Amas - Planking
We are planking... For the amas we prepared two formats of planks ... one for the straight flat area and one for the curved sheer and bilge area. The flat area will be planked with 55x10mm and the curves with 25x10mm planks. Wider planks allow us to cover bigger areas faster with less epoxy usage, and less fairing. Narrower planks let us copy the curves more precise with again less fairing which means also less epoxy.
Setting the position of the first plank was a big deal. I asked Cristian for advice, so he sent me the 3D model with an option to position the first plank. I extracted the measurements from the computer and placed them on the frame. Then I checked everything with the laser. Yes, it looks good enough to set the first plank.
Since we build the amas in two parts, for each ama we have two halves, I still have 3 more attempts to adjust the position of the first plank. I learn as I go... hihi...
Thing is, the amas are designed as one unit without hull and deck on it as separate pieces. The whole amas can be build by planking. The sheer and bilge line both have a curve which I have to take into account. Of course the bilge area curve is obvious, but the sheer soft transition from side to deck is not as usual. Or was not until now when already a few boats designer flirt with curves and make our boat builders life more difficult as it already is. Just kidding, I love the sheer curve Cristian designs... Already on our first boat. The deck bow-aft curve is perfect and lots of people pointed that out too. Then there is the best way if planks go as straight as possible along the curves, avoiding as much as possible a diagonal twist. I do my best. I definitely will add some pictures from the planking here...
I am very happy we have made the extra effort and produced bead and cove planks. They lock each other together and hold even without epoxy. Not that I would keep it that way. We prime them first to prevent epoxy soaking into pores too much and then leave dry spots in the joints during gluing. Yes, it's more time consuming, but I sleep much better.
My happy and seamless planking came to an end... at least I though so, when I reached the moment, the cove which I feed with epoxy started to face downwards. What now... luckily I had a brilliant idea. What if I make one plank with the bead on both side. That would solve my problem and I can start feeding the cove with epoxy the right way up again. I am going to call it conversion plank. I have to start to think again the simple way. Looking back at my first project... I lived on a farm and it was a very nice and simple life with lots of walks in the forest, sitting and enjoying the view and beer also. It was in Bavaria. We had 3 cats which we named nosy, stinky and lady, a girl and two boys. Hopefully I didn’t offend them by identifying them this way. And believe it or not, they accompanied me every evening to the forest where I walked to calm down and also to breathe something else than dust and epoxy. I have never ever seen cats act like dogs. Sorry... back to boat building.
Just made my super brilliant simple idea named conversion plank and it seems to works... Let's plank. Hopefully my bright moments didn’t reach the end...
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| Amas - Planking | ||
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