The stringers are an especially important part of the build, they are the supports for the bottom and top decks but also allow so that the hull of the boat is lightweight and strong. I had the stringers trued, cut, and planed at my local hardwood shop. They are 12′ long by 3/4″x3/4″ essentially really long strips of flexible wood. They are so flexible in fact that they don’t need to be steamed and will contort to the bottom of the boat with the help of epoxy and clamps.

Step 1: Cutting out centerboard case/glueing

There is a step before putting stringers in and that is cutting out the centerboard case profile in the deckplank. This part is tricky as it’s hard to get the centerboard straight, mine is not straight but it’s ok not everything built can be perfect.

Centerboard case glued into keel.

---

 

Step 2: Attaching Frames

Another important step that needs to be done before the stringers go on are gluing the frames to the keel. There are two middle frames they are glued to the edges of the centerboard case and the deckplank. The rest of the frames are spaced around 24″ apart from each other along the deckplank. Adhesion takes about 12 hours with epoxy and once ready I cut a hole for the centerboard case on to the keel (same method as deckplank) applied epoxy and clamped the keel down to the frames.

Keel, deckplank, frames, and centerboard case all glued together.

 

---

 

Step 3 : The Stringers

The stringers fit into each of the notches that were cut into the frames. Everything fits together like a puzzle or a giant model airplane. In the below picture you can see a boat hull starting to form. The sides can now be attached.