Well, today was fruitful, I think. Last night I milled the ash for the ribs and did a couple of test bends. Today, I made my rove setting tool and then prepped the rest of the ribs and installed them.
The typical method of doing the ribs is to steam them. I figured I'd try something a little easier. At least I didn't have to build a steam box. I just laid the pieces in the kitchen sink and ran hot tap water on them. I weighted them down with a kitchen pot full of water. I added some boiling water to get a little more heat. It took a little longer to make the ash pliable than steam would have but I wasn't too worried.
The ribs are fastened to the boat with copper rivets and roves. The setting tool is just a 1/2" bolt with a hole drilled in the end to allow the rivet to enter. The hole in the rove is slightly smaller than the diagonal on the square rivets. The rivet is started through a hole that is slightly too small for it. A maul head is held against the wood on the inside of the boat until the point of the rivet is driven through. (You have to be sure not to try driving the rivet into the head of the maul.) then a rivet is set in place over the point and the setting tool is placed. The rivet is driven through the wood and the rove. Then the rivet is cut off nearly flush with the rove. The maul is used as a bucking iron against the head of the rivet and a 4 oz ball peen hammer is used to mushroom the end of the rivet over the rove and slightly compress the rove. It takes longer to read that than to do it.
The ends of the ribs will be cut off flush with the gunwale after the inner rail is installed.
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It's going to snow today. I'll have to dig out some of the pics from previous sailing trips.
