With the evenings drawing in there is a little more time to put captions to photo's, possibly not enough time to answer xadmx's question of “why?” To be honest it would be easier for a man to explain the inner workings of a woman's mind, certainly scared me off the keyboard for a while.
So the next plank, this “should” be an exact mirror image of the one just fitted, however if the original builder had to work around a fault in his timber stock there could well be a variation side to side, common sense says to work to the original intent. On “Progress” the length is slightly longer side to side but other than that identical. Should the next board in the pile be suitable it would be good to mark around the first plank to ensure the two are as alike as possible. As it happens the next board wasn't suitable, or the next, or the next,...........
SPA50230 by chriscollins1, on Flickr
SPA50231 by chriscollins1, on Flickr
With the first strake in on both sides I could start putting in another pair of frames, it's all a bit of a balancing act at this point, obviously the number one priority is to to copy the original shape and construction as accurately as possible, one piece out and a new piece in would be ideal, unfortunately pieces are falling off quicker than I can replace them – hence the big hole on the port side, not ideal but still enough to get a good copy of the original.
SPA50233 by chriscollins1, on Flickr
SPA50238 by chriscollins1, on Flickr
Over the years I have tried dealing with cutting the hoodings in the stempost in different ways, the easiest is to cut them using what is left of the original as a pattern, unfortunately this is normally the least accurate. Working the rebate as you go up the stempost using a batten hung on the frames to give the angle of the plank landing is far more accurate but generally involves a deal of balancing, contortions and ambidexterity. Once the angle has be accertained a block planed to the same pattern can be cramped to the post to guide the cutting.
SPA50241 by chriscollins1, on Flickr