Making the Gunwales

The gunwales -- typically pronounce like gunnel -- are 17 feet and 4 inches long for this boat. Unfortunately our lumber yard only provides 16 foot long boards. Anything larger is special order and at considerable expense and delay. We decided instead to lengthen the gunwales by adding two pieces and making a 4 inch long smooth tapered scarf joints to maintain the strength of the wood. The author had to do this for his boat built in 1974 and the joints held up admirably and were never the cause for failure over the 36 years.

In this photo Schuyler is applying the PL Premium glue to the scarf joint. We were both so far quite impressed by the glue which is holding extremely well. What is nice is that it takes up to 24 hrs. to harden so it gives some time to play with the joints.

Preparation of the Keel

In the first of these photos is the Keel laid on a 16 foot long plank. We will be working on the plank until all the frames are fastened to the keel and the gunwales. Gunwales are the boards that are at the upper edge of the sides of the boat.

In the second photo Schuyler is using a smoothing plane to plane the ends of the keel to a 3/8 in wide tip to meet up with the Stem and Stern posts.

In the plans the instructions refer to this keel as a hog and then refers to the keel as the centre rubbing strip. From my limited boatbuilding experience would not the keel actually be a structural part of the vessel rather than a protective strip on the bottom?