Going back to go forward

Looking back at cutting, shaping and fitting the keel stringer
Suddenly realized that I had jumped ahead of myself in the last post and left out the keel stringer. This was cut to length and then planed fair as shown in the two photos below:



You can see in the picture above that the keelson was laminated from two pieces of 15mm square douglas fir as I wanted a strong keelson without a lot of depth to it. The taper at each end was cut from frame 1 to the end at the stern and frame 6 to the bow, marked on the keelson from the first trial fit. Because of its considerable width I did not drill through the keelson crosswise to take the lashings to the frames, and instead drilled four holes down from the base (the top in the picture) either side of each frame.

As a groove was cut to the outside of each hole (where you can see that a champher has been planed) the the thread should not project above the keelson. It is best to avoid any bumps on the keel where the fabric will wear through. This lashing was done after the keelson had been pinned and lashed to the bow and stern pieces.
Cutting, fairing and fitting the chine stringers
This largely follows the same sequence and methodology as for the keel stringer as shown below:

Trial fit to get the correct length and beginning points for the tapers, cutting the taper

Champher the stringers, accuracy coming from the use of a marking gauge in this case set at 3/16th inch.

After a second fit held with clamps the fit at the nose was cut with a handsaw in situ as shown below

After you have done a few you find that you can estimate the angle very accurately (I have pencilled in the angle for the photo but it is actually a distraction, my advice if you are doing this sort of work is to trust the eye and practice). Even if the fit is a bit off the is no structural weakness.

And the same at the stern
 Once the chine stringers are lashed in place the hull will be done and the boat turned the right way up for the deck stringers.

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