Planking started

Today we finally could start the planking of our wooden boat project.

Now we left the first to planks to settle after the steaming. Next step will be to fasten the planks and turn the boat around and continue with the planking. Soon we will see the shape of our boat.

 

Modules of a wooden boat

Earlier I didn't see wooden boat building as something modular, I more thought it as one single process of creating. 

Fore some weeks now we have been working on the main basic parts of the boat. 

The stem formed and glued.

The stem installed

 

The stern 

We had long discussions with our teacher about the design of the stern. Finally we decided to make a curved one. The main reason was the nice look. After we started the work and found out that it was not that straight forward to just make it, our teachers comment was that he gave us alternatives and we chose the most simple one. But we are all here for learning. 

The parts formed

The stern glued

 The stern installed

After some days planing and gluing the keel starts to get its shape.

After a few weeks working on different modules that later will become a boat I have changed my mind. Wooden boat building is very much a modular process. At least until now.

Second day behind and we are up in full speed. Our teacher told us the first day that learning by doing is the way to get things done. Today in the morning we started by shortly going through the EU Recreational Craft Directive, to get some background info for deciding the boat project we will start with.
After this we got a short overview in form of a photo collage of what the second year students built during their first year.

Then it was our turn to take a look at different plans for our first boat building project. It was quite clear that it will be something traditional.
















The decision was made fast and it will be a traditional styled gig 5.80 m long with an inboard engine.
From the drawing in scale 1:25 we started to measure and calculate the real measures for a 1:1 drawing.

Three hours later we had managed to calculations and create the drawings onto craft paper in scale 1:1.

And everything approved by our teacher after some small corrections.







With this speed I just wonder how far we will come during this week.

My hands are not made only for hitting a keyboard between 9 and 5. This is something I have realized during the years sitting in the office doing it. Three years ago I visited a kayak-workshop during their opening day. From that day onward I started dreaming of building my own kayak,  which would be perfect therapy for me to be able to hit the keyboard during office hours. So I started the project with reading about kayak building on the web. One of the best sites where I learned a lot is www.thomassondesign.com/en/. I ended ordering the plans for a Black Pearl kayak and started the building project in the garage. I really enjoyed seeing the wood being shaped with my hands and then later to be able to sit in the kayak I have built and paddle around in the beautiful archipelago of southwestern Finland.
This summer I and most of my colleagues got the news that our keybord hitting is not needed anymore. So during the summer I have been thinking a lot of what I would like to do when I grow big. After a lot of thinking I decided that I want to learn more of what has been my hobby the last years. So tomorrow I will start studying wooden boat building in Livia College in Parainen.

This blog will be about my journey into wooden boat building. Welcome and joint the journey and start following my blog.