Twist and Shout

After my first attempt at steaming and fitting a teak deck strake, it became blatantly obvious that its:

a) hard work and

b) likely to do a lot of damage to existing deck components.

So I started scheming out a jig. After all, Fairey Marine used to supply a set of teak deck parts pre-steamed for customers to add to their kit boats. I bet they used a jig.

The Solution so far is a 8' x 2' sheet of 3/4" spruce plywood from "B&Q" and some 2" x 1" screwed and glued around the edge as a frame to stiffen the whole lot up. Add a coat of Homebase's finest white paint so I can see the lofting lines.

The curve of the strakes was easily traced from the old sub-deck as the lines of the old planks were visible due to the discolouration of the plywood caused by water leaking between the planks over the years. A few panel pins and my trusty lofting batten.

The next job is to make up the clamp blocks so the teak strakes can be manipulated (in pairs) to the correct curve.

More later...

[Now Playing Twisted by Katie Melua]