Uwadana

Uwadana means “upper shelf” and refers to the top plank, or sheerstrake.  Like all of our planking these are taken symmetrically from the log.  The thick keel plank was from the center of the tree, the kajiki were the next two planks taken from either side of the center, and now these two planks are the adjacent ones to those.  I oriented the root side forward to give put the clearest wood toward the bow, both for looks and bending, with some knots aft.  

There is quite a sweep aft in this plank given how the stern rises.  Like lapstrake boatbuilding, we just put the whole plank up against the boat and just traced off the bottom edge from the kajiki.  The top edge we will scale from our drawing.  The triangular piece we cut off at the stern is nailed to the top edge to give us enough material.  

We struggled to get these planks on at the bow.  There is quite a twist at the lower edge and we finally had to resort to bolting a temporary butt plate to the plank and pulling it in with a Spanish windlass.  This actually worked quite well and we also used this at the stern.  Pipe clamps were also an enormous help.

Two sets of beams are mortised with through tenons shouldered on the inside of the planks.  The tenons were wedged and the ends sawn flush to the outside.  The nails take an extreme angle toward the bow.