectified

Length of wedging stock tapered and hammered home with a smear of glue. The sound of the hammer blow change to let you know when it is fully homes

Wedge sawn off ready for final clean up. The result is not as good as when it is done before the epoxy sets but the mistake is recovered!

Less than perfect – due to a slight wander in drilling the ends of the spacers we wound up with this.

young John suggested a hole the same size as the gunnel scupper and a bearing guided cutter to ‘improve’ the spacer ends

Dan offered his 2″ bearing guided router bit to do the job. Good for building biceps this. Having a bearing at both ends helps prevent the cutter chewing the sheerstrake if alignment of the template is less than perfect.

After improving the arc of the spacer ends we rounded over all edges of the gunnels

A short run of the finished gunnel – just waiting on the kabes and rouths subcontractor now.

The finished stern breasthook, the laminated arch will support the cox’s fabric ‘hammock’ seat.

Adrian’s jam cleat in oak for the steerboard tension adjustment

Kabe in Maple embedded in epoxy, parcel tape ensures it will release when tapped sharply from below

Kabe showing the technical angle to help avoid catching crabs

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