The Whisky Strip.

At the end of the last post all the strips were on the port side bottom. The next step was to cut the ends back to the centre of the keel. The line was marked at each station and a straight line drawn through these points.  It's important (as usual) that the line is straight rather than simply joining up the dots so there is a lot of eyeballing needed. I cut the ends off with a Japanese pull saw and carefully planed the edge to be straight and vertical.

The main tools used to shape and fit strips are pretty basic. The secateurs might be a surprise to boat builders but they do an excellent job of cutting strips to length quickly and cleanly. The Stanley knife is used to hack off the excess when tapering the end of the strip. The block plane (sharp!) trims the taper until it fits. If you go looking for secateurs to do this you need the type with an anvil and a straight blade; the curved blade type split the end of the strip.

The first taper is fitted and the strip put in place temporarily, a couple of witness lines are drawn at the other end of the strip which is then pulled back slightly before marking the taper. When the taper fits nicely it is trimmed back a little at a time until the witness lines show it is the correct length. Then it is glued in place. Strips of tape hold it tight against the previous strip and small blobs of hot melt glue hold it down onto the frames where needed. Stitches of hot melt glue are added along the join so the tape and clamps can be removed ready for the next strip.

This is what it looks like at the end of two sessions. while the strips are long er they are easy to put in place. One end is positioned and the the centre of the strip can be lifted  bringing the other end in so that it can be put in place. Finally the centre part of the strip is put down against its neighbour and taped in place.

As the strips get shorter this process gets more difficult. Shaping them is the same but springing them into place just seemed to get more difficult to me.

At this point there are two and a tiny bit strips left to go strips left to go. Rather than try to make a tiny strip I glued two strips together to make the final strip from. However, after I added the second last strip I found that the extra tiny bit wasn't needed.







Here's the gap and the last shaped strip ready to be fitted.

This last strip is called the Whisky Strip because it marks the completion of the hull on a traditional boat and is therefore a cause for celebration. I think I have earned this!

There are actually more strips still to go on the top of the boat so perhaps the celebration is  premature but I enjoyed it!