After the sides were planked up, I had to fair the plywood and chines, as well as the keelson. What this means, to you non-builders, is that a straight line must be established from the centerline of the keelson (boat bottom) out to the "corner" of the boat, the chine, where the sides meet the bottom. The keelson, built up from three 1 x 12 inch mahogany boards, needed to be turned into a pyramid shape, and the chines, made from two 1 x 4's needed to be planed to such an angle that the plywood bottom lays flat. See sketch below.

The fairing was a tremendous amount of work. First I used a hand saw to cut down at various intervals, and a chisel to remove a narrow section, about an inch wide between saw cuts on both keel and chine. Once the straight edge showed an area to be near faired, I would repeat the process perhaps a foot away. After a considerable area was "proofed" in this fashion with narrow slots chiseled down to fairness, the stock between the small faired areas was removed. Repeated and continuous checks with the straight edge are necessary.

A hatchet was used for the biggest part of stock removal, followed by a power plane, belt sander, and hand planes. Frequent checks are made with a long straight edge, and minor high spots dressed down with a block plane or belt sander.

Once the fairing was completed, I could start on the bottom. The bottom is composed of four layers of 1/4" (6mm) Meranti plywood, which is a bit heavier than the Okoume, for a total thickness of one inch. The idea is too keep the weight as low as possible. The plans were drawn with fir plywood in mind, so using different woods that weigh more or less allows me to distibute weight more favorably. The plans call for additional internal lead ballast, perhaps as much as 700 pounds, so using a slightly heavier wood for the bottom planking makes sense, just as using a lighter wood like Okoume for the topsides does.

The bow of the boat below the waterline has some pretty extreme twist to it, especially the first six or eight feet back from the bow. The plans call for double-diagonal planking for the first six feet. With this method, the plywood is applied in narrow strips, at an angle, usually 45 degrees to the keel centerline. A second layer is applied at right angles to the first, then a third and fourth...I guess it's really "double-double diagonal" planking, The narrow pieces allow the plywood to conform to shapes that a sheet cannot....plywood can theoretically only bend in one plane at a time.

In experimenting with different angles to see how the ply would best lay flat (or rather assume the proper twists) I determined that the best way was to run one layer vertically, and the next horizontally. The important part is that the layers cross at right angles, the actual angle the individual boards make to the boat is less important. In this view (right) the sides have recieved an initial two coats of epoxy sealer, and the first layer of cold-molded bottom is applied. Altho' the plans call for full sheets from Station #6 (where the cold molding ends in this picture) to the stern, I discovered there was still too much twist to the bottom, so I continued the cold molding aft another two feet, to Station #8.

For an idea of the extreme twist the bow has, see left. This is the view looking forward. The stem sticking up will run into an external 3 inch high keel, applied to the bottom after the planking is finished. The butt block where the full sheet will meet the strip planking is visible at the end of the strip planking.