1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

So Alan, there is going to be a next time? Your ambition is amazing!

Can't wait to see your clamp set up for the sides Alan. We have been head scratching on a boat project for a little while now that we want to plywood the sides prior to planking. The clamping has us a little concerned...until now. I will sit back with a Rum and Coke and wait for you to do it first.

Amazing job, I enjoy the updates. Between your wood project
and now that winter has set in, Sanity will surely fire her glass
project back up. I get my CC dose.
So have at it, I am ready to be entertained!

Only had a few hours to work on the boat this weekend but I have started the side planking.   First step was to put anything I wasn't going to need away and try to make a larger work area.   Then I put together a planking work bench, it's 16' long so I can work on an entire strake at one time. It's built so I can clamp on either side or the center of each plank. After fitting the first pair of planks sunday the work bench is a success, with all the clamping access it gives me another set of hands.





Here's the router jig a friend of mine made up, it's mounted to a small laminate trimmer that my Dad used for years in the kitchen remodeling business. The router's been retired for a while but has found a new life, the compact size is exactly what is needed for the job.






The idea with the router jig is to position the new plank on the side of the boat and then use the router jig to guide the router along the path of the preceeding plank, in this case the chine board. If you do it correctly and don't stop, waver or stutter you'll get a cut edge on the new plank that follows the shape of the prior plank exactly. After a few practice passes it's easy to see how this is going to produce a first class joint, far better than anything I could fit by hand.



And here's the first full strake fitted and ready to be installed some night this week.





That represents about 8 hours of work but I'm certain I'll pick up speed until I get to the planks that need to be steam bent of course. It sure is nice seeing this stage kick off, feels like the home stretch even though there's a long way to go yet.

A side note for Pete because I'm sure he'll pick up on it is that aft plank is discolored and had a bad grain pattern but it is below the waterline and will be painted. Trying to use some of the not so nice pieces where they won't be seen and save the nice ones for important areas of the boat.

81nautique wrote: A side note for Pete because I'm sure he'll pick up on it is that aft plank is discolored and had a bad grain pattern but it is below the waterline and will be painted. Trying to use some of the not so nice pieces where they won't be seen and save the nice ones for important areas of the boat.

Yes but I immediately noticed it was below the waterline!!

More detail on the significance of the workbench and how the router jig works?

C-Bass wrote: Does the router jig work similar to the "scribing" method of matching stringers to a hull. Except here you're actually cutting with the router as you go along.

I think that would be a good comparison to what's happening. Next weekend when I fit another set of planks I'll take more photos and document the process from start to finish. Basically the router is following the fixed plank and cutting a mirror image of it in the clamped plank for a perfect fit.

Bump to the top...

I am hoping for an update...or maybe to much snow there to work?!

Update tommorrow night guys, one more day off before I head back to work. Making some good progress.

Well thought I would walk you through the process of fitting a row of planks on the boat. Bear with me, the pictures are not neccesarily from the same plank but I think you'll get the jist of whats involved.

The plank stock itself started as 5/4 or 1" thick stock that was resawn on a band saw to 7/16" thick and then planed down to 3/8" planks. This process gives me 2 exact mirror image pieces of stock, one for each side of the boat and is refered to as Book Matching. When done, one side of the boat should mirror the other in both grain pattern and color.

Before I removed the old planks they were numbered as to their location on the boat and I'll use these as patterns for the new planks. First step is to trace the old plank adding 1" to the width to allow for router fitting. This is where the planking table comes in as it's 16' long and just gives a nice surface to work on an entire length at one time. You can see the limber straight edge used to continue the pencil edge where planks where damaged during removal.




Rough cut to size with the jig saw.



The board is then clamped in place and routed until the fit is perfect, some take 6-7 passes before it just right.


This is a dry fit plank, the router follows the edge of the top board and copies any irregularites to the lower board for a perfect fit.



As I move up the side of the boat the forward planks require steaming, this slows me down quite a bit but it is the right way to do it. Steaming takes just enough stress out of the board to ensure the fasteners at the butt joint don't tear out later.
This board is steamed and cooling clamped in place.


After the plank edges are routed they're clamped back on the table and marked again using the old planks as templates. Cut with the jig saw and hand planed smooth. Once final fitting is complete the back side and ends of the planks are coated with CPES and left to cure over nite and installed the next day.


5200 adhesive is applied and troweled on and the plank is fastened in place, each full length of planks requires 108 screws all predrilled and counter sunk. After installing a plank excess 5200 must be cleaned up with Xylol.



So far I have 2 planks on one side and three on the other completed, very happy with the results but this is going to take some time.

Fantastic work. Does the router bit sometimes kiss the first level of planking, especially up by the stem, where there would be some rock in the base? Are you using a spiral bit to reduce chatter?

Finally, what you are doing would be sequence matching the boards on both sides of the hull. Book matching is the technique where you would take that re-sawn board and open it up like the leaves of a book and install it that way. This would produce a mirror image of the grain pattern along the glue line.

As always, very nice.

65 'cuda wrote: Fantastic work. Does the router bit sometimes kiss the first level of planking, especially up by the stem, where there would be some rock in the base? Are you using a spiral bit to reduce chatter? Finally, what you are doing would be sequence matching the boards on both sides of the hull. Book matching is the technique where you would take that re-sawn board and open it up like the leaves of a book and install it that way. This would produce a mirror image of the grain pattern along the glue line. As always, very nice.

Thank you Gary, The bit is always 1/8" away from the installed plank due to the lip on the base plate, there's no way it can hit. The last 4" up at the stem must be fit with a block plane though as you can't follow through with the cut.   The router base is small enough it follows the plank even where it has bends/twist in it with out issue. Yes on the upspiral bit, very nice cut but still a little chatter because it's hard to get the clamped piece completely tight to the boat.

I think you're technically correct on the Book matching but it seems common to call it that in the boat building circles. Your explaination makes perfect sense though.

I see that the bit could not hit the installed plank, but it looks like it could kiss the plywood planking underneath?

jbear wrote: well it was worth the wait....just an unbelievable treat to follow this. I am kinda at a loss to say much else...

I think John summed it up. Fabulous work Alan. I might just have to make a trip up there for some Chicago Beers and see this thing in person. I hope the guys at HQ are watching this thread.

You Da' Man!

Very nice work Alan. This is a lot of fun to follow, thanks for keeping us updated.

108 screws per plank... whoa! Anyone keeping track of how many screws it will take to put this back together?