Whilly boat cb trunk

[casem]

This is a question directed towards those building Ian Oughtred's Whilly Boat (i.e., Greg H.), or one of his similar double enders. On the plans is showed a cap over the centerboard trunk that is specifically "screwed, not glued". I was wondering what the rationale was, considering the piece below it is glued. In other words, if you were to unscrew it, all you would uncover is a piece of wood that is permantly glued into place and there would be no access to the centerboard or inside the trunk. Any thoughts?

[Dale H]

Are you sure there is a permanent piece shown on the plans? On my Oughtred Eun Mara, the CB cap is also drawn to be removable but the reason is clearly to access the CB case for unjamming, vegetation removal, and easier removal and installation of the board.

Dale

[casem]

The cap covers the spacer block, which according to the book should be glued (and it's too late now if I'm wrong!).

[Dale H]

In that case don't worry about it- Whilly is small enough that you can crank her over on the beach and get at the slot and board easily enough.
dh

[Greg H]

Hi casem,
So you didn't cut her in half eh? Good thing. I'm not that far along yet, but I had a close look at the plans and that's what he indicates, with the top rails ending at the thwart. Hmmmm. In his book, it looks like most of his cb cases have the top rails extending the entire length of the case with just a couple of short spacer blocks along the way. Could be an error in the drawing. In any event you could bore a hole large enough to get a stick through to the centerboard underneath that screwed cap.
I forgot, are you doing the lug or the gunter rig on her? I can't decide, so I may end up putting in maststeps for both and the yawl as well.
Greg

[Greg H]

Hi casem,
So you didn't cut her in half eh? Good thing. I'm not that far along yet, but I had a close look at the plans and that's what he indicates, with the top rails ending at the thwart. Hmmmm. In his book, it looks like most of his cb cases have the top rails extending the entire length of the case with just a couple of short spacer blocks along the way. Could be an error in the drawing. In any event you could bore a hole large enough to get a stick through to the centerboard underneath that screwed cap.
I forgot, are you doing the lug or the gunter rig on her? I can't decide, so I may end up putting in maststeps for both and the yawl as well.
Greg

[casem]

Nope it's still in one piece. I decided to give myself till August 30th. If I don't make that, I think I'll probably push it back to September 30th.

Maybe it is a mistake in the plans. Anyway, the hole sounds like a good idea. I'll just carry around a piece of dowel so I can whack it out if need be.

I'm doing the gaff sloop. I was originally going to set it up for both rigs but I'm having a hard time just getting one done. I suppose I could always add the forward mast position later. The decks make it a pain to put in all those steps though.

[Rob H]

I've never seen the plans, so I'm guessing blind, but what if the spacer block were glued to the cap, then the cap were screwed down to the trunk? Then by unscrewing the cap you could take out the spacer and unjam the board. Is that what Iain had in mind?

[casem]

Nah that can't be it, judging by the way the spacer is notched into the thwart. I guess we'll never know.