VOLUNTEER is pulled out of the shed into the sunlight and transported to Noakes Boatyard in North Sydney, where we fitted the deadwood and bolted it on, then bolted on the lead keel, fitted the rudder, got the motor working and stepped the mast.
I built the mast, boom and gaff for VOLUNTEER several years ago before I set up the moulds on the keel, because I knew I did not have enough room to work at the spar bench with the boat set up. Because the idea of the YouTube series had not occurred to me at the time I only have stills from that time, but in order to show you the techniques of sparmaking I recently built VOLUNTEER’s spinnaker pole and filmed the process to illustrate the techniques. In the video I also show how sparmaking techniques can be used on other items like the spreaders and the tiller.
Normally in a carvel-planked new-build the ballast keel and deadwood would be fitted to the keel , and the moulds set up on top, but I didn’t have the height in my shed to do that. The plans allowed me to build the boat on the plank keel and add the deadwood later, and now it’s time to do that. I bought several baulks of Spotted Gum over a year ago and in this video I show how I shaped each piece and fitted them together, and I show how I built the rudder, also of Spotted Gum. https://youtu.be/btXZ_6F6iAA?si=PtDjRPNq44ihn_zE
I’ve almost finished building my 24-foot Ranger class gaff-rigged sloop and it’s time I revealed the name. I chose the name years ago and I explain why I did, with a discussion on how important it is to choose a name that has some significance for you. The name is revealed at a party at our place with the other owners of Ranger class boats and my wooden boatbuilding mates who have worked on the fleet over the years with guest of honour Bill Gale aged 98 whose father Cliff designed the boat in 1933. The second half of the video shows how I carved the name on the transom, progressing through lots of practice carving then finally to carving the lettering into the Huon Pine transom. https://youtu.be/j027Nf9qsZM?si=kkqC8r0oAikG_DCW
It’s quite late in the piece to be lofting the ballast keel , well in most new carvel builds it is! But I didn’t have the height in my shed to do it that way, instead I built the boat on its plank keel, the plan being to add the almost 2′ (600mm) of deadwood and the lead ballast keel towards the end of the build, which is getting closer. In the video I explain how I lofted, that is, drew up the shape and the sections of the ballast keel which uses identical techniques to lofting a whole boat, starting with drawing an accurate grid and plotting the shapes out in 3 views, plan (from above), the profile view (elevation) and the body plan or sections (end elevation).
I show how I built a plywood and strip-planked plug to send to the foundry so they can cast it in a sand mould, and then we see the lead being delivered, and what a beautiful casting it is! I cast several keels in the 1980s and 90s, and decided I was going to let the professionals do it from then on. https://youtu.be/eB_YAxz0FQs?si=_z87FtMvOyFGvYFJ
The 24′ (7.4m) gaff sloop I am building has a raised deck but no cabin structure as such. A sliding hatch continues into a traditional butterfly skylight, and there is a separate forward hatch to a design that is common to most of the fleet, one that allows air movement all the time. The video discusses the timbers I used, the techniques and the sanding and finishing. All without using any Teak!
It’s been up for a while, but I’ve been a bit slow to catch up. This video shows how I laid the deck in 2 layers, the first being tongue and groove Western Red Cedar, V-jointed underneath and painted gloss white before final fitting. This gives the look from below of a traditional deck. Then I put a layer of Hoo[ {one marine plywood over that, scarfed together on the job to make a continuous sheet. The I laid dynel (acrylic) cloth over the whole deck and turned it down over the edges just onto the hull, all set in WEST System epoxy resin. A great combination of traditional look with modern methods. https://youtu.be/Iz_dIUB4vbM?si=v_cGxXJgNYSKNUTZ
All of the interior trim has been fitted and varnished, all in Australian Red Cedar (Toona Ciliata), a well-used and well- loved classic furniture timber in Australia, a distant relative of Mahogany. This is not meant to be a woodworking lesson, but it contains many tips from my decades of wooden boatbuilding, including how to apply a bit of hand-shaping to improve the look of machine- made trim.https://youtu.be/WP77xJSp6-A
The Ranger hull is completely caulked and payed (seams filled) and this video shows how I did it. I point out that here in Australia we follow the English system of caulking, where the tools, materials and methods are slightly different from the way things are done in the USA and Canada. Full of tips from my long career in wooden boatbuilding. https://youtu.be/0H1wDDVxJ-c
The cockpit has been in for quite a while but not permanently. Gluing it together and sheathing it had to wait until the back of the cabin was in, and that couldn’t happen until the engine was in. I discuss the choice I made to use marine plywood in the cockpit, and show how I scarfed the plywood together and how I sheathed it with dynel cloth in WEST System epoxy resin. The back of the cabin is all built from Queensland Maple, as was most of the Ranger fleet.
Episode 18 of my series on Traditional Carvel Planking: Bronze Castings, Patterns to Polishing is now up on YouTube, on the newly re-named SMITHY’S BOATSHED Channel. Boats like the one I’m building need bronze fittings, and although many can be purchased off the shelf like portholes (Episode 15) and seacocks (Episode 16), many need to be custom-made. If you do the pattern making and polishing yourself these can be reasonably cheap.
Just a short video to update everyone on progress. I needed the engine in the boat to start working out where everything associated with it goes, including the removable engine box. This video shows how I lifted it into position.
Ian Smith discusses seacocks, the different types available, where to put them and how to fit them to a carvel-planked hull.
The 15th episode of the Carvel Planking series shows how portholes were fitted to the Ranger-class sloop. The whole process of deciding where the portholes are to go and locating them for the best appearance is covered.
It’s been a while coming but I eventually had enough footage to put Episode 14 together. It’s basically about how to shape the edges of flat surfaces such as bulkheads and shelves to fit against curved surfaces like the hull sides.
It took me a few weeks but the hull is now faired and primed. Fairing is getting rid of any bumps and hollows in the planking and on a carvel hull most of the work is done with hand planes, followed by sanding boards (“torture boards”) .
A carvel-planked boat has many hundreds of fastening holes to plug as well as a few repairs to plank surfaces where knots are exposed. Here’s how I went about it.
Knees are used to brace the hull and deck in the main load areas like the beams adjacent to the mast, cockpit and cabin structures and in the bow and stern. Ian Smith shows how he fitted knees into the 24′ Ranger-class gaff sloop from natural crooks of tea tree and from laminated knees, from cutting out to fastening off.
The deck beams, cockpit structure and the carlins for hatches are all going in to the 24′ Ranger class new build. Ian Smith shows how to lay out the shapes of the deck beams, how to laminate them and how to fit them to the sheer clamp, as well as fitting the hatch carlins, the fore and aft members between deck beams.