Dec 9. Rub Rail and Ribs

The hard part not shown here is the decision of what species of wood to use for the scantlings (all the little piddly pieces of wood that reinforce the basic boat). The plans recommend ash or oak, which are $8 and $4 a board foot, respectively, which is the difference between maybe $400 and $200 total for this boat. Ever since reading the Canvas kayak book by a guy named Putz, who described his choice of materials as "use cheap materials and rebuild the boat in 5 or 10 years", I've completely gone that route unless impossible. But I'd never worked with ash and the boat was turning out so well, I started going for higher end materials and work. 

It turns out that ash is fricking hard! I had to rip the rub rails to 1 1/2" by 5/8", just thin enough to bend without too much difficulty. By the end of all those rips, especially the 1 1/2" thick one, the brand new, sharp table saw blade was burning through the ash more than cutting. 

I couldn't get ash in a 16' length, so I had to scarf up four pieces into two. I usually scarf skinny pieces by using a block plane on pieces clamped overlayed and offset to the proper scarf angle, but the ash was so hard that I had to re-sharpen  the plane a couple times to get through it. Then the scarfs turned out weak because I again couldn't get the joint tight enough and full of resin. Dammit. They broke on installation so I fixed them in place after a bit of swearing. 

Here are the rub rails installed. Should have cut the ends at the peak at a higher angle. It'll be hard to fix in place. 

On older drift boats, the ribs are a full U-shape and placed in position prior to skinning with plywood. Here the ribs are necessary only to make the flared sides more rigid, and to give a place to mount the seat risers and sheer strakes, whose inboard distance due to the ribs provides extra longitudinal strength. I pulled an awesome radial arm saw trick to cut the 60 degree end of two of the ribs with one cut, but I'll tell you about it over beers when you ask me later. 

I forgot to mention it in this blog title but I also put in the transom reinforcement today. Not an easy board to fit with compound bevels on each side and then rounded. And don't forget the slight bevel along the bottom edge too. Close enough. Glue and screw it in place. 

Here's a shot to show the ribs and curve of the side to advantage.