Building the ribs

The hull is free from the mold, and things are looking good. Now we need to head back to the drawing board, and make the finished ribs. I used the same process from before (making the ribs for the mold) and traced each rib and then cut with a jig saw. All the ribs are made with marine grade mahogany plywood. The ribs in the center, and the end ribs are 1/2", and the rest of the ribs are 1/4". Two of the ribs need to be specially cut, because they will be the rigger attachment points. I photo copied the detailed drawings of these sections, and cut them just like I had the other ribs.

In my modified version of the plans, the gunwales are not attached to the boat. This meant that at this point I also had to fit the gunwales in. Then I did a dry layup of all the pieces. You'll need gunwales, gunwale stiffeners (which run between the two rigger mounts), and the decking stringer which will hold your decking on.

Once I felt good about all the pieces fitting, it was time to find every clamp I could, as the gunwales got glued on to the hull, and the ribs got glued in place. I didn't glue down the deck stringers, because the bow and stern pieces will get attached later, and my hands would just not fit in there later if closed it all up.

The weight of all the clamps twisted the hull slightly, but I'm not too worried. When they're not there, she's nice and straight.