The Birth of a 'Centennial Spray' in New Zealand!

These photos will (hopefully) record the construction of our Bruce Roberts
'Centennial Spray 38'.
MANY thanks to Blair Boats for making the project happen!

June 2001

Click here to go back to the Index

First week of June, and we are well into getting the second skin of hull planking underway. Both this and the next diagonal layer will be composed of New Zealand Kaihikatea planks, 100mm wide and 4mm think. To hold them in place until the epoxy has cured, we are using air driven 12mm long plastic nails. The hull frames on the very left of the photo are for another yacht (a 64'er, also of wood-epoxy construction).
	Early June 2001, and the second skin is completed! Planking of this layer took about 6 days (including the fairing). The dark line amidships is some filler used to fair a plank that was between 0.5mm and 1mm too thin on one edge.
A close-up shot of the hull on the port side, showing the curve and angle of the planking
	At this stage we were halfway through planking the starboard side with the third layer (the second diagonal layer). Some of the planks on the forward half of the boat have been dry-fitted to check that they align with each other, and planks glued on previous days have been trimmed back to the sheer line (those in the centre of the hull)
This is a closer view of the planking process. We had to spile (or shape) some of the planks so that they would lie against the hull and each other without tending to buckle (note the variation in plank widths as a result). This necessitated dry fitting of every plank: the lighter planks in the photo have been dry fitted, and the darker ones have been glued. Once the glue had dried, the planks were trimmed off to the sheer line.
	The 22^nd of June 2001 and the third and final layer of planking is completed! The planks have been faired, and many of the small nail holes have been filled. We used long boards to fair the areas above the waterline, but the final fairing and filling will be done after glass sheathing of the hull.
The end of June 2001, and we've started to build up the keel deadwood. The hole has been bored through the hull to accept the shaft tube, and the first two pieces of keel have been glued into place (note the taper towards the aft edge). Parts of the next two keel layers can be seen on the right. These have been shaped and dry fitted.