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Curious why puzzle joints not aligned on WD bottom vs side panels
I am starting on my third CLC boat and I went ahead and glued the bottom and sides on my WD12 Hybrid Kit. The drawings clearly show that the bottom panels favor the shorter end being the bow, whereas the side panels favor the shorter end being the stern.
My question is why? This does not appear visually to be true on the WD10 or 14 Hybrids, nor do I recall this on my PMD.
Is it just to minimize the required amount of ply or is there another reason?
1 reply:
RE: Curious why puzzle joints not aligned on WD bottom vs side panels
» Submitted by Laszlo - Tue, 10/17/23 » 7:22 AM
No one else has answered, so I'll hop in. I had the same question some years back and thought that it was to keep the joints from lining up to form a weak spot. That's a traditional thing to do (deck planks, for example, stagger their butt joints) and not just for boats and ships. Think brick walls. However, John Harris then popped in to explain that glassed puzzle joints on boats the size sold by CLC are strong enough not to need staggering,
So my theory is that the WD12, being the original design in the WD series, was designed with traditional staggered joints and for the later designs it was decided that staggering was not necessary.
I know that's somewhat unsatisfactory, but it's all I have. Maybe one of the designers will visit this forum one day.
Laszlo