building a Paulsbo

[Del Lansing]

Ok, I've read every "how to build" that's been in WB mag for about 6 years now. I've studied the pictures to try absorb the different techniques. I understand several approaches but what I haven't grasped is how to build a plank on steamed frame as the Paulsbo. Do the frames go in after planking? It appears that is how it is done if I study the "whaleboat" issue and compare it to the Paulsbo. But the whaleboat has batten seems so would hold together till it is framed. What keeps the planking in place when you pull it from the molds? Or do the frames go in first? they are 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch, would they stand the force of bending the planks? How would they hold a fair shape till you planked up? Do you turn it upright leaving molds in place and frame it then pull the molds?

[Nicholas Carey]

Poulsbo boats are regular carvel (plank-on-frame) construction. The normal building sequence is</font> Erect the strongback. Ensure that it is straight, level and out-of-wind (not twisted.)</font> Erect station molds on the strongback. Depending on the boat, you may need to also install fore-and-aft battens on the station molds.</font> Install backbone (stem/keel/horntimber/transom.</font> Bend in the frames.</font> Set a batten in place that defines the sheerline.</font> Determine your planking lines.</font> Spile/install the garboards.</font> Spile/install the remaining planking. Whether you go garboards up, sheer down, or a combination of both is strictly builder's choice. The last plank is the shutter plank. It can be a bear to fit, especially if its at the turn of the bilge or has a lot of twist to it.</font> Remove boat from strongback and turn it over. Remove station molds.</font>Once you've got the easy parts done, you can progress on to the really time-consuming parts of the job :D
Here's some resources for you that almost assuredly do a better job of explaining the process:</font> Stewart, Robert. Boatbuilding Manual, 4th. ed.. International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine. 1993.
Probably the standard textbook in trade schools for boatbuilding.</font> McIntosh, David C. "Bud". How to Build a Wooden Boat. WoodenBoat Books, Brooklin, Maine. 1988.</font> R&ouml;ssel, Greg. Building Small Boats. WoodenBoat Books, Brooklin, Maine. 1998.</font>All these books are available from Our Sponsor (http://www.woodenboatstore.com/) (especially since Our Sponsor's publishing arm (http://www.woodenboat.com/wbbksgal.htm) is responsible for two of them), as well as The Usual Places (although I might suggest Powell's Books (http://www.powells.com/) instead (it really is the biggest bookstore in the world. Amazing.) Also don't forget Your Local Bookstore, and last, but certain not least, TBBBWATB ("The Big Brick Building With All The Books" aka the library.)

Another good jumping-off place is Stewart Wier's magnum opus, <a href="http://coastweather.com/html/bbfile1.html">Great Encouragment To Boatwrights: Boat Building Books and
Sources of Information for Boat Building and Design</a>. Not to mention John Kohnen's even-more magnum opus with the really understated name, John's Nautical and Boatbuilding Page (http://www.boat-links.com/) (which includes the superlative Mother Of All Maritime Links (http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html)).

BTW, if you're going to build a Poulsbo boat, you might want to make some corrections on the loft floor: the boat from which the monograph's lines and offsets were taken was hogged from sitting on a trailer. As built, the run of a Poulsbo boat's keel was dead-flat with no "droop" at the ends.

Whether or not this discrepancy that's correct from the POV of the monograph depends on whether you think the monograph should represent the hull "as it should be" or "as the artifact exists".

[Del Lansing]

Ok it makes sense now. The fore aft battens are the part that brings it to light for me. With the frames being 1/2 x 1 1/2 it seemed they would be a bit light to do serious plank-bending against. Surely they would be needed to pull the planks in the hollow of the bow without straightening the frames out. I am oh so tempted to have a go at it. The boat has a funky kinda look that entices me, sort of a cross between a Mackinaw and a West Pointer skiff with hints of lobster boat squeezed in there. That one pictured "Beaver" is the best looking to me, but then maybe the hogging pulled the midships inward, who knows.

[Frank E. Price]

Isn't the issue of whether the boat was hogged or was built that way still in dispute? If it has been settled I would be interested in hearing the final argument.

Frank

[Del Lansing]

The lines were drawn from a boat that "possibly" was hogged. They are true of the boat as it sat. The son said he remembered the keels as dead straight. There is a picture that shows the skeg blocked up while a boat sits on a trailer, to prevent hogging I would bet. If the boat had sat on a trailer very long I can't imagine it _not_hoggin (if not blocked). I guess we'll never know for sure.