Beveling the Longitudinals

It is now time to bevel the sponson keels, chines and sheer clamps in preparation for the plywood sheathing. Handplanes are the traditional tool for this work -- a scrub plane and/or jack plane to rough it down; a jointer to complete the job. A power planer may also be used.

Two areas require particular attention.

First, recall, if you will, the time you spent making sure the frames were set up flat and level along the sponson pads. A poor job of beveling the keel and chine could undo that effort. As you progress, use a straightedge to make sure you have taken these longitudinals all the way down to the frames and that they are straight along their lengths.

If you take off too much wood, then glue some back on and plane it back down again. (I had to do that myself on one of the keels and on one or two other places along the way.)

The second critical area is where these three longitudinals come together at the stem. There is no majic formula for getting everything correct here. But keep a couple of things in mind:

1.) The sponson pads carry about 8 degrees of deadrise for most of their length. This angle will diminish toward the bow until that angle reaches zero at the forward edge of the stem.

2.) The angle between the chine and sheer clamp is changing all along the length of the boat. However, if you make an effort to maintain a constant angle from frame 1 to the stem, and bevel to the center line on the clamp, you should come out just fine. Keep in mind as well that the plywood that will cover this area (the "sides") will narrow as it approaches the stem and ultimately come to a point at the forward edge of the stem.

Again, if you take off too much wood, glue some back on and go at it again later.