Plankety Plank.

No, not one of my favorite game shows, where you could win a blankety blank cheque book (useless) and pen (biro?).

No, we've started to plank.

This means that we are now starting to see the actual shape of the boat, and obviously, really start to panic that we've got it all wrong. Luckily, whenever things look awry, Chris counters with "remember, it's not an exact science". Unfortunately, Archimedes proved that displacement is an exact science and if there's more weight in the boat than out if it, we will displace the mighty Waikato and sink. Using another exact science, the one that proves that witches sink (circa Monty Python and the Holy Grail) , both Chris and I are heavier than ducks and therefore will plummet to the depths just north of Tourangi if there is a leak.

Moving on, some building stuff.

We decided that we should bite the bullet and glue the first plank to the hog.
This was also the first chance to try the West Systems pump system that the guy at Barton Marine gave me (RRP $35). I was doubly excited - a new toy, and free stuff.



Chris wets the hog.

 So, first, Chris covered the hog in the epoxy mix, this process is called wetting, or whetting. This process stops the wood drawing all the moisture out of the thickened epoxy and provides a key. Anyone who's dipped a brick in water before applying mortar will understand this process.

The next stage in the process is to wet the garboard plank. We did argue over the amount of wetting and epoxy we would need to keep the planks in place, but we decided the resulting weight gain on the boat would be the equivalent of about one extra pint, so we must remember to drink an extra one on our first night to make up for the extra glue.

Then we added a mixture of fine sawdust and fine white stuff (West systems epoxy hardener) to the epoxy. This turns it into glue. The consistency is not clearly described in the instructions, so we went for Delia Smith's instructions for meringue mix, thick peaks.

Later I will describe how the sight of me donning latex gloves to handle the glue prompted a series of flashbacks from Chris who thought he was back in the holding cells at Wandsworth and I was about to perform a cavity search.

And, when we found that, yes, we would need more clamps!

Hog Warts removed

The scarphing challenge has occupied quite a bit of our time, but next up on the critical path was the business of shaping the Hog. This is the long strip of wood that forms the keel on a traditionally constructed boat. In our case, however, it refers to the inner keel only: modern construction calls for the planking to be sandwiched between two such strips, which means a very much simpler job of fitting it all together.

The piece in question started out as a 6 metre length of Fijian Kauri with a rectangular profile. Our task was to shape it so that the constantly changing angles of the planks would sit fair (flush) on it. It had already been fixed to the stem and stern, as reported in fascinating detail in previous blogs.

Thanks to some creative thinking and bold use of Joe’s second hand Stanley plane, my new spokeshave (my Christmas present from my dad) and a sander, we got a very pleasing result.

Once we had the Hog shaped to our satisfaction, we then began the lengthy process of fitting the first plank in place to make sure that it was ready for gluing. This was an iterative process, involving endless repetition of various useful sayings, such as "We need more clamps" and "Of course, it's not an exact science" as well as frequent trials where we 'offered up' the plank in the

vain and vague hope that it would realise that it needed miraculously to conform to shape.

The bulge in the middle of my body is, as you will have guessed, the effect of a wide angled lens.

Offering up the plank, while trying to look professional

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