Month: September 2018

We decided that for the very last plank, it would be best to observe tradition. So, on the last day of this stage of the job we invited some friends over, liberally anointed them and the final plank with whisky, before driving it home to complete the hull. Thats me in the check shirt and hat in case you wondered. Three months work all came to an incredibly fulfilling conclusion, and I am very much looking forward to the next stage of works to rebuild this vessel which will commence sometime in November.

A recent storm took the tarpaulin cover that we spent the summer working under away, which has given us a rare bonus view of the vessel as a whole, so I’ve included it here to give an indication of Planta Genesta’s sense of presence:

 

Here she is, all done on the port side, and ready for fairing.

Below is pictured some finial repairs to the sheer planks where they meet the new stem. These are two inch thick planks, scarfed to the original sheer. The curved detail was started with a router and finished by hand with block planes and chisels. These are pictured before finishing, but you can see how they’ll look when they’re fastened home.

 

 

 

With a new delivery of Siberian Larch we could plank the rest of the vessel, shown here she is approaching ready to insert the ‘shut’ strakes. As you can see we initially had a pair to do on each side. Planking down, because this time we worked our way downhill from the sheer.

All the new planks were by now throwing the rather tired state of the topside planking into sharp relief. We decided to remove them and replank entirely, as this would be as quick or quicker than painstakingly repairing what we had. Off came the upper planks, which exposed the frames. Most of which were wonderfully sound, simply requiring splinting of the old fastening holes. It was a slightly different story around the area of the cockpit, and a few futtock ends had substantial repairs carried out. Three on on side and one on the other were replaced altogether, using 2 inch thick iroko with oak treenails fastening them together.

The first four strakes were done in 1 1/4 inch Siberian Larch, fastened with Silicon bronze screws. I tried to keep the planks as long as possible whilst paying attention to the shift of scarf joints as we went up, which means a fair few twenty foot planks. Scarfs were bonded with epoxy, and then through fastened too for good measure. Caulking seams should be about the width of a pound coin thickness at their outermost. Every plank and frame was primed before assembly to provide good ‘husbandry’ for the future.

The first planks that were actually to be fitted were the trickiest and deserve special mention. This, because they had to accommodate the ‘tuck’ meant that they started out at over an inch and a half thick. They were heftily rounded over on the inner face to meet the sternpost, horn timber and associated frames. We fitted them with just the inner face shaped, leaving the exterior to be done as part of fairing the hull as a whole. This explains why they look a bit too thick in this picture, but the inner shape fays beatifully onto the structure of the vessel.

Initially, we decided to replank the big gaps that were already there along each deadrise, and since this would involve five strakes each side I began by making up plenty of batten and dividing the space with them to define where the new planking seams would lie. This enabled me to ensure that all the new seams would have nice, fair curves. I also produced a simple router jig that would facilitate quick and reliable production of planking scarfs. There would be an awful lot of these joints to cut and this simple method ensured a quick and precise fit.

Then a cubic metre of Siberian Larch was delivered, and planking could begin.

First job upon graduation has been a real surprise and privilege. Planta Genesta is a 32′ Morecambe Bay Prawner, built as a yacht on the Isle of Man in 1911. She was rescued from the chainsaw, simply because the previous owner had already done so much work in renewing much of the backbone and associated structure. Here she is in her ‘as found’ state in the process of being transported to Emsworth, where we have begun the rebuild in earnest.

I was hired to run the job of eventually seeing this vessel return to the water and in the next few posts I will present photographs of the replanking work to the hull as it progressed.