Michel Selig II
The Construction of The Classic Six Metre Model Yacht Michel Selig II
The Construction of The Classic Six Metre Model Yacht Michel Selig II
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I wanted a light wood which would be relatively easy to carve.<br />
Western red cedar was my preference, but its price at the saw<br />
mill near Saint-Tropez was prohibitive. I settled for a spruce<br />
(Picea abies) which has an average of one or two big knots for<br />
every 1.5 metres.<br />
The saw mill didn't want to plane the planks to the spacing of<br />
the waterlines (13.9 mm. or about half an inch). I settled for the<br />
thickness of two waterlines (27.8 mm. or about 1-1/8").<br />
Separate planks were used for the starboard and port halves of<br />
lift. This allowed cutting the inside portion of the lifts with a<br />
band saw.<br />
F. Fabricating the rough hull<br />
1. Transfer of the waterlines to the planks<br />
Whereas the margin of error in drawing the plans was ± 1<br />
mm., that for working on the wood was of at least ± 2 mm.<br />
a<br />
Slaloming through the knots<br />
The first task was to find a path on each plank which<br />
avoided knots. To say the least, it was tedious.<br />
For a given plank, the upper and lower waterlines lines<br />
of the lift form a pair, which can be named by the upper<br />
waterline. There are four possible positions of the<br />
upper waterline relative to the two faces of the plank:<br />
- on the topside of the plank, the centreline of the<br />
upper waterline can be on the right or left edges<br />
of the planks<br />
- ditto for the underside of the plank.<br />
For each position, one can slide the waterline from one<br />
end to the other of the plank looking for a point where<br />
the upper waterline doesn't pass through a knot.<br />
One must next verify that the lower waterline also<br />
avoids knots.<br />
To do this, I produced lengths of cardboard with the<br />
upper and lower waterlines drawn on them. I cut it<br />
along the upper waterline and then slid both cardboard<br />
halves from one end to the other of the plank to find the<br />
best position<br />
I cut then cut the cardboard along the lower waterline<br />
and verified that the position chosen for the upper<br />
waterline also proved a knot free path for the lower<br />
one.<br />
b. Drawing the waterlines on the planks.<br />
I then drew stations on both sides of the plank<br />
corresponding to the correct position of the waterlines.
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