Chapter 9 A tale of 2 planks

It was the best of planks, it was the worst of planks...

Sorry Charles.

The garboard plank on the Navigator is in many ways the easiest plank, and also the hardest to install. The aft half of the plank is quite flat. It is spliced together with nice friendly butt blocks - no scarfing is necessary. The plank is quite uniform in width. The entire lower edge of the plank is attached to the lower panel using the ever popular stitch-and-glue technique.

The forward half of the plank is a another story. It makes a near 90 degree twist while curving around the bow and increasing in width, culminating with an attachment to a contoured stem with a rolling bevel.

Lets start with the easy part.

Here is a section of the garboard plank from the transom through bulkhead 7. To make the plank, first we measure the greatest width between the bottom panel and the stringer and add about 50mm. Measure the length and add about 50mm. Cut a rectangular piece of plywood to that size. Clamp it to the boat. Trace the profile of the lower plank and stringer onto the panel. Cut the panel to the profile. Epoxy the panel to the boat. The joint between the lower panel and the plank gets stitch-and-glued, which means it is temporarily stitched to the lower panel with wire ties or bailing wire, dabs of epoxy are applied between the stitches. When the epoxy dabs cure, the stitches are removed, a fillet of epoxy/wood flour is applied over the joint, which is then covered with fiberglass tape and epoxy. There are two splices in the panel. Both splices are hidden under the seats, so there is no need to bother with scarfing the plywood joints. Simple "butt blocks" are glued over the top of the joint, held in place with temporary screws until the epoxy sets.


At the bow, the panel has to twist from near horizontal to vertical

Its hard to believe that plywood can actually do this, but it can.

The drill starts out much the same as before. Cut out an oversized panel and clamp it to the boat, slowly and carefully bending it into position so it can be traced to actual size and then be installed.

So first we clamp it in place at the aft end, making sure we overlap the lower panel, stringer, and the aft panel.

Then we work our way forward, applying more clamps and carefully and evenly apply pressure to the panel.

At this point I noticed that the panel was riding quite hard on the front, lower edge of the stem. I forgot to take a photo, but you can see what Im talking about in this diagram. I had to remove the panel and plane off some additional material in this area until the panel fit properly.

Keep working your way forward. Avoid using clamps between the panel and the stringer. Quite a bit of force is required to bend the panel. The stringers will deform under that much force. I mostly used spreader clamps between the building jig and the panel to press it into place. Once the panel was in place, I added clamps to the stringers to pull the panel in the final fraction of an inch.

Another shot of the spreader clamps.

Finally the panel is in position.  Now trace around the lower panel, the stem, and the stringer onto the garboard panel.

Remove the panel and cut it to the traced profile.

Re-install the panel and re-clamp it to its final position. Stitch the garboard panel to the lower panel. Bailing wire or copper wire stitches work better than plastic ties in this area.

Glue the panel in place and repeat for the other side.

All I have left to do is finish the stitch and glue fillets and tape, and add the butt straps.

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A Cautionary Tale

A couple weeks ago the flood tide that would lift Saga north from Anacortes, Washington to Sucia Island near the Canadian border, started mid-afternoon. The boat was rigged, provisioned and ready to go that morning. The only thing unaccounted for was the compass. Couldnt be found anywhere.

No big deal, these are protected waters where land is always visible and the route well known. Anxious to get underway, we set off. The tide would be against the little boat for the next four to five hours, but after a gentle push west out of Guemes Channel on the ebb, the idea was to sail leisurely at the south end of Bellingham Channel until the flood, then ride the afternoon tide all the way to Sucia Island.

All was well. The day was bright and beautiful. The wind was a bit light and the current steady, so very little forward progress was made all morning. Just to the west a pretty band of fog drifted in off the Strait of Juan de Fuca and along the coast of Cypress Island. Saga was behaving well and making probably two or three knots over the water, yet none over the ground. In fact the set was a bit to the west, which caused no particular concern, it was good to just be sailing.

The fog on the western shore had dissipated as the sun reached its zenith, so imagine my surprise when Saga was suddenly engulfed in mist. Habitually, I looked for the compass which, as we already know, was no where to be found. Cursing my ill fortune, I watched the peaks on Cypress Island disappear as the sun turned to a diffuse milky haze. The regular rhythm of a light fetch was all the directional indication left.  
Saga held her course.

Directly behind me, I heard the toll of a navigational horn on a big ship. I must be drifting south, back into Guemes Channel!

Panic is deadly and must be avoided at all costs. File through all the options. Strike the sails and get the motor going. But then what? No worries, there is a compass function on the GPS. Now some of you may laugh because you know Doryman doesnt use a GPS very often, he depends on his charts and his COMPASS.

The compass function was not hard to find but it took me a few minutes to discover the gadget had to be oriented along the centerline of the boat to give an accurate reading. It didnt help that this little hand held toy has a turtle shell shaped back and will not lay flat on a seat or thwart.

It does no good to have plenty of fuel and a dependable engine if you have no idea where you are or where youre going. The horn on my stern was much louder by now and it was time to get the hell out of here. I flipped to the map function and panned out to get a bearing and imagine my surprise to see "Strait of Juan de Fuca" on the western margin of the tiny screen. The magnitude of my dilemma just set in. I was possibly in the shipping lane for Guemes Channel, and even more disconcerting, might be very near the much more heavily trafficked Rosario Strait. The horn from that freighter was very loud, very close.

This story might have a different ending if the fog had not lifted at that moment. The stark reality was apparent in the mid-afternoon sun. I had indeed drifted southwest into Rosario Strait and was close to three miles from where Id last taken a visual bearing.
I never saw the freighter. (and Im sure they never saw me.)

As I motored back into position, the tide turned and the trip north began. The rest of the day was by turns easy and exciting. Around the east side and up the north end of Cypress Island, Saga again entered the wind tunnel that is Rosario Strait. With all sail set, the motor pushing at an idle and the tide at her back, Saga clocked a top speed of 7.2 knots on a port broad reach toward Orcas Island. Not bad for an eighteen foot boat.

Soon Sucia Island was in sight. The first task, after setting anchor and before dinner, is to find that compass!

To be continued...

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