Real Boat Carpentry

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve ever built a plywood kayak from a kit and then think that you could actually be a paid boatbuilder, then you should try to fit a plank on a traditional plank-on-frame boat.  I’m not boasting mind you, I forgot how difficult this type of work is myself.  I go along my day epoxying things together, putting pretty paint on boat parts, and what not.  Then I have to do some real woodwork like, and I can do it alright, but it takes quite a bit more presence of mind than most modern boat work.  Imagine this:  you have a squashed football shaped piece of wood (plank), that has to fit in between two beveled surfaces with a “light tight” fit.  Oh, did I mention that it’s curved and twisted, that there’s no good way to clamp the thing, and, by the way, it’s curved in cross-section to fit the round boat shape.  Wow, my brain hurts.  Now I have to fit the other side.