Wooden boats Keel construction

[vivian ashParticipant @vivianash47259]

Cutty Sark

[vivian ashParticipant @vivianash47259]

Hi …I have a billings boat cutty shark ….. that I am too nervous to start …especially with regard to the planking. Is there any one in the Congleton / Cheshire area that could give me a hand to understand best practice building…many thanks

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

Hello Vivian

Welcome. Maybe you have set your sights a bit high to start off with. Billing kits and especially the Cutty Sark are not for the faint hearted and the instructions, as you may have seen, are rather thin.

Hopefully others will cone along with some suggestions of a less complicated boat to start with maybe.

Best building practice does require quite a lot of practice as it says on the tin!

Good luck

Tim R

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

It is classed as a model for expert builders by Billings.!

As Tim says, probably best to practise on something a bit simpler to start with.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I would say that almost all Billing Boat kits require a high level of experience to build. This is mainly due to their interpretation of what 'instructions' mean!

Having said that, if you have built a wooden hull before AND if this particular Cutty Sark kit is a model you simply MUST put together -say for personal reasons- then you need to 'google' all over the place and study the different suggestions for hull-planking. It may be that you will find build logs from others who have actually built this Billing kit. Have a few extra lengths of strip-wood on hand in case you need to re-do something.

If you don't mind buying some other kit first, then some members here can surely recommend something with helpfull, easy-to-understand instructions.

I printed out a few google posts as an aid to planking my Fisher hull. Of course I was going to cover the hull in glass fibre after planking so a certain amount of 'leeway' was available for poor planking work. I don't now how much wood filler you can add to a Cutty Sark hull without spoiling it.

You'll surely get help here soon when a few more wake up for the new year!

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

In google you can for example search 'planking the Cutty Sark hull. Try also including the words 'Billing Boats' etc.

George

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