Inwall to rib angle

[Dave Aukes]

I'm replacing the gunwales on a18 ft square stern Peterborough, the sides have a progressive flare out from the stern to the bow. When the inwales are installed they are not level without cutting the rib mating surface at an angle. This provides level bottom to attach the thwarts.

I cut the gunwale stock square because of the progressive flare now as I install the inwales I have to angle the inwales to match the changing flare of the sides.
Any ideas on the best way to cut the progressive angle on the inwales as I install them? I'm thinking of using a bench plane.

 

[Gil Cramer]

Install the rails. Use the plane and sander to get the rails in the same plane as the inwales.

 

[Dave Aukes]

Sorry I didn't do a very good job describing my problem.

The angle needs be cut on the outside of the inwale where it contacts the ribs. The side walls of the canoe flare out and if square gunwales are installed they tip up and out and thwarts don't make full contact where they attach to inboard gunwale.
The original gunwales were cut at an angle but were installed upside down which made the attachment angle for the thwarts even worse. It appears they were installed that way during original build.

The canoe has many assembly problems like that and it all seems to have been done during original build. It's a total workmanship mess.
The seats set on 3/4" X 2" 10 inch cleats that attach to the sidewall of the canoe, the bottom of the cleat is cut at about a 20 deg angle for aesthetics. The cleats were installed upside down and the seat rails were attached to the angle cut on the cleat.
The tips of the ribs vary from 1 3/4 inch to 1 1/8 inch and are installed randomly throughout the canoe. The workmanship on the stern was a site to behold, I've been working on that for many months.