Making the cover boards

With the subdecking all in place it is time to start the cover boards, king plank and then the planking.  Cover boards are wider boards that start at the stem and follow the outline of the boat along to the stern.  In the drawing of the Malahini that is at the top of my blog, the cover boards are the wider black lines that outline the hull.  The king plank is the wider board that runs down the center.  The planking consist of narrower strips that fill in the rest of the deck.

To design the cover boards, I used posterboard to create templates.  I taped pieces together to cover the side of the deck and then trimmed the outside to the hull.  I then made a little pencil trolley to mark a line that parallels the profile of the hull.  I made the line about 7 inches in because that dimension aligned with the side of cockpit.

Once the boards hit the cockpit they need to taper to follow the cockpit lines.  I used a thin strip of wood, called a batten, to mark a smooth line from the front cockpit to the stern.   The width of the cover boards taper to about 4.5" at the stern.  By trimming along the lines I marked, templates were created.

The final step is turning these into wood.  Due to the curve of the boards, they have to be made in sections.  Laying the templates on the actual wood lets you determine how long a piece can actually be made to fit on your mahogany boards as shown below.  

The important lines are the joints and the inside line so I cut these with a jig saw as close as possible.  The outer line I made a little large since I will trim that to shape later. Since the hull is symmetrical, I clamped two boards together and cut both pieces at once. Then you must sand and tweak the joints to make it all fit.  The inner line must also be sanded so it is smooth from stem to stern.  There is a lot of trial and error, tweaking and sanding to make it all fit.

Here are the cover boards in place being epoxied. I used drywall screws and plywood washers to hold the boards down.  Later on I will countersink the holes and fill them with wooden plugs called bungs to hide the holes.