Pooduck finishing questions

[mwybo]

Hi, I am in the final stages of completing a Pooduck skiff. I still need to make the spars, sail, and rudder over the winter. I need some more experienced opinions on a few items:
1. The plans do not call for a drain. Do I need one and is a transom drain (brass sleeve with rubber stopper) or a garboard drain preferable in this boat

2. I will install a canvas covered rubber gunwale guard. Preferences for tacking or screwing it on ? I have seen both techniques mentioned in various articles. It seems I might need fewer holes with screws. It seems a shame to put several hundred tack holes into the hull at this point.

3. I cut a nice piece of 1" mahagony for the tiller and now it has warped along its length. I clamped it for a week to try to bend it back but no change. Any suggestions for getting it back straight.

4. Finally, any suggestions for size and type of anchor for this boat. A folding grapnel or a mushroom would be the easiest to manage but I am not sure about the weight required to hold the boat in a light breeze.

Thanks in advance. Here are a few pictures (I hope)
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2131748286&idx=1

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2131748286&idx=2

Try this:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2131748286&idx=1

[ 12-12-2005, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: mwybo ]

[Garth Jones]

That's a really pretty boat. I like the open gunwales - very elegant. I would think you would want some sort of drain, probably at a low point (ie, the garboard).

About your piece of warped mahogany - unfortunately it's unlikely to bend back just with clamping. If you have a bit of extra width, you could carefully rip it (a bandsaw would be best for this), joint the edges flat, and glue it back together on a flat surface. If you lose too much thickness doing that, another layer of mahogany will make up the differnce. Or, you could use a contrasting wood for a neat effect. Maple and walnut look good (IMHO) with mahogany.

My boat (a Ness Yawl) is finished with a bit of mahogany and a bunch of ash. The tiller will be a laminated combination of two woods.

Hope this helps.

Garth

[jimendel]

Nice looking boat! In my humble opinion, stainless steel decking screws are the best and easiest fasteners to use in boat building. Finding stainless 1 inchers is sometimes not easy though.
As far as anchors go, I went with a 1.5 pound folding grapnel. My boat is about the same size as yours.

[almeyer]

Your Pooduck looks really nice. I also used mahogany and ash for my tiller. At first I thought it was a little gaudy, but I got used to it. :D I was also worried about the rudder blade warping, so I laminated it from mahog and red oak. The thought was that I wanted the harder oak on the leading edge for ding resistance and at the pivot point, the strips of mahog was just a nice filler.I borrowed this idea from Don Maurer. As for the anchor, I was able to find a Danforth type that had a PVC coating on it. That's really nice, as it's a lot less prone to scratch up the bottom of the boat.
Al
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid118/pdd7a6cdb47a9b7d25fbe4bcf69b521d0/f882a4f7.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid118/pb0e494cdc613955ac8b0190464aa93a4/f882aef9.jpg

[JimConlin]

For fastening GunwaleGuard, i use 3/4" x #6 oval head screws with finishing washers(aka "cup washers") at maybe 3" spacing. The edge of the washer holds the canvas well. The washers are widely available in SS and can be had in bronze from StaFast.
This is a PITA job, taking me several hours. Some good builders use bronze or monel staples instead. If i had the staple supply and the tool, i'd like to try it.
On most boats, i can conceal the upper flap of the GunwaleGuard by folding it under the 3/4 round part.
At corners, it sometimes helps to cut one flap with a hot knife and either lap the flaps (use longer screw) or cut out a V.

GunwaleGuard is a real annoyance to me. It's expensive, heavy, a pain to apply and sometimes looks bulky and heavy. Still, it does a job that needs to be done and I don't have a better alternative. I wish I did.

Jim

[Thorne]

Lovely!

As for the drain, a lot depends on what sort of floorboards you will use and also the conditions under which you trailer the boat.

See the related thread in Resources -
http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=003386

I asked Bob S. the same question regarding my dory, and he recommended *for my boat* the use of a garboard-style drain plug in the bottom planks near the transom, installed with the plug on the inside.

Obviously when you start poking holes in the bottom of boats, there is risk. The general advice on this forum has been to attach the plug to the drain or nearby frame with wire or cord -- so it can't get lost or forgotten!

Since this is something easily added later with a hole-saw or circlular door-lock saw-bit, why not wait and see how much trouble mopping out the bottom planks is?

[ 12-13-2005, 09:53 AM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[mwybo]

Thanks for your comments and compliments. This is my first constructin hence the questions. This is addictive, I am already thinking about the next one.

Garth and almeyer, I think I will end up laminating the tiller, as much to avoid additional warping once the piece is cut out as to beef up the end where it connects to the rudder. The whole rudder assembly looks a bit flimsy to me.

Almeyer, looks like you modified the tiller / rudder attachment. Is your tiller removeable ?

Thorne, that is good advice, I can always install a drain later so I think I will see just how much water does collect and how hard it is to mop it out before installing anything.

Jim, I agree about the gunwale guard. I really like the open gunwales and don't want to cover them up. I was thinking about using several small fenders along the sheer but that has its own problems. Anyway, I have the whole winter to think about it.

Thanks again

Mike

[almeyer]

Mike, the pics I attached are from a Penobscot 14, not a Pooduck. In this design, the tiller has a tenon on it which fits into a mortise on the rudder cheek. The mortise is cut large enough to allow me to tilt the tiller up or down Since the photo was taken, I pinned the tiller to the rudder cheek so that I wouldn't yank the tiller out of the rudder if things got too exciting. The pin is easily removable, which is nice for storage reasons. I apologize, I don't remember right off hand how the tiller arrangement on the Pooduck is set up.


I really like the open gunwales and don't want to cover them up. I agree. The open gunwales DO look nice and it would be a shame to cover them. I made some rope fenders for my boat after asking about them here on the forum. They look good on a traditional styled boat (I get a lot of compliments on them), they're easy to make and they're cheap. On the downside, they don't do as good a job protecting the boat as the gunwale guards, so I've accumulated a little bit of dock rash already. Each method has it's pluses and minuses, you decide what you like the best.
Al
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid138/p323da6df059cf893fae54ce5f0b06a34/f72599b1.jpg

[wyndham]

Go for rope fenders. Gunwale gaurd might do a great job but IMHO it's going to detract from a very pretty little boat that you have obviously put a ton of work into.
You can tack a piece of cheap pine half round there, hit it with some varnish now and again and replace as required.