Can you taste it, the whisky?

Whisky planks, when boat builders celibate the boats they are building for others, they drink a toast when the last of the planks goes on. I prefer Bourbon personally but i can change this tradition when i open my own shop. It is still a great moment, the boats have taken shape and the work shifts from shaping a hull to completion.

**On a side note** I'm sorry but Jack Daniels is college swill, tastes of gasoline and ass, scotch would be better, Bourbon obvious but no one here seems to realize this...

Why all this talk of the alcohol preferences for a whisky planks? We are nearing the end of the planking on the Powell boats. I will introduce their proper names when they are flipped over but, the end of planking is in sight. For the first time on this project i really feel that we are now above Lava, O' what an adventure it will be. I wish i could be on the river with it!

 Here are some shots of the day. A Seattle Times photographer was out to shoot for an upcoming article. So far he was one of the most fun folks we have had. Utterly professional, interested, and fun to talk to.

Here we go...

I'll catch you all tomorrow.

100 Posts!!!

Shoeless Musings has reached 100 posts! The first hundred have been so much fun I cant wait to write the next hundred, i hope you enjoy them as much as i do.

 Here is the progress on the IRH. The stem and transom are now finished, i just need to build the fixtures to attach them to the strong-back.

Ill walk you through the snaps of the process.

Most of this is simply layout and careful wood work, remove material down to the line but leaving the line.

After the bevel is cut, the part is taken back to the loft floor to put the layout lines on. here we have the line marking the bottom,station one, and my reference.

Here's the chine and the sheer lines.

Finally the whole thing.

Then it was onto the transom. Same process but much more layout. 

It's still all about bringing the part down to the line without loosing it. Tedious but quite rewarding when you get something this beautiful. Here you can see the splines holding the three pieces of the transom together. as well as a bunch of the layout lines.

Now with only the bottom bevel left time to finish this project.

She looks fantastic.

 Here is a blurry snap of the two pieces.

Well see what happens tomorrow, but there was great progress today.

An IRH Weekend.

Ah slept in this morning, then went to buy some new shoes. Its bad when your toes start poking through your old ones. Finally it was back to the IRH project. I haven't worked on it in a while but i am hoping to get a big push over spring break, boating season is coming soon and i want a wee little drifter to play in.

 Some scrounging around Eden Saw and i walked away with some Purple Heart and Padouk. You got to love the scrap wood pile, you can't get wood this good in Tennessee.

 Cut splines and glued up the transom, I'll need to put alot of UV protection on the wood to keep the colors bright but i think it will look amazing when she is all finished!

 The stem is the next piece, Yellow Cedar. The wood stinks like hell and gives me a bit of an allergic reaction but its strong, rot resistant and great to work with. After lofting it out it was just a matter of bringing it all down to the line.

 

Hopefully tomorrow i'll get back to the shop and finish up the stem and the transom, then its time to spile for the planking.

If your not bored yet...

So here is what has happened in the last two days. 

Planking is the name of the game still, but as you can see were getting close to having everything planked out. Its amazingly fun work but sorry its not very photogenic.

Here is a look inside the boat, it looks, well it looks like a partly finished boat.

 By the end of Wednesday you could really see the hull forms coming together.

Thursday dawned foggy and rainy, the work continues.

While i will admit i don't know exactly how carvell planking will help me make better river boats, there are some ideas working there way to the surface.

I shutter at the thought.

 So i got a new toy, well toy box. I can't tell you how nice it is to have all my tools in one place, instead of the four i was using before.

Ah the shutter plank. So the shutter is supposed to be one of the hardest planks to fit, there is no wild edge. Its got to fit first try.

I don't think its the hardest thing going, it does take a lot of exacting documentation. So in the above photo i tried something completely different, scribe both sides. This does take some time two or three times longer than the double tab method, but it sure does make one hell of a accurate pattern.

 A little tuneage from the ol' goal zero stereo and let the shavings fly.

 Once all is into shape into the steamer and then pound and clamp into place.

Perfect fit first time. Woot!!