Sooner or later, everything ends up in the bilge
That sounds like something a sailor would say, doesn’t it? I have no clue if it’s an actual saying, but it’s true. Tools, pencils, safety glasses, earplugs, that clamp you just set down… 
There’s a ton of stuff down below as well, so if you’re not tripping over it, there’s a good chance you’re reaching down under the lower staging looking for something that just fell into the bilge. I don’t mean to complain, but damn, gravity can really be annoying. What you’re seeing here is the ceiling planks starting to be installed above the stringers. This view is looking forward at the stem of the boat. This photo was taken about two weeks ago, and you can see that we’ve only gotten a few ceilings up on the starboard side. Coming down on either side of the stem are the knight heads. The knight heads extend up through the deck and form a wall of oak about 4″ thick on either side of the stem. Just another one of those things that toughens things up and makes this a real work boat. Here’s what they look like from up top.
The posts sticking up around the edge of the boat are called stanchions and they’re made of locust. Tough, rot-resitant wood. People make borders for raised bed gardens out of locust. Anyway, back down below. 
The ceilings are relatively straightforward… bevel the front end, screw them into place, and taper the back end where they rise up to meet the sheer clamp.If you’re familiar with auto repair, you might recognize that that last statement is eerily similar to the Chilton’s instruction, “Step one, remove engine.” For some reason, the logical approach to creating the beveled end of these planks resulted in slightly poor fits. I can’t explain it really, all I know is that when you take the two bevels that make up the compound bevel cut, we were consistently off by a small amount. Here’s the boat geeky part that you can skip over, and if you’re an experienced builder perhaps you can shed some light on our conundrum:creating compound bevels:1) Take the bevel for the inner face of the plank. Lay the base of your bevel gauge along the top edge of the plank below where you’re installing the ceiling, making sure it’s angled outwards to match the angle of the plank it’s sitting on. Extend the blade of your gauge up to and along the side of the stem. You have to eyeball this a bit since the body of the gauge prevents you from having a perfect flush fit to the stem. 2) Take the bevel of the top of the plank. Lay the bevel gauge along the top of the plank with the base following the inside face of the plank. Pick up the bevel of the stem on this plane. 3) Lay out those 2 bevels on your ceiling, cut it out, spring the plank into place and see what you’ve got. 4) take a thin batten and now lay it alongside the plank, butting up against the stem. Trace along the top and inner edges onto the plank and NOW you’ll have dead accurate lines to cut to… but really, it seems like it should have fit the first time. The only thing I can think of that might explain it is that angling the gauge to match the plank below the plank we want is not really the way to go. After all, each plank angles up and inwards as it climbs the inside of the hull. Perhaps we need to make minor adjustments to that bevel.  End of geeky part. So, once we got the bevels right, we clamp these planks into place, force them down tight against the one plank below, and force them tight against the frames. Clamps clamps clamps. Wedges wedges wedges. The simplest tools are the best. Then drill for the screws and screw them in tight. We use a little dab of grease on our screws to help them go into the tough oak of the frames. We’ll bung them later.Here’s the port side being installed.
We clamp the board we’re installing up against the board below it to bring them flush against each other. To get them down against the lower plank, we take a 2×4 or whatever convenient board we can find, jam it between the ceiling and the sheer clamp (that white board up top with the bolts coming through it), and then hammer some wedges in between the 2×4 and the ceiling to exert pressure. This lets you exert HUGE pressure and you can force this 1 3/4″ fir to be right up against the lower plank. When these suckers swell, they’ll be tight as a drum. So, the plan is, do this over and over in a hot, dirty, muggy place while you’re stooping over all the time.No, honest, I like building boats. And I like the tendonitis I’m slowly developing too. It’s a really great way to meet people: “Hi my arm hurts where the tendon attaches at the elbow, how’d you like to rub it for a while? Thanks, what’s your name?”The second week I was here, we had a celebration to install the shutter plank. Everyone there signed the plank,
and then Chris made a toast and poured a glass of Roann’s captain’s favorite drink over the plank (I forget what it was, but it had whiskey in it I think).
Afterwards, they installed the plank… no more planking! Now that’s a cause for celebration.
John, Chris and Shawn starting the installation. 
Nothing like fitting in the last plank while a whole crowd of folks are watching. It’s a real make or break moment. And yes, it fit perfectly. That’s Walt, John, and Chris driving the final bolts. Chris is an ex-IYRS guy. He came to Mystic for his independent study after his first year, just like me, and never left. Walt is the lead shipwright, and a contra dancer to boot, so you know he’s ok. John is an ex-insurance guy and has been working here part time for the past 3 years. He and I worked together on the ceilings.  They’re all really great guys to work with.After that, we had an incredible picnic. Rob grilled clams & chicken, Walt steamed mussels, everyone brought something yummy. And none of it fell into the bilge.Not a bad way to finish up a hot week.Â