Shortly:
The top two pictures show the timbers steamed in but not yet nailed and the bottom picture shows the mizzen mast under construction.
Once the planking is completed the hull is re-enforced by steaming in lateral oak sections of timber, which because they are steamed in are known as 'timbers', if they had been constructed from futtocks (several individual pieces) or cut from one solid piece of grown timber they would normally be called frames.
Steaming 62 pieces of oak and then bending them to shape without scalding yourself is an interesting process and you get about 30-45 seconds to get the wood out of the steamer and bent and clamped in place before it cools to much to bend.
The next task is to drill, nail and rivet the timbers through each plank, that is 34 timbers with 26 nails in each giving 884 nails; each one averages out at about 90 seconds = 79560 seconds =1326 minutes = 22 hours. We are about 16 hours into this particular nailathon... between the hammering and then the riveting it is pretty numbing and being hunched over in a boat riveting has certainly given my back a lot to think about.
There are occasional amusing interludes, part of the process involves forcing the timber down onto the plank sometimes by the application of a foot... at times like this it is wise to ensure that the person under the boat, who cannot see you, is nailing into the hole you think they are nailing into. Yes you guessed, and yes it hurt.
We have also started work on the floors, but more of that later (they are not what you stand on, those are called soleboards) and as you can see from the pictures we have also installed the centre plate box and now await delivery of the plate itself, the sails have been ordered from a company in Plymouth and there is a small shed load of other bits arriving from the chandlers in the next few days. We also have the paint and once the floors, and deck are installed the next task will be to complete the painting of the interior before we finish of the exterior....
