Thursday 27 November 2008

oak rubbing strips







We've always liked the idea of using traditional english wood in boat building (notwitshstanding that the ply, silver bali, purple heart and douglas fir were from foreign climes!) so when we came to decide how to 'decorate' the boat the natural choice for us was oak.

For the rubbing strips on the top strake we used a 45mm wide x 19mm thick top strip and a 45mm x 12mm lower strip.

Again, because of the twist, tumble home and every other sort of tension, it was necessary to steam the oak for some time to get it pliable enough to clamp and screw in position - leaving it for a few days to acquire 'memory' before epoxying on. We did this before the decking went on because we felt it would be easier to plane it down to the 'meet' the deck.

We also used oak as seat edging, on top of the cb case, mast step, coaming edging, rudder pintle pads, stem and anywhere else it would show!

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