Repair and Maintenance of a Drascombe Lugger

Making Wooden Floor Boards for the Lazarette (2)

This page describes the project in outline, the materials required and gives the construction drawings both for planked and plywood floorboards.

The project in summary

From the revised design, estimate the quantity of timber required, using the measurements on this page.
Purchase the raw materials consisting of planed wooden planks, Epoxy for primary coating, stainless steel wood screws used with Epoxy plus glue additive filler for attaching the bearing boards, and varnish for final coating.
Carefully mark out the measurements in pencil on the planks and bearers.
Use a jigsaw to cut the longitudinal planks out (but NOT the bearers at this stage).
Drill pilot fixing holes & plug holes in the planks (where they will eventually be attached to the underlying bearing boards).
Mark in pencil the exact positions of the planks on the top surface of the bearing boards.
Place the uncut bearing boards in position on a flat surface. Then place the planks on top of them so that they match exactly the pencilled position on the bearers beneath.
With the planks positioned correctly on the bearers, use a drill to extend the pilot holes in the planks into the bearing boards beneath.
The bearing boards can now be cut to shape with a jig saw.
Round off, by sanding, all the edges of the planks. This gives a better surface for the protective coatings to adhere to, reduces the risk of the wood splintering in use and also makes the boards much more pleasant to handle when removing or refitting into the boat.
Before assembly, give each component two generous coats of Epoxy resin.
Lay the planks upside down in on a bench, with the ends overlapping the bench ends, and insert the fixing screws in the holes (from beneath the planks), so that they very slightly protrude on the other side of the wood.
Apply Epoxy glue to bearing boards & planks and place bearing boards on the planks so that the screw tips engage with the holes in the bearers.
Drive the fixing screws fully home and make fillets of the glue which oozes from the joints.
Repeat previous stages for the second set of boards.
Glue the locating pegs in the correct position on the starboard board set.
Apply two coats of varnish to both sets of assembled boards.
Fit the completed board sets into the boat, ready for use.

Estimating the amount of timber required

It was decided that the longitudinal boards would be 162 mm wide and 15 mm thick. The bearing boards were constructed from planks 90 mm wide and 20 mm thick. The quantities of Western Red Cedar required for Sospiri's boards were as follow. (Note that the measurements are rounded up slightly to allow for error).

Six planks measuring 1,000 mm x 162 mm x 15 mm
Four planks measuring 600 mm x 90 mm x 20 mm

If you are purchasing the wood from your local timber merchant then it is important to specify that the above measurements represent the finished sizes, otherwise the timber will end up, after machining, at a smaller size than specified.

Other materials required for coating and fastening the bearing boards in position were:

12 stainless steel countersunk head wood screws (NOT self tappers), size 8, length 25 mm (1")
Epoxy resin (for coating and gluing). West Epoxy with standard hardener was used for Sospiri's boards.
Adhesive additive powder for the Epoxy (West 404 powder additive was used which makes a powerful glue when added to the Epoxy)
Yacht varnish used as a final (double) coating on the assembed boards to protect the underlying Epoxy from UV radiation in sunlight.

The MASTER PLAN of Sospiri's boards showing the exact measurements.

The sketch plans below show the detailed measurements for the boards. Note that measurements are given for planks and then (following), plywood boards. The bearer measurements are the same for planked or plywood boards.

	Lugger Lazarette, Starboard Floor Board Sketch Plans (Planked Version) This sketch shows the detailed measurements for the planked version of the Starboard boards. (Click on image for larger view)
	Lugger Lazarette, Port Floor Board Sketch Plans (Planked Version) This sketch shows the detailed measurements for the planked version of the Port boards. (Click on image for larger view)
	Lugger Lazarette, Starboard Floor Board Sketch Plans (Plywood Version) This sketch shows the detailed measurements for the plywood version of the Starboard boards. (Click on image for larger view)
	Lugger Lazarette, Port Floor Board Sketch Plans (Plywood Version) This sketch shows the detailed measurements for the plywood version of the Port boards. (Click on image for larger view)

Following the project summary and production of the detailed construction plans, the next page describes the construction. NOTE the construction guide is for the planked version but should also provide enough information to enable construction of the (simpler) plywood boards.

[Forward to page 3, Constructing the boards]