Here you can see the assembled center floor-board with the mast socket glued into position. Another part that will have to be modified is the thwart (bench-seat) which lies up against the mast and has a semi-circle cut into it to accommodate this. The thwart provided with the kit can still be used, but it will need to be extended on each end as the boat is wider where the new main mast will be.
Here are all the floor-boards which I have painted white prior to installation. In retrospect, doing this really didn’t save me any time or make the painting any simpler.
The above picture shows two strips of planking which have been cut and glued into place. These are known as the ‘sheer-clamps’ and they provide extra strength to the upper part of the whole and make for a stable surface for attaching the gunwales.
After the sheer-clamps have been installed, it is necessary to add what are known as the ‘thwart-risers’. These pieces are the supports for the ‘thwarts’ which are the seats for the boat’s crew. In my model, these are added as two separate planks on each side of the hull but, in the plans, they consist of three pieces on each side.
The reason for this modification is to allow space for blocks which act as ‘winch-keepers’. The kit does not provide any winch parts (and thus have to be custom built) but I am not inclined to do this. The primary purpose for the winch was to help haul up the ‘mothership’s’ anchor if it became fouled) but this is not a required function for the configuration I am building and so I have made the forward thwart risers out od single pieces of planking.
Here you can see the sheer-clamps and thwart risers after painting. I originally planned to make the thwart risers the same gray as the sheer-clamps but decided to make them white after they were installed.
In the previous picture, you can just make out the cradle in which the boat is sitting. This is provided with the kit and is shown above. It is quite useful as a support when working on the hull and, if I decide to use it a permanent display stand, I will probably stain and varnish it.
Here you can see the floorboards after having been glued into place. These needed to be bent slightly to fit and this required holding them with my fingers as there was no easy way to use clamps.
You can also see the supports for the quarter deck planking sitting in place. These need to cut to the correct length beveled at each end so as to allow a slight slope to the quarter deck. The plans are not particularly helpful here and I largely had to cut and shape by eye. The pieces are not glued in place yet as I am going to paint them gray first.
The quarter deck planking has been painted and installed, and the decking is now complete.
Here, I have painted and installed the fore-peak grating and the forward thwart, along with the two stern-most thwarts, and the port and starboard seats known as the ‘stern sheets’.
Because I have shifted the mast position, the next two thwarts will be in different locations than called for in the plans and they each need to be extended as shown above.