Decks And Handrails

There is now something else that is really going to slow down the construction of the ship and that is news that my wife is expecting our first child, which is due to arrive in September.

Which is great ! :-)

I am going to try and get as much as I can done on the Hull before now and then as no doubt I wont have much spare time come September.

Still I am not going to rush it and ruin it if it takes ten years then it takes ten years.


I am very happy with how the construction has gone up until now with no major problems (obviously a few) it certainly pays to plan a ahead and not rush into anything to quickly.

The hull seems quite reddish in the photo but in reality it is quite brown. The ship is going to be a large model of nearly a metre long when the bow spit is in position, still that's a long way off.

A close up of the 3 butt shift pattern of the deck planking, I purposely left a tiny gap in the butts to make sure that the joints could be seen others wise it would have been easier and quicker to have laid the planks in there full length.

The planks were all cut to 80mm.

A close up of the handrail (you can also see where the upper planks started as these were not yet sealed (varnished)

I also checked before planking that the masts fitted and were sitting at the correct angle, which the seemed to be pretty good.

After cutting off the protruding hull formers above the deck level, I then proceeded to plank the inside of the hull as this was still lime, this made the ships sides very strong as it was now three layers thick (Walnut outside/ Lime centre/ Walnut inside)

The 4 decks were all planked using a 3 butt shift pattern, this took a surprising amount of time but very rewarding.

The handrails were then fitted and glued into position, and pins that had been made earlier using a electric drill and file (see photo below) were applied to the corners, this looked nice as well as added some strength.

So renovating the house was now finished (after 2 years) and it was time to start the boat again, it took me a good few hours to familiarise myself with where I was in the build.