Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on January 23, 2006 at 09:00:42 from 80.3.128.6 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: repairs made to Swallow in SA? posted by Lyn on January 23, 2006 at 03:22:09:
1 - take out two damaged planks. This would invoved grinding the heads off the copper roves - the rivets which hold the planks together and punching the copper nails out, taking care not to damage the planks which remain. Getting the nails out which hold the planks to the stem would have been awkward - they might have just smashed the planks here and pulled the nails out with pliers. The planks would then just drop out.
It seems from the book that they took the entire planks out, but it would be cheaper and quicker to just take out the forward section.
2 - take out one damaged rib, again removing the copper nails all the way from gunwale to keel.
3 - make a new rib using the old one as a model, steam it and bend it into place. Fit with new, rather larger, copper nails and roves.
4 - cut and shape two new planks, probably using the old ones as moulds to ensure that they are exactly the same shape. Steam them, according to Captain Flint, although I'm surprised it would be necessary, and rivet them into place, again using slightly larger copper nails and roves. Scarph them to the old planks if they didn't take the whole plank out, making sure that the scarphs are well separated.
5 - prime the wood, undercoat - probably several coats - topcoat
Sounds easy. Probably was easy for professional boatbuilders, but wouldn't be so easy for amateurs like me. However replacing a midships section of a plank in a clinker boat is rather satisfying.