Hanging planks

I left our planks for the weekend bent and propped in place and when we came back to work it was time to do suriawase through all the seam to fit them, mark their locations carefully, and remove them from the boat and prepare for fastening.  I ran a drill through the planks and into the bottom at each nail location.  This is not something any of my teachers did, they preferred to transfer marks, sometimes with a batten, to mark nail locations.  

The nice thing about my drilling method is that it gave us the exact angle for the nail hole.  We stuck a chopstick in the hole to get the angle before chiseling the rectangular holes we need for our nails.

These are the goops we've been using on the project.  From top to bottom: a silicone caulking we spread between the side planks and the bottom, Bondo brand woodworking glue which we used with sawdust to make putty (not waterproof), and five minute epoxy for small repairs. etc.  The local boatbuilder loaned us some KR Bondo which is waterproof and only available mail order.  We used it between all the planks we edge-nailed together.

One of my students piloting nail holes in the bottom with the plank, all the nail holes plugged, in the background.

Also straightening all of our nails.

I didn't take any photos of the actual fastening because I was running around too much getting things propped in place and supervising the fastening.  Here nails have been loaded into the holes at the stem awaiting someone to come and drive them in.  We had to tack all our props because nailing inevitably loosened them.

With the planks hung it was time to start installing the beams.

While I did the tricky work fitting beams my students did finish planing and planed the sheer edge flat.