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The first strakes used a straight edge from bow to stern, utilising the natural flex in the wood to form the correct shape. As I’ve moved further from the keel though I’ve needed to add a curve to the edge closest to the keel. Until the centre of the hull approaches the water line, the curve will need to increase for each strake.

I’m tracing the outline of each strake as I complete them so I can easily make replacements. I will probably end up digitising them once I’m happy with the final hull.

It’s been a while since I made any real progress on building the boat, having spent a lot of time experimenting and trying different options for the strakes.

The shape of the strakes has been difficult to determine as it’s essentially their shape that determines the contours of the boat. They are shaped so, as they bend to meet at the bow and stern they naturally form the shape of the boat. Turning flat pieces of wood into a contoured shape.

I finally came up with a series of shapes that I’m happy with and took the major step of actually attaching the first strakes to the keel. As I add more and more strakes I’ll either be rewarded with the correct shape if I get it right or realise I got it wrong and have to start again !

So, right now I’ve added the first two strakes on both sides and, so far at least, it looks to be forming the correct shape in line with the plastic guides. I’ve designed and printed a number of different clips to help hold the strakes in place while the glue dries so the 3D printer has been a big help with that.

Each strake is slightly different as, as well as forming the hull shape as it’s bent into position it also has to form the distinctive shapes at the bow and stern. The first few strakes overlap each other in such a way that they only form part of the end shapes. Later strakes will all go to the ends.

After starting to lay down the keel and experimenting with the freshly cut strakes I realised that the wooden guides for the former weren’t quite right. I was also having issues with the base warping along it’s length which was never going to be a good thing !

So, I opted to created 3D models of each section/guide and printed them out to improve accuracy and consistency. By using printed plastic clamps I also have a bit more leeway for adjusting the final positions of the formers vertically and horizontally to make sure everything is lined up as accurately as possible.

You can’t really see from the picture but each guide also has grooves that mark the position of the bottom of each strake which should help me to reproduce the original spacing/positioning. The black elasticated string was used initially to align the guides horizontally and may be useful for guiding the strake position as I build it up.

I have some additional layers to add to the keel to form the “T” to help support the first strake as it joins the keel. I can then start to add the first strake.

At 1:24 scale the planks/strakes that were used in the original (approx 10 inches wide by 1 inch thick) scale to approximately 10mm x 1mm. I’m using beech ply for the strakes as it’s both flexible and relatively tough.

To aid in cutting the basic planks that will act as a starting point for forming the strakes I have modified a design of a tool that was created for cutting balsa planks. Desiging and 3D printing the tool has allowed me to accurately cut planks from sheet ply.

I’ve published my design for the tool here…
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4255410
Where it can be downloaded and 3D printed. A video of the tool in operation can be seen below…