No drop plank, tapering instead

Because of the model’s sheer, the space for the planking gets narrower and narrower towards the stern, and in the middle I came out badly. Piet saw it too: if I had already tapered the first strake above the aftermost gunports a little, I would probably have come out just that bit better at the transition to the plywood bulwark. His advice is to taper the strakes slightly and in good time, so that you don’t have to work with small pieces and don’t end up having to fit your last strake at the stern with a tiny sliver.

I had thought about tapering, but I also wanted to try one of those drop planks for once, or whatever it’s called. A ’lost strake’, in other words. I’d seen that term in Mondfeld. Piet explained that a drop plank only occurs at the bow, not in this place; at the sternpost you speak of stealers. Normally you simply taper your strips if you’re not coming out right. Had I paid better attention I would have seen that too. Learnt something again.

For a moment I hesitated about redoing it, because breaking things seemed a bad plan at this stage. But I really was left with sliver planks, and that didn’t look like much fun. Luckily the planks came off easily. Now tapered after all, and an extra strake used, so that I get the middle filled as well and everything runs through neatly.

Two days later the planks are tapered so that they run parallel with the sheer and exactly a whole number of planks fits above them. It’ll probably be the weekend before the first side is fully closed up to the top. The photos aren’t too good because of poor light.