The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music

We went to Soll today - in the Tyrol, Austria.
Lovely country and wonderful people.

We are staying a few miles away in Blaiken 

Still Planking

This week has seen me planking when I get time. I'm really in demand for book editing at the moment, and a break from that to work on the boat is always a blessing.

   The new planking technique, that I explained in my last posting, seems to be working out. Not a lot more to say really, so here are some pictures.

More About The Planking

I've permanently fitted 20 planks so far: 10 a side. There are about to be 120 planks altogether: 60 a side.

As you can imagine, I know more about planking now than I did when I started. To begin with I used this method:

1) I offered up the plank and clamped it on to the moulds (molds). 

2) Drilled and screwed the plank to the stem, all the moulds and the transom.

3) Then unscrewed and removed the plank; placed glue in the 'groove' of the plank below.

4) Returned the plank and clamped it place and then re-screwed it into position.

5) I then removed the clamps, turned them through 90 deg. and clamped vertically to close the slight gap left between the planks (see picture below).

I didn't like a number of things about this method of working.
 Firstly, there was far too much repetition  of screwing/unscrewing/re-screwing. 
  Secondly, I was going to have to remove all these screws at the end, fill the holes and then sand.      Thirdly I realised that after plank 10 I wouldn't be able to open my clamps wide enough (see next Picture.)

I considered nailing through the edge to close the gap between the planks (below). This seemed to work OK but I needed to clamp the planks firmly in place first ... but how? 

Brainwave! Wedges under the clamps: the clamps would hold the plank against the moulds and the wedges close the gap in the planks (below)

 This worked so well that it has removed the need to drill and screw altogether!