A rove for the uninitiated (and hopefully not being patronising) is a conical disc of copper with a small hole in the centre. When a nail is driven through the planking the rove is driven onto the inner end of the nail, the nail is snipped off almost flush with the top of the rove and is then peened over to form a rivet.
Today we riveted 312 nails, fortunately we only have about 300 left to do tomorrow and then we can get on with the next stage of construction which is putting in the floors. So after the photographs yesterday of the timbers in place here are a few of the timbers nailed and roved...
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| Riveted timbers at the stern... |
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| A shot of the bow timbers and in the foreground you can see two of the seven floors that have been joggled and beveled to fit over the timbers and create a level platform for the sole boards. There principal purpose however, is to join the two sides of the boat together and strengthen the centre line structure. |
I have to say that while the finished product is very satisfying, spending the day kneeling inside a boat, even with knee pads, and hammering copper rivets is mind numbingly tedious, and painful but nonetheless essential when building a traditional clinker boat.
We are on course (no pun intended) to make the launch date of the 7th December but it will be a tight run schedule.
