Recent Projects around the boat
There’s been a lot going on here. Lately we’ve been working on the deck seams. The apprentices have been stripping off the old tar that seals the top of the seams, and selectively reefing out seams.
Reefing is the process of pulling out old oakum caulking from seams in preparation for re-caulking these seams. These are reefing hooks and mallets that we use.
Many of these hooks have been made in house by Dean.
In the areas where the old oakum has been reefed out, Gino has been caulking deck seams.
In some areas, the existing caulking is in good shape, and just gets pounded down into the seam again to make sure it’s tight. This is called “horsing” or “hawsing” the seams.
The axe-shaped tool being used by the apprentice on the left is a Hawsing Iron, and the big wooden mallet is called a Beetle.
When the seams have been caulked and horsed, they’re sealed with hot asphalt. We melt it in a big pot off of the boat, fill up this funnel-shaped applicator, and stream the hot liquid into the seams.
Any spills and uneven pouring will be scraped off of the deck later.
Jamie’s been working on the port side bulwarks planking,
Here he’s working with a newly steamed plank. You can see the variety of clamps that we use to bend the plank to the frames. The red-handled F-clamps hold the plank tightly against the frames, while the wedges and lengths of wood force the plank down tightly against its mate.
When you get down to the last plank, called a “shutter,” you have to change your technique a bit. Here’s the starboard shutter plank just after steaming.
It may be a bit hard to tell from this photo, but the light-colored plank is clamped on top of another plank, not onto the frames. Here’s a closeup.
And in case you’re lost about where in the boat we are, these photos are of the inside of the boat, at the bow. Here’s the very front of the boat where the bowsprit will protrude above the stem.
Ok, back to the planking. We clamp on top of other planks because there is now only the gap for the shutter plank left open. There wouldn’t be room for both the shutter plank and the clamps in that space, so we can’t clamp the shutter directly to the frames. The solution is to clamp the last plank next to the space where it will eventually go. This bends the plank into almost exactly the shape it needs to be for final installation.
The width of the shutter is then carefully checked against the space that it will go into, and adjusted to fit exactly.
And I mean it when I say exactly. We try to stay within a few thousandths to make sure that the fit is very snug.
When the numbers say that the fit should be right, we line up the plank and start tapping it into place. If the fit is right, the plank will go in with some solid thumping. We use a rope to hold the middle section of the plank up as we go, and a 2×4 wedging against the plank to help align everything as the plank is fit.
Starting at the forward end of the boat, we fit, drill, and use galvanized spikes to fasten the plank in place. With the prebend and tight fit, there’s no need for additional clamping.
Down in the fo’c'sle (pronounced “folk sull”), Matt and some of the crew have been making shims to fit between the ceiling and deck knees and deck beams.
The shim is the darker wood just above the lighter ceiling planking. Some years ago, the deck was raised slightly to correct some sagging in the ship, and now we’re filling in the gaps left by that procedure. Here, Matt is planing a shim to fit snugly.
Chris has been working on new frames to fix the zipper frame problem. Here he’s removed an old frame, and is driving the spikes the previously fastened the ceiling planks to that frame.
Kevin has been working on replacing the box that surrounds the rudder shaft.
To orient: Here’s a panorama. We’re at the center of the boat at the stern.
The panorama makes the flat transom look curved. The stern post is the part painted orange. You can see an iron gudgeon fastened to the rudder post in the black area. The rudder pintles drop into the gudgeons, forming a hinge that allows the rudder to swing.
The box that Kevin has been building extends out from the upper part of the stern post up to the main deck. Here’s a close-up of that opening in the deck.
You can see the finished box below the deck.
And then looking down through the box to the staging far below.
The gudgeon is the round metal part visible just below the box.
Shawn has been installing cross-trunnels into the new frames.
He drills through the frames and then connects them with extra long trunnels driven into these holes. The advantage of using trunnels over metal rods is that we don’t have to worry about hitting a trunnel with drilling for the planking fasteners.
Some of the apprentices have ben setting copper rivets that extend from the inside of the boat through the frames. One person inside the boat hits the head of the rod to mushroom it over (a process called “peening”) while another person outside the boat uses a heavy chunk of metal to keep the rod from being driven out of the boat. This chunk of metal is called a “bucking iron” and it can be made of anything at all, the more massive the better. A big sledge hammer, suspended by rope can work,
as can a length of heavy steel rod, also strung up to the boat.
They call this one the Buckmaster 3000.
The volunteers have been working hard stripping paint from the topsides of the boat.
Jeff has been fairing the frames, getting ready to resume planking now that the zipper frames are almost done.
Walt has been cutting a new section of waterway to replace a rotted section.
The waterway goes along the edge of the deck and forms a transition between the deck and the cap rail. He’s got a section cut out here (sitting on the actual part) so that you can see how it looks in profile.
He’s also drawn how it goes. I’ve labeled his drawing for you.
After finishing with the waterway, he’s moved on to making new cap rails.
Cap rails go on top of the frames, and cap them. They’re usually at or just above the level of the deck.
Whew. Busy around here!