Centreboard case

Along with making and installing floors this last week – I have been building the centreboard case. The floors and centreboard case interlock, contribute the each others strength and generally make things complicated.

I’ve decided to go for a ’swoop top’ case that follows closely the profile of the centreboard. This means more steaming as the rails for the top edge of the case have to follow the curve.

Once steamed, the oak (I’m sticking with oak!) is bent round a former and left overnight to settle in. The oakhas dried out a lot since I last did some steaming. My first attempt breaks when I bend it and I have to try again. An hour and a half of stream is needed in order to bend a fairly thin (20mm x 20mm) rail through a maximum radius of about 500mm. After a couple of days on the former (remember that all this is interspersed with doing work on the floors) I glue up the sides of the case. The case sides are the only plywood that will be used in Seapod – and I’ll be taking great case to paint the faces and cover the end grain so that it isn’t evident. Marine plywood is great stuff – but is definitely not the right look for Seapod.

Bench space is at a premium – so they sit on the floor while the glue goes off.

With the rails (top) and logs (bottom) on I just need to add posts at the front and navigate the brow of the case with a cut oak bend and I have two sides for a centreboard case.

With an oak knee for a nose and a small spacer block at the tail the case is glued up – hard against a solid joist to keep the whole thing true and in line.

The case profile was made up from a template taken from the lofting (full size drawing of the boat) but the final fitting of the case still needs to be done on the boat. I use chalk to find the high spots and spend quite a while adjusting the case so that it fits snug and square to the hog along its whole length.

Once the case is a good fit it is glued in – held by a few screws into the hog (that will be hidden by floors) and by braces against the sides of the boat and top beam from the construction frame. If the case is out from vertical by a small amount – less than one degree – the difference will be noticeable when the boat is sailing to windward. I spend a long time checking for this – and keep my fingers crossed.

Once the floors are shaped up and put in place you can start to see how the whole structure locks together to form what will be, I trust, a really stiff backbone for Seapod.

Now I just have to finish gluing the floors in place before I can get on with the inwhales and breasthook(s)….

One last thing – the Mackerel have arrived off Lyme – and everyone is offering me fish. Jack went out yesterday and caught 19 in an hour. I get a few spares for dinner.

Another last thing – for this post. I get an oak laminate and bend it over the top to anticipate what the finished case will look like.. Mmmm..