butt block in the wrong place

[Steve Langdon]

The shipwright replaced part of a plank on my 28 ft. Hillyard. The problem is that he put the butt block where formerly the chain plate had been. (Probably my fault for not being there)I'm afraid to ask: Is the only solution to rip out one of the sections and put the butt somewhere else? The other planks which the chain plate will transverse (right word?) are solid.

Thanks,
Steve Langdon

[Art Read]

Whoops! What a pain. I assume your chainplates are mounted inside the hull planking and let up thru the covering boards then? Any chance of relocating 'em outside the hull and "let 'em into" the rubrail, (if any) instead? If so, then you could just build up some nice backing blocks on both sides, use longer fasteners and pretend you did it all on purpose...

[RGM]

Shame on him. It should have been obvious to him that a chain plate lived there. Sounds like the butt block has to be relocated, which means that your new plank will have to be replaced with one that is longer. Keep in mind that there acceptable lay-outs for the placement of butts (proximity to others) and unacceptable lay-outs. Basically, butts in the same frame bay should have no fewer than three planks between them, adjacent planks should have at least three frame bays between them. For planks that aren't adjacent there should be at least three "steps" between them. A "step" being each plank or a frame bay. Any closer than that and you're building a "zipper" into your boat. Personally I think that spacing is too close. Perhaps the first new plank can serve as a pattern of sorts for the new, longer replacement. Don't let him try to talk you into leaving the butt block there. If he's willing to call himself a shipwright then he should be willing to step up to the plate and fix his mistake. Perhaps all you should owe is the cost of additional material and fasteners for the added length of the new/replacement plank. Good luck.

[Steve Langdon]

Actually, I had decided to put the chainplates on the outside because the original galvanized ones were on the inside and difficult to inspect. When I removed them, they were in a bad state. I will look the butt block spacing over very carefully because there are several on that side (port). Yeah, I thought it was fairly obvious there had been a chainplate there because there was a hole through the plank where a bolt had been. Oh well, I learned something.

Steve Langdon