I started building a John Welsford Pathfinder in July 2008. The boat was completed in Oct, 2010.

This blog now records our use of the boat, but documentation of building the boat can be found in the archives.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

All planking on. Planking was fun for me, and surprisingling easy after everything I'd been through. I used both methods that I had read about in Greg Rossel's book "Building Small Boats", both of which involve a spiling batten. After following the process, cutting out the plank, and placing it on the boat, I couldn't believe the accuracy that this process was achieving. (ok, accuracy is relative and I am not a woodworker, but the planks were fitting very nicely, twist and all).

All planks come in 3 pieces, since this is a 17ft boat and most ply is 8ft at longest. I decided it was easiest to scarf them in place. This sounds hard, but just means that you fit the first piece, fit the next piece overlapped by your scarf amount, then cut the scarf into each one. I think this is actually much easier than trying to put together a complete 18ft plank.

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