CODBLOG16: Deck Beams

All the old deck beams, bar one, needed renewing. A visit to our friendly woodyard in Trefnant had procured the necessary timber for them. Going round the yard pulling random pieces of timber worked out cheaper because some were a bit bent but still suitable for our purpose. Class rules dictate that the 3 most important beams (at the mast, the tiller and the mooring post) should be oak but the rest can be made out of lighter wood. As we had oak available we went for that.

These planks were planed back at our “workshop” and marked out for cutting using the old beams as patterns. A day trip to Yates & Co. at Stockport was arranged and the whole lot was loaded onto Ron Cheetham’s Toyota and off we went. Rod has obviously been practicing on the bandsaw because we made short work of the job and by the end of the day we had a complete set of deck beams to go home with.

Our technique for fitting the deck beams started with refitting the old beams back in position. With these in place we know that the shape of the boat remains true. We then fitted each new beam one at a time. The beams fit into the deck beam shelves which are original so the ends of the beams have to have dovetails made to fit the original joints

On the principal beams there are reinforcing “knees” which attach to the ribs. The originals were all looking very dodgy so new ones were cut out of appropriate timber, making sure the grain flowed around the bend of the knee to give the strength. The deck beams and the knees were then finally screwed into place.