A good while back I was on a bit of a framing kick. I had some drawings from an old friend in Florida, which were done by Gary Griswold, a well known American model boat designer. It was just called Excaliber, yes, I know, wrongly spelled, but I reckoned it was as near as dammit a Greavette as makes no odds, as it had those very typical wood and chrome vents, that look like Hilton Beehives.

Well, I traced the frames onto 3mm birch ply, cut 'em out years ago, glued to the keel and put a bit of stringering on, but with little real care if I'm honest. I do tend towards impatience.

Anyway, the Greavette suffered while a Darby One Design grew from plans in an old Motor Boat and Yachting Annual from 1951(ish). Today, I decided that the one deck stringer that I'd cut out years ago could no longer be allowed to flop around the rest of the infant hull like that, so I glued it on.

It was at that point that the unevenness of the frames became clear. I'm afraid it must be said that Mr. Griswold clearly never built an Excaliber or he would have realised that the shape barely staggered from one frame to another with anything remotely akin to what we old hands call fairness!

Gluing it to transom and bow then showed up how twisted the whole thing was. So, I cut another deck stringer plate for tother side and glued that in, while bracing the hull with a piece of hardwood in such a way that the twist should be removed. It's amazing what a diagonal can do.

The notches for the deck and chine stringers were also all over the place, so they were packed out to fill the gaps twixt stringer and frame notch.

Next will be the fairing of the frame edges. They're all at various angles and many need a layer of ply glued to the edge to make up for up to 1/4" of disparity!

Most would bin and rebuild, but you'd end up with the same unless you laboriously redrew and checked the original drawing. Also, I'm quick! I tend to attack a job and then spend a short time finessing it. I'm currently in attack mode, but also, I am very much a make do and mender, a waste not-want not person and I have no spare 1/8th" ply. LOADS of 1.5mm, but no 1/8th", so I'm being frugal. There was just enough for the other deck stringer. I have loads of small scraps for bracing decks, etc. I tend not to give a toot about the unseen stuff and spend my time making it externally pretty and my, is a Greavette a pretty boat. Up there with the very best Canadian woodies, I assure you.

So, if you get a twister, or one with iffy frames or have put your time and ply into a dodgy drawing, all is NOT lost.

Remember, "Attack, attack, attack……finesse"

And what else would I be doing when everybody was flopping about in this heat?

Cheers,

Martin