Planking

One mistake we made on the three earlier batteaux and then corrected on the 4th Rucker is in putting the planking on the body of the boat first, and doing the nosecones last. The cuts where the nosecones meet the body of the boat and at the end of the boat are both compound angles. It is much easier to cut the angle at the end of the nosecone and let where the nosecone meets the body run long. Also about half of the end rib needs to be beveled to accept the boards from the nosecone which are obviously coming back at an angle. Again it is clear that this is much easier to do if the planking for the body isn’t yet done. We did put the kingplank and sister boards on each side of the kingplank on prior to working the nose cones, this held the ribs together and didn’t in any way interfere with the nosecone planking.