Goring

[Stencil]

I am planking around the bilge and installing the second goring plank. It doesnt want to lay flat against the ribs and my concern is that I am creating excessive "edge setting" as warned against by Stelmock. The solution would seem to be to let the plank run wild up the hull and then cut and butt it on the middle rib creating an oblique angle with its partner running the opposite direction. Alternatively the plank could be run out to a feather edge to help reduce but not eliminate the tension created by its position.
Advice and comment are most welcome.

 

[Dave Wermuth]

agreed

watch out for too much edge setting. it gets worse with the next board. The gore plank should not pucker or be forced. Let it lay flat and shape it to the space. Some people let the plank run out to a point and some cut them off so that 2 or three of them equal the width of a single plank. Depends on the shape of the canoe of course. You're on the right track.

 

[Stencil]

Thanks for the reply. I recut the plank letting it lie flat on the hull. Scribed it etc. The tension is created by the roll over the bilge. I don't see a way to completely remedy this unless I resort to two narrow planks but there is no reference to a solution like this in the literature.

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

Your right in the goal is to have the plank lay flat as it rolls over the bilge. Its a multi step operation. You can lay out the plank and trim it roughly to where you think it will lay flat but you have to start back to the milddle and fasten the plank to the three or four middle set of ribs. This will start the rolling over of the plank but as it rolls over it also changes the way it wants to lay flat. Now you can do the final triming for the next four or five ribs worth of planking, fasten that section and then move on to the final triming of the next section.
If you just learning, it can save a lot of frustration if you start out with a bad piece of planking to just use it to practice with and see how the planking is going to lay. You just have to put in enough fastenings to hold the planking and then its easy to pull them out. If the practice planking works well its possible to use it for a pattern for the good planking, but still leave some extra to do the final trimming because each plank will lay a bit differently!
After you've done a few boats worth of goring it goes much faster and you don't have to think about it so much.

 

[Steve Ambrose]

Goring is definitely more art than science. My first boat had me all bunched up - I over-analyzed and tried to measure a mathematical solution to the problem. On my second boat I relaxed, committed to working it by hand/eye, and it went much easier. As Rollin said, fasten in the middle and work a couple of ribs at a time toward the ends. The utility knife and finger plane are your friends. I keep a pot boiling with a couple of hot towels to soak/steam the plank as I go. You're working a flat plank around a compound curve so it will require constant fitting as you move along.

I took plenty of pictures while goring my second hull - I'll dig them up and post.

 

[Stencil]

Thanks. You have cleared up part of my problem. I was doing too much at once rather than fitting in stages. Will give it another go.
S