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Still struggling - Skerry stichting, stern strake and stems
How about all that alliteration in my message subject? Pretty clever, don't you think? I have my strakes and bulkheads stitched together and am working on tightening the stitches and closing gaps. I'm really struggling to tighten the rabbet joint between the floor and first strake between the stern end and the stern bulkhead, and fuly seat the bulkhead. I added three holes/stitches between the ones provided, but can't pull it any tighter. I feel like the stern "point" on the floor needs to be trimmed a bit to allow those bottom strakes to pull tighter at the stern end and along the rabbet up to the stern bulkhead. Does this kind of trimming make sense? Or is there a way to press or clamp the bottom strakes inward to allow tighter stitching? Also, it seem nearly impossible to remove any daylight in the joints along the strakes where they meet at the stems - are small daylight gaps allowable here, or do I need a really tight fit? Otherwise the lapped strake joints along the boat looks pretty good.
4 replies:
RE: Still struggling - Skerry stichting, stern strake and stems
That's not a gap! This is a gap!
I did a lot of fettling and used a lot of copper wire to get the top panels to close up but failed miserably. I was building from plans so it's possible my cutting was at fault but whatever, I wanted a boat and wasn't going to be put off by a couple of panels not coming together. So I found a solution.
There's only one other person knows about this bodge so please keep it to yourself. Oh, hold on . . .
RE: Still struggling - Skerry stichting, stern strake and stems
On my Skerry build back in 2013, I had a similar problem. Lutz Berger from Berger Boote in Berlin wrote to me then:
If the gaps are large, I think that you are probably building the boat on a table? Please build on saw horses. If the gaps are small press on and take care that the wires are not tightened. Don't try to prevent the bottom panel from bending! It should bend a bit when the #1 panels are stitched to it. The other thing to check for is that the ends are right way round (Bow and Stern mixed up?)
Building on sawhorses did the trick, Not completely, but almost. I ended up with small gaps but much better than before.
Ruud
RE: Still struggling - Skerry stichting, stern strake and stems
Thank you all for your advice. I am building on sawhorses, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. I've added a lot of stitches (like one stitch every 1.5 inches) between the aft bulkhead and the stern, between the floor and the first strake. That helps a little to close that gap. I've also managed to improve the gaps at the stems, and it sounds like the peanut butter epoxy fillet will be my friend there. I think I'll have to trust it to also fill the remaining gaps between the floor and first strake in the stern area. Barely seeing light there now, but wish I could pull it tighter. Not sure that there is much more I can do.
RE: Still struggling - Skerry stichting, stern strake and stems
» Submitted by Birch2 - Sat, 11/28/20 » 5:24 PM
An able alliterator always earns my assistance. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the skerry to guide you on slamming in those bulkheads. But I don't think you need to worry too much about small glimpses of daylight where the strakes meet at the stems. Peanut butter epoxy will fix those sorts of gaps easily. In fact, it's amazing what you can do with the wood flour / epoxy mix. It's even more useful in a boatman's life than duct tape!