Bow Planking Ends

[Dave Aukes]

I removed the twisted stem and now I'm in the market for some repair suggestions for the ragged plank ends.
My white cedar supply is low and it's hard for me to get my hands on it to splice in plank sections. I have West System products which I could thicken and apply to fill the gaps on the plank ends. Also I have thought about scarfing sections on the plank ends and using G/flex similar to rib end repairs but I'm not sure how I would get a nice long scarf on the planks.

Dave

 

[Worth Gretter]

Dave, I faced a similar problem with the ratty bottoms of my first couple of ribs (damage from iron fasteners). The ribs were separate on each side, not neatly folded like yours. I skipped the filler and figured I could just nail through the solid portions of the wood. Big mistake, it made nailing much harder. I like your idea of epoxy filler for the gaps on the plank ends. Then it would be good to drill for the ring nails into the stem, regardless of whether the holes fall in the filler or the areas of good wood. Your planks look otherwise pretty good, not in need of replacement.

 

[patrick corry]

I presume you’re making a new stem? Make it an inch shorter (or whatever is required) so the plank ends contact the new stem on good, undamaged wood. Cut off the bad bits, taper and fasten the ‘new’ plank ends. Who cares if the canoe is 1” shorter?

 

[Dave Aukes]

Worth and Patrick thank you for your replies good ideas to ponder.

This thing I'm working on is an 18 ft square stern. The transom and plank ends were in really bad condition so I did just what Patrick suggested and after I cut an inch off I still didn't have a warm feeling so I spliced in different length planks staggering the splice locations. I kinda didn't want to do all that work in the bow so I thought I would throw it out there for others thoughts.

 

[MGC]

A G-Flex splice will be stronger than the wood.
I usually replace the planking so that I can reshape it and have a "clean" attachment at the stem. I keep all of my old bits of wood that I remove whenever I work on something so I am often able to use a piece from my scrap pile.
Worst case, I would make some planking pieces to fit.
For a board that is not too bad, I might re-tack where it is solid. If I fair the hull I will fill the voids.
Always keep in mind that you need to stagger the joints. You don't not want all of your spliced pieces to join on the same rib.
I definitely would not try taking anything off of the overall length to get a few pieces of planking to fit. That is a bottomless pit of extra work that I would try to avoid.