V3- Early sketches

Clinker's a damn silly way to build a boat in the 21st century: exceeded only by fake clinker... You could make a kind of argument for a pseudo clinker where joins between panels on stringers are overlapped rather than butted to avoid butt joints but still minimise end grain exposure, but you'd regret it as soon as you got on to fairing and painting the bottom...

I've been rebuilding a Moth with semi cold moulded panels. There are two stringers between "chine" and hog, and in some ways really would have been a lot more sensible to do them as separate chines, but the only trouble would be all the butt joints. The strongest advice I can give is always work from the centre to the edge and always have three edges of the panel unconstrained so they are trimmed later rather than try and make them fit. Multiply this advice a hundred times if the panels are heavily curved.

I really strongly advise using glue. Look into the foaming urethane glues, they are far less hassle than epoxy if not quite as friendly to approximate carpenters. I can't see a boat with mechanical fasteners only working unless its just ridiculously heavy. Nails will just get looser and looser.

Edited by JimC - 05 Dec 14 at 12:26pm

Hog is the strip down the middle of the boat.



I'm never really convinced by tape joins. I suppose I've seen too many leaky side tank to floor joins over the years, endlessly replaced and leaking again two weeks later... I think the trouble is that there's not that much stopping the seam opening. They're a valuable addition to glued joints, but not in my opinion a substitute.

If you want to isolate the rigloads, why not build an aluminium space frame, that simply bolts to the hull structure, there is no need to have a hull to support this, just a dolphin striker to support the mast heel loads.  I agree entirely that a cat is the son of hades (I have as much prejudice against cats as you do against Merlins and Solos), but you run the danger of picking the worse aspects of a monohull and combining them with the worse aspects of a multihull, I suspect that you would be better commiting to one or the other ... though I admire your desire to innovate. 

Can't help but admire the blue-sky, out-of-the-box thinking. Gawd only knows if it'll work but good on you for trying.

Originally posted by Noah Steam was our friend when bending ply thru tortuous curves 40 odd years ago!

Steam? How did you do that? Hmm I wonder we used to have a steamer for getting the creases out of clothing samples at exhibitions, would that work?