Rather basic mold fairing question for Melonseed

[Steve Lansdowne]

I've been putting off fairing the outer part of the chines and the edges of the molds for the Melonseed since it seemed such a laborious process, but when I got to reading and seeing what another builder had done, I realize I may have been mistaken about the need to necessarily bevel one edge of each mold to make the planks lie fair. The station itself is a plane represented by one side of the mold -- the side closest to the center (i.e,, middle mold) of the boat. I was thinking I'd have to bevel the aft-most part of each mold aft of the center mold to get the planks to lay securely on the molds at the station, and vice versa for the molds forward of the center mold. On closer reading, though, nowhere do the directions say to do this, nor does Nick Cozzi mention doing this on his well-photographed Melonseed web site. I'm a bit puzzled, as obviously there would be some variation in inner volume of different boats built to the same plans if the mold beveling didn't occur, as a boat build using 1/2" mold stock would lead to a boat with slightly smaller inner volume than one built using 3/4" mold stock, but perhaps the standard mold stock is 3/4" and I'm just being overly picky.

I'm thinking now that the basic concern should be how well the planks lie fair over the whole length of the boat without worrying in advance about whether each particular mold needs to be edge beveled. (I did not need to bevel molds with my stripper canoe, which was fine with me.) Quite obviously the transom and inner stem will need to be beveled. The planks will be screwed to the molds during the glue up process, thus I suppose that the molds closest to the ends of the boat will need some beveling so each plank can be secured to a face of the mold, rather than just touching the mold at the station, but overall perhaps I just need to be concerned with planks lying fair and not with any advance mold edge beveling. This will involve using a batten along the whole length of the boat for each of the locations where the planks will lie, beveling/fairing as needed, which will occur before planks are secured to the molds. Am I on the right track? (After carefully reading what I've written, perhaps I've really answered my own question.)

[Bruce Hooke]

One approach is to put the molds on the side of the station line that is CLOSESTS to the center of the boat and then not bevel them at all. That way there is no issue of the molds pushing the planks out beyond where they are supposed to be (which I don't like the sounds of).

[Doug Hamilton]

I built a little boat of Cedar planking over White Oak frames and fastened the planking at the laps (and later to the frames) with rivets made from copper nails and burrs by a hammer and bucking iron.. Consequently, while it was being planked the hull was being subjected to a pounding.. It was in order to prevent leaving creases in the soft Cedar planking by the edges of the moulds that a bearing surface on each mould was necessary.. By having placed the moulds so that the faces representing the stations were facing the midship frame (the one with the greatest breadth) and by fairing their edges with the aid of a batten the bearing surface at each mould was obtained.

You are building a glued lapstrake hull.. Your planks will not be pounded consequently they will not be creased in the process of building: they need no bearing surfaces at the moulds.. You can positon the moulds so that the faces representing the stations face towards the ends of the hull as you did while building your previous boat with strips.

I do not mean to imply that you can avoid fairing the moulds.