by Hugh Hobden
Ribbing a Frostbite is an acquired art needing an apprenticeship in steamology, wood suitability, hammering and bad language! We managed all these and more. First: to choose a long grained timber and machine to the correct size. What looked like suitable beech turned out to be short grained at exactly the wrong place, where the bend was acute at the bilge.
Our steamer bubbled away and generally did the job. Our first attempt in the centre of the boat resulted in two broken ribs one after the other – almost in place, a final push and c-r-ack, two pieces now ! We did get two ribs in place over a period of two hours, never mind about getting the job done in an afternoon! Driving the copper nails without pre drilling right through hull and rib was a disaster, the rib split or the nails dived out to the side. So with a growing pile of firewood it was back to the drawing board.
First we reduced the rib size, soaked them in water for a day or two and then steamed them. This did the trick and we managed to get several in with only one breaking in an afternoon!
We decided to drill from the inside out and rove the nail on the rib. This is more time consuming but looks very neat. We have a roving punch and another punch with an indentation matching the rove profile to peine the nail end over. Some ribs take a bit of an effort to sit down on the land but they generally will pull down when the rove is driven down hard. Our copper nails have been counted out allowing for a few rejects – the cost is prohibitive to buy a box as you did in days gone by.
Our efforts will not be up to a boat builder’s standard but passable for the intermittent future use the boat will get.
We plan on cleaning out the clinker lands on the outside of the hull and using a syringe, inject a brew of epoxy glue and filler for the same reason as this boat will spend more time out of the water than in therefore subject to drying out.
Our steamer bubbled away and generally did the job. Our first attempt in the centre of the boat resulted in two broken ribs one after the other – almost in place, a final push and c-r-ack, two pieces now ! We did get two ribs in place over a period of two hours, never mind about getting the job done in an afternoon! Driving the copper nails without pre drilling right through hull and rib was a disaster, the rib split or the nails dived out to the side. So with a growing pile of firewood it was back to the drawing board.
First we reduced the rib size, soaked them in water for a day or two and then steamed them. This did the trick and we managed to get several in with only one breaking in an afternoon!
We decided to drill from the inside out and rove the nail on the rib. This is more time consuming but looks very neat. We have a roving punch and another punch with an indentation matching the rove profile to peine the nail end over. Some ribs take a bit of an effort to sit down on the land but they generally will pull down when the rove is driven down hard. Our copper nails have been counted out allowing for a few rejects – the cost is prohibitive to buy a box as you did in days gone by.
Our efforts will not be up to a boat builder’s standard but passable for the intermittent future use the boat will get.
We plan on cleaning out the clinker lands on the outside of the hull and using a syringe, inject a brew of epoxy glue and filler for the same reason as this boat will spend more time out of the water than in therefore subject to drying out.
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