1936 OT Yankee Outwale Dimensions

canoenut

LOVES Wooden Canoes
Restoring an OT Yankee, 1936, could someone please supply cross section dims for outwales and the amount to cut the planking below the inwale.

Thank you,
Lowell
 
I just restored a 1936 OT Yankee including replacement of the outwales. I can give you the starting dimensions of the stock you'll need, but the cross section of the finished piece will be somewhat of a rhombus after shaping it in place, so an X x Y type dimension is somewhat meaningless.

The process I used, in brief, was to rabbet both edges of a straight piece of spruce stock (to accommodate planking thickness plus canvas) , plane a long taper in one end, steam bend the tapered end around a form (for the upsweep at the bow and stern). This piece was then ripped down the middle to form two halves of one gunwale which were then scarfed together end to end in a long (14 inch) scarf to form a full length outwhale. Using drywall screws, this ugly square blocky rail was fastened temporarily in position on the canoe, then shaped in place using planes, spokeshaves and long sanding battens. The drywall screws were set deeper as needed to keep them out of the way of the plane. When the final shape was achieved, pilot holes for the remaining fasteners were drilled for. The rails were then removed for varnishing, and the hull canvassed. After the filler cured and the hull was painted, the rails were bedded into place (dolphinite) and fastened via the original pilot holes with bronze wood screws at every other rib. I shifted the pattern by one rib so that I could use virgin pilot holes instead of trying to hit original screw holes. I can provide you final depths and widths at various landmarks around the hull (midsection, thwarts, deck intersection, stem) that I ended up with, but the cross section is in no way square.

As far as how far down to relieve the planking, It is not too critical. You want to have it low enough so that the lip on the back of the outwhale clears the planking and lands tightly against the ribs, but you also want to leave it high enough so that it provides firm landing for the back of the inwale, and you can fasten the canvas through the planking into the middle of the inwhale (without blowing out the bottom of the inwhale or splitting out the top edge of the planking). To that end, 1/4 - 3/8 inch ought to be adequate.

Addendum (home from work)

measuring off my canoe, the out wale is 1 1/16 deep (viewed from side) by 13/16 wide (viewed from top) until approx 21 inches from the ends. There it tapers smoothly to a final dimension of 11/16 deep by 1/2 wide at the tips. The final cross sectional shape has the top edge gently down sloping towards into the rounded top outer edge. The outer face of the out whale is planed vertical.

I started with stock 1 1/8 inch deep and 1 7/8 wide before rabbeting the edges and planing the taper prior to bending, then ripping down the middle and scarfing end to end.
 
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