A Project Named Clancy - VIII. Laying the Deck

Several pieces of support structure have to be installed prior to installing the deck, including the cockpit carlins, fore and aft kingplanks, mast step and tube, and the gunnels.  First, however, it is a good time to sand all of the epoxy inside the boat smooth -- it is far easy to reach with everything open and accessible.  I only chose to sand the cockpit area as the fore and aft compartments will be sealed up tight. 

The carlins are comprised of two piece of 1/4" plywood each that slot between the fore and aft bulkheads and are bowed out to also attach to the partial bulkheads.  The two piece of plywood are laminated together with epoxy in place -- doing so allows them to easily bow outboard slightly to land on the partial bulkhead (I have little doubt that a single piece of 1/2" ply would work well too, though the bend would be slightly more difficult).

Next up, the gunnels are milled out.  It takes a pass through the thickness planer and several runs through the tablesaw with the blade set at multiple angles to get to the specified crosssection.

The gunnels are glued onto the outside of the hull, one at a time.  The plans specify additionally holding these in from the inside of the hull with bronze screws, a step that can be spared if you have enough clamps and are willing to wait of the epoxy to dry between sides.   The first gunnel can run long past the bow, and then get trimmed to the correct angle along the centerline with a pull saw. 

The other side will need to get fit snuggly at the bow prior to installation.  You can get close with the saw, and then fine tune with a rasp.  After both sides are installed, the aft end can be trimmed flush with the transom, and generous roundovers can be added to the bow and aft corner with a sander or file.

Next comes the fitting of the kingplanks, made from 1/2" plywood.  The aft kingplank runs from the aft bulkhead to the transom, where it is beveled to match the angle of the transom.  The aft end is supported by a small timber cleat that is glued in ahead of time.   The foreward kingplank  runs from the forward bulkhead, along top of the daggerboard case and deck beam, to the stem.  The kingplank sweeps with the shearline and has the get clamped down the deck beam to take its proper shape. The foward end  gets a bevel so that it sits firmly against the stem.  Both the fore and aft deck beams get glued in with epoxy.

The forward kingplank has a hole cut in it through for the mast tube passes.  The Clancy plans call for the mast to be made of aluminum with a circular crossection, and thus specifies a length of PVC pipe od the proper inner diameter for the mast tube.  My mast will be made of spruce, with a square cross-section.  As a result, rather that using a piece of PVC pipe for the mast tube, as specified, I had to build a custom, square, mast tube out of 1/4" marine plywood, coated with epoxy inside and out and held together with tiny thickened epoxy fillets.

The mast step is made from two layers of 3/4" plywood, epoxied together.  The upper layer has a hole (or in my case, a square hole) cut out of the middle, into which the lower end of the mast tube fits.

The bottom of the mast step is epoxied and screwed into the keelson, and the mast tube is slipped through the kingplank and into the step, and the glued in place.  If everything is in the correct alignment, the mast step will be at a right angle to the kingplank. 

And the top of the tube is trimmed flush with the top of the kingplank

The now-familiar step of drilling a hole and using a flush trim router bit to open up the daggerboard slot is again used to cut the hole in the kingplank.

With al the supporting structure in place, the boat is ready for the deck to be installed.  The undersides of the deck get sealed with two coats of epoxy prior to installing the deck.

The deck halves are oversized and need to be trimmed to fit snuggly against each other on the centerline.  First, one side of the deck is set in place, overhanging the gunnels and centerline, and is held in place with some temporary screws driven into the kingplank and clamps around the gunnels.  The centerline of the boat is then marked on the plywood (a laser level is a helpful too in this)

The deck half is then trimmed along the line (I was out of garage space and had to do the trimming outside.

The process is repeated for the other half of the deck.

A trial fit before making everything permanent is a good idea.

When ready, thickened epoxy is applied to all the mating surfaces.  This includes the tops of the bulkheads and cleats, the kingplanks, the carlinesm the hull sides, and the gunnels.  I found that applying big beads of epoxy with a ziplock-turned-pastry bag, and then spreading with a disposable brush was the mode efficient approach.

The decks are then dropped into place, screwed down again with temporary screws along the kingplanks and clamped to the carlins and gunnels.  This is one of those occasions where you get to use every clamp you own (no matter how many you own)!

In a familiar ritual, holes are opened up in the daggerboard opening and most step and a flush trim router is used to open things up.

There will still be substantial overhangs everywhere.  

Once everything is dry, a flush-trim bit on a router is used to trim the deck back so that it is flush with the outside face of the gunnels and the transom.  The decking overhanging the inside of the cockpit is similarly trimed

The deck can then be sanded smooth.  The sander or a 1/4 inch roundover bit on a router can be used to ease the edges of the deck. 

Per the plans, the tops of the decks should get sealed with several coats of epoxy.  I went overboard and went for the added toughness and abrasion resistance of 4oz fiberglass.

After a few fill coats of epoxy, I sanded the deck smooth.

The plans specify using a 4" wide strip of 1/4" plywood as a piece of deck trim.  I was feeling fancy and instead went with a 3" wide piece of padauk that I planed to 1/4", eased the edges with a router and coated with epoxy.

I had seen photos of another Clancy that had a "spray guard."  I liked the looks of it and made my own out of padauk -- the result is more aesthetic than functional.    

A Project Named Clancy - VII. Flip and Fillet

With the exterior of the hull complete, the boat can come off the mold.  But first, the temporary screws that held the bulkheads in place have to be removed.  It is a great deal of "fun" to reach around under the jig, find the screws and remove them, especially when you are storing another boat underneath the jig!

Could not resist a test fit of the deck at this point.

This part was extra credit.  To ensure the shearline was perfectly fair, a stiff batten was clamped to it...

... and a small hand plane was then used to take off any high spots.

Two "partial bulkheads" was tacked in with superglue to port and starboard halfway between the fore and aft bulkheads.  To eventually support the deck structure, timber cleats are attached to these partial bulkheads, as well as forward face of the forward bulkhead and the aft face of the aft bulkhead. 

Forward, the deck beam is tacked into place.

Next, all of the plywood joints get big epoxy fillets, reinforced with fiberglass tape.  Epoxy is mixed and thickened with wood flour to a peanut butter consistency, and poured into a 1 gallon ziplock back.  One corner of the bag is snipped off with a pair of scissors, turning it into a makeshift "pastry bag".  Long beads of epoxy are squeezed out along all of the interior joints in the boat, and then shaped into a cove using a "fillet tool" (usually 1"-2" wide strip of 1/4" thick plywood with once end shaped into a semi circle).

Strips of fiberglass tape are laid on top of them to add strength to the joints.  I had 9oz tape handy, but 6 oz is probably more than sufficient.  

I pre-cut all of the strips of tape prior to laying down the fillets

The tape is then laid down while the fillets are still wet. 

The tape is then wet out using unthickened epoxy.

After that cures, the entire inside of the boat is sealed up with two coats of epoxy.

A Project Named Clancy - VI. Planking the Hull

Planking the Clancy starts with installing the bottom panels.  The panels are set on the backbone, with the foreward tip lined up with the centerline of the boat, and the outside edges lined up to be flush with the edges of the bulkheads.  The forward end can be clamped to the keelson, and the middle of the panels can be screwed to the keelson using temporary screws with plywood pads.  The panels will overhang the transom somewhat.

This is pretty simple, but after being spoiled by modern CAD-designed stitch and glue boats, the lack of refined/developed geometry becomes apparent.  The inboard edges of the hull bottoms are straight lines, meaning that, when bent into a three dimensional shape, there will be a gap between the panels at the aft end. This is not apparent on the New Yankee Workshop videos, and "Build a Clancy" is not explicit about it, though seems to imply that this gap is fine since it will be covered up by the keel; I chose to rip a thin, tapered piece of plywood to fill the gap.

Gap between the panels.  Looking forward, you can see 

a hint of the "inverted V" that the bottom naturally wants to take.

Gap filled with plywood and epoxy (after bottom panels glued down)

The other thing that becomes obvious at this point is that due to the deadrise of the aft bulkhead and transom, and dead flat bottoms of the forward bulkhead and temporary bulkhead, the bottom panels want to take a convex, inverted-V shape forward.  This is no surprise, since plywood only likes to bend in conic sections.  It takes quite a bit of force when the side panels are installed to flatten it out.

 

After a dry fit, the keelson and edges of the bulkheads/transom are painted with thickened epoxy and the panels are set in place, again held with temporary screws into the keelson and transom.  I also heldt the outboard edges of the bottoms against the bulkheads and tacked them in place with some superglue and a shot of accelerant.

Next, to mate up tightly with the side panels, the edges of the bottom are beveled with a hand plane to match the angle of the bulkheads.

In a typical stitch and glue boat, the sides would be stitched to the bottom and bulkheads using copper of steel wire stitches.  The Clancy calls it's method stitch and glue, but it is not the same process.  Instead of stitching, the side panels are first screwed into the stem, and then you work aft, pushing the panel against the bottom panel and tacking them together with glue.  The Clancy instructions call for using hot glue, but I used dabs of superglue, spritzed with accelerant instead: it is faster, the bond is a little stronger, and you are not left with globbies of hot glue everywhere.

At the foward end, the bottom panels have to be pushed down the meet the sides, while the sides are being pushed in.  Care must also be taken to make sure the sides are fully in contact with the bulkhead.  The method is fairly rapid, but does not provide for much adjustability and really requires a second set of hands to pull off successfully.

Test fit of the sides

With the sides tacked in place, the boat should be strong enough for it's eventual removal from the jig.  For some extra insurance, I mixed up some thickened epoxy, and reached under the jig, inside to the boat to place some epoxy mini-fillet "tack welds" along the seams

After all this, the edges of the sides and be cleaned up and rounded over with a hand plane and sander.

The stem also gets cleaned up...

so that the cutwater can be glued on

I installed mine over long, and then trimmed it to length once the glue had dried, and faired it in with a sander.

The daggerboard slot also has to be opened up again.  I drilled a starter hole, and then used a flush trim bit in the router to open up the slot, being sure to seal the edges of the slot with epoxy afterwards. 

The instructions for Clancy call for reinforcing the exterior seams with fiberglass tape, and sealing the rest of the hull with epoxy.  I chose to go the extra mile and sheath the entire hull with fiberglass.

After three coats of epoxy, the hull gets sanded smooth.

There's a boat in the middle, a boat above,
a boat below, a boat to the left, a boat to the right...

After all of this, I was ready to lay the keel.  I first temporarily installed it so that I could open up the daggerboard slot, again using a flush cut router bit.

Similar to the keelson, the forward tip of the keel gets cut to the shape of the bow.  It is then pulled off the boat, all the corners are rounded over, and it get sealed with several coats of epoxy...

Before getting glued permanently into place.

After the epoxy has dried, the temporary screw holes get filled with thickened epoxy.  I also ran a very small fillet around the whole perimeter of the keel.