The Dartmouth Gig. Risers and Thwarts.

Out of the strongback and all timbered up, it was time to start fitting out. My task was to fit risers, and learned that a hefty rolling bevel to the back was needed to fit. In order to make them aesthetically pleasing my tutor, Jim Brooke-Jones explained that at all costs ‘the blob’ must be avoided. ‘The blob’ translates as just rounding things over willy-nilly. Therefore the face of the risers follow a thumbnail profile, curved face but with hard edges.

I also learned that lightening the risers fore and aft where less strength is required is a fine thing to do. So the risers lose both siding and moulding gradually over the last two and a bit feet at each end.

Made of oak and lightly steamed, they are held in place with silicon bronze screws at each timber, the heads of which are carefully plugged. The plugs are held in place with thick yacht varnish.

There are two schools of thought regarding thwarts. Fit absolutely perfectly to hull sides, or fit with a deliberate gap. After some deliberation we settled on the former as it was more technically challenging. I fitted all three thwarts, made of sapele and lightened their edge by a quarter inch by means of a bevel cut into the underside. I reckon the fit is pretty perfect, a challenge as I had to incorporate the fit to a lap of clinker planking and rove heads on each thwart end, and I very much enjoyed this task.