Commercial Pace

[Bob Smalser]

Floorboards are incredibly important because they often become the major visual element in an open boat, yet they are done at the end of the project and frequently in a hurry.

I’m no different….am rapidly running out of time on this project and need to move on to the next one. I was going to install sprung floorboards…boards that nicely match the curve of the boat bottom, but that woulda took 4 or so days of spiling, even at a commercial pace. Instead, I scribe-fitted the edge boards and built the floorboards in place in the boat in two long days.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7562968/99128131.jpg

I cut the ½ X ¾” White Oak floors to fit individually and affixed them to the bottom using double-faced tape, so no measurements would need transfer to the bench.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7562968/99128126.jpg

Then I just fitted each ¼ X 3” floorboard from outside in. Curves were scribed ala a kitchen cabinet against an unplumb wall, the drawn curves faired using a fairing batten on the bench, and taken straight from the bench to the bandsaw and block plane to the screwguns in the boat.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7562968/99128122.jpg

The floorboards were resawed out of a 7BF, 8/4 plank of Purpleheart I had on hand….and I didn’t have quite enough…

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7562968/99128119.jpg

…so instead of buying more, I filled in using some of the White Oak I had left out of the three short timbers I resawed to make the other framing parts of the boat.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/7562968/99128113.jpg

This foam tape is powerful, so you don’t need much…work a thin prybar under the oak floors…not the thin floorboards…to pry your work loose.

Soaked in teak oil, these will serve for a long time and look OK in the dory.

[Michael Gibbons]

Aye-aye Captain! Looks like she thar ready for a run in the open sea. Hoist the main sail, batten down the hatches, scrub the deck you old sea dog. Set a course due West and keep on till morning! Arrr matey shiver me timbers.

[Steve Cox]

Great tips Bob! Curious on a couple of points. What kind of boat? The bottom looks something like a dory but the sides don't seem steep enough. How do you find Purpleheart to work for floors? In my experience it has become very splintery(?) after exposure to the elements and not worked very well. I was using it for the stem however and that might make a difference.

[Bob Smalser]

It's the same Chamberlain Gunning Dory I been working on for the last 3 months. 20' long, lean and shallow. It's about done and I'll do a details spread on it then.

Purpleheart is quite coarse, which is perfect for non-slip floorboards. Also strong, I could go to a quarter inch on it. It's also 6 bucks a bf when teak is 3-fold that. ;)

[Jim Dunn]

Bob, your work is awe inspiring. Makes me want to get an eye patch:) and sail the open seas. As you said that was a "gun" boat did it actually have a gun attached? Thanks for making your posts interesting and informative.

[Steve Cox]

When you think "gunning" think hunting not warfare.

[Bob Smalser]

William Chamberlain built dories in Marblehead, Mass during the late 1800's which was the pinnacle of wood boat and ship construction. This design is a sport boat....lighter construction than a work boat....for waterfowl hunting in rough, offshore water.

It's primarily a rowboat, but many were also fitted with a short rig to use when there was wind.

They usually had brown-red hulls to match the reeds and grey interiors to match that water, and I've duplicated the spirit of that both with color and rubbing out all finished surfaces to tone down the gloss. I buff the bronze to give it all the same starting point, as much of the hardware I either made or modified, but after that it'll be allowed to patina itself dark.

[Dan Forman]

The contrast of the oak with the purpleheart is really eyecatching, adds to the appeal methinks.

Dan

[Tom Saurer]

Bob, you do great work. I've been following all of your posts on the boat and I can't wait to see what it looks like completed.

[James Carmichael]

When you think "gunning" think hunting not warfare.

If you ever saw one of the old Chesapeake Bay sneak skiffs with it's "Big Gun" mounted, you might not be so sure. Of course, they were the tool of market gunners, not sportsmen. Designed for sneaking up on huge rafts of ducks on the water and taking out as many as possible with one shot. While not exactly sporting, it took a lot of skill and guts to take a craft that small out in open water, and fire a gun big enough to capsize or even break up the skiff with its recoil if you weren't careful.