A Shipwright in Training

So after the deck has been faired and primed, it’s canvassing time.  But it takes time to get all that going, so while folks were prepping the deck, a few of us got one of the coaming pieces steamed up and bent onto the mold. 

This was a real team effort.  Like I said before, thin wood like this cools quickly and forces us to act fast.  To give ourselves a little extra time to work we steamed up a 1/2″ piece of cedar that was about the same size as the mahogany at the same time.  We brought them both out of the steamer and clamped them on together with the cedar on  the outside. 

The effect of the cedar was to act as a hot blanket on top of the mahogany while we bent it down, and it gave us a little more time to work.  It also spreads the clamping pressure of the blocks out just a little bit, so there’s no danger of getting indentations from the blocks in the coaming.  A twofer! 

While we were doing that, other folks measured the canvas and ironed it good and flat.

They trimmed the sides to give some overlap around the edges, but got rid of much of the excess width. Once it’s all nice and smooth, they roll it back up and sit it at the bow of the boat. 

After that, they taped off the covering board and inside edges of the cockpits.

The canvas decking is held down with a special glue.  Excess glue will squeeze out down the inside of the cockpit openings and covering boards when we smooth out the canvas.  We want these surfaces to remain glue-free, so we tape them off with paper and painter’s tape.  We also put plastic down on the inside of the boat to protect it from glue drips. 

The glue is about the consistency of yogurt, and we mix it up with an anti-mold agent. 

In the old days, canvas decks were often bedded in white lead.  Now that’s some great stuff.  It kills everything, and gives boat builders all kinds of interesting neurological damage.  I thought there was no way that we’d be using it for this project, but then I looked at the side of the bucket.

The shipping label conveniently covers up the part of the statement that says this product DOES NOT contain the various asbestos, lead, and mercury compounds that you see mentioned on the bucket.  Woah!  For about 15 minutes I was convinced we needed to be in full tyvek suits, rubber gloves… Oh, wait, it’s relatively safe? 

Never mind.

So on the glue goes.  We spread it out on the deck with notched trowels, just like spreading tile mastic.

As soon as the glue is on, we follow behind with the canvas, pressing it down and smoothing out bumps with a rounded batten.  Right behind the batten guy, a few of us start stapling the canvas down in the dado.  A guy follows behind the stapler setting the staples flush with a hammer and punch.  Behind him comes a guy painting on a thinned glue mixture that soaks through the canvas and completely bonds it to the underlying layer of glue. The drying of this wet application also helps to tighten up the canvas and remove wrinkles

It’s a production line.  Here you can see the whole line in operation:  staple, set, paint. 

Jamie setting staples.

Here you can see where the thinned glue has been applied to the forward portion of the deck.

Those dark colored moving blankets have been set over the cockpit openings to stretch the canvas a little bit down in those areas.  This assures that the canvas is held tight against the glue at the edge of those openings.

The aft end of the boat, all canvassed and stapled.  Next, we run a razor knife down in the dado to trim off the excess canvas and clean up any glue that got onto the covering board.

Here we’ve reapplied the painter’s tape on the covering board in anticipation of painting the deck.  I put the first coat on yesterday so it’d be dry for Monday.  From now on we’ll keep the deck covered up as much as possible to protect from shoe marks, dust, the odd tool the falls.  I discovered recently that the rivets in my Carhart pants were perfectly placed to dent the deck when I sat on it and swung my legs over into the cockpit.  Rrrrr.

Meanwhile, the boom has been cut and glued up.

Nice. 

The mast is coming along too, and we’re expecting it to be glued up soon as well. 

3 weeks and counting.

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Tags: deck, canvas, glue, coaming, boom

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Classes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.