My last post ended with this picture showing the first panel attached to the bulkheads. I have two stitches attaching each panel to the stern (top and bottom of the panel), one attaching the panel to the center bulkhead (which will later be removed), and three attaching the bow.
To hold this panel in place, I attached “L”-shaped scraps to the bulkheads. Now that I have one panel in place, it’s easier to hold the next one. I clamped a couple of scraps to the outside of the first panel (one near the bow and one near the stern). These held the spring tension of the second panel as I stitched it into place.
You can see the stitch at the top corner of the second panel. Once that is in place, the clamps are no longer necessary. Next I stitched the two panels together at the bow (without attaching them to the first panel). At this point, the other clamps can be removed. The stitch at the stern, the outward pressure of the center bulkhead, and the bow stitches hold the panels loosely in place while they are stitched to the first panels.
I started stitching at the stern and worked my way up to the bow. As I worked my way forward, the gap seen in the picture above closed up.
You might be wondering, “How do you form the stitches?” and “How many do you need?”. In terms of “how”, I cross the wires over and take a couple of twists by hand. Then I grab the crossed over wires with a pair of pliers and then twist away while pulling the stitch away from the hull. The pull creates neater twists. I keep twisting until the hull panels are pulled together.
As for “How many?” the answer is “As few as necessary to pull the panels together.” Along some sections of the seam few are necessary because the panels naturally align. In these regions I do one stitch every 8-12 inches. When the panels have twist in them, it takes more stitches to handle the strain of the twist (more on this in a later post). In these regions, I do a stitch about every 4 inches. But I don’t measure the distance between stitches. I eyeball it with “one about here should do it.”
Here are pictures of a completed stitch and the completed second panels.
The third panel on this design lays flat enough, I didn’t need any special clamps to hold it in place. I put one stitch in the stern, then joined the bow, then started at the stern and worked my way forward stitching the third panel to the second. In the picture of the bow you can see that one end of the bow seam is tight and the other has a considerable gap. This is because of the twist I mentioned earlier. I was able to tighten the stitch to get the gap to close up.
When attaching the second panel to the first, I was able to reach over the top to insert the stitches. Because of both the size and position of the third panel, this was difficult to do. I have a rolley stool that is real handy for this. I sit on the stool and duck my head while I roll under the hull to insert the stitches.
A couple more tricks: I put a few scraps of wood on the bow to help the panels bend down into position. I also clamped “legs” to the hull to prevent it from rocking. Up until this point, rocking was prevented by the bulkheads being clamped to the strong back. As the hull progresses, I wanted a bit more stability. These flimsy legs will get replaced by sturdier ones shortly.
And finally, here’s the completed 3rd panels.
The final panels are a bit more complicated because of their twist, so I will save those for another post.
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