I'm starting in on the planking my Wampum VM RC sailboat. First step was to mill some mahogany to 1/8" thick. The sheer trim pieces are 3/8" wide and the king plank is 1/2" wide. Then I drilled holes on the sheer rails that are each 3" apart. I actually stacked the two rails and drilled them together to ensure they would be even. Then I carefully (mostly) aligned the pieces as best I could and drilled through the deck. The pieces are held in place with 1/8" wooden dowels. When actually epoxied on, the dowels will hold the pieces in place until the epoxy cures. When sanded flush, the dowels will add a nautical touch to the rails. It will look nice. Here are the guide lines. The holes however were drilled using the pre-drilled mahogany strips. I laid the strips on the deck, and starting at the bow, held them in position. Then would bend the strip to conform to the curve of the deck and then drill the next hole and insert a dowel. You do this all the w...

It's sanded! Thank God... Finished with the planking and tonight I was able to sand the deck of the Sun Wind II RC Vintage Marblehead sailboat. It looks pretty good. This weekend I'll do some finish sanding, and then probably put some epoxy along the hull/deck joint to fill it in. Then will fiberglass the deck. Aloha!

It's taken forever, but I'm finally getting near the final deck planks. Just a few more to go and I'll be able to sand the deck flush. I've been using many clamps, as well as crosspieces to hold the planks down onto the plywood. Otherwise the clamps tend to pull up the inside edge. At this point, I really can't wait for this step to finish. God... but it should look good when all sanded down. Hopefully in a few days... Peace!

Planking on the Sun Wind II continues at a very slow pace. I'm only able to get about 1 plank per day. Ugh... But so far I've done the rudder access hatch, and several planks. Looks OK, but will look much better once I'm done and can sand the entire deck flush. Until then, I'll keep slogging away. The pictures below are obviously before I've been able to sand, so excuse the raised planks and such.  More updates later. Peace!

The deck planking continues. Had to make an additional investment in small bar clamps though. Bought ten at Home Depot, and then ordered another eight online. But, they work, so I can't complain. The planks are 1/8" thick x 5/16" wide, milled from Alaskan Yellow Cedar.  I'm making a curved plank deck, so the clamps are needed to hold the curve in the planks until the epoxy sets. This is going to take a long time! Peace!