Re: ply boats & strongbac

Posted by DaveW on Aug 5, 2004

You could probably do it that way, but it might be more trouble than it's worth. The internal hull building forms on the Cirrus Hybrid are spaced approximately every 2'. Most of them are also used as station forms when you strip the deck, so you'd have to cut them out anyway. Once you have wired up the hull, you lay a full-length "spine" in slots in the internal forms, then mount additional forms on top of the spine so that you have a form every 1' when you strip the deck. If you use the shear clamp method, but use all of the forms that Vaclav's design specifies, you would have to notch all of the forms to fit around the shear clamps, then would have to make sure the end forms and the end of the internal spine clear your shear clamps. You would probably still want the internal spine to hold all of the forms in alignment. In addition, if you are doing any fancy stripping on the deck, the strongback and forms hold the boat steady while you are twisting strips, assuming you are bending them enough to put torque on the hull.

If you do decide to skip the strongback and use shear clamps and spreader sticks instead, you will still need quite a few forms to support the deck as you strip it.

I initially questioned the need for the strongback and all of the forms, but have been glad I wound up doing them according to Vaclav's instructions. It seems like there is a lot of setup time involved, especially compared to the very simple method used in the Chesapeake kayaks. However, once you are done with the setting up, the rest of the work is pretty simple. It's also a bit easier to follow Vaclav's instructions if you use his building method.

BTW, please don't read this as implying that there is anything wrong with the CLC building method. I've used the CLC building method on two boats and have had excellent results. Vaclav's method is just different.

In Response to: ply boats & strongbacks? by craig on Aug 5, 2004

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