FIDDLE HEADS, LONG HEADS, TRAILBOARDS

[Clyde A. Phillips]

I will get to work on the drawing of the fiddlehead.  This will be a redeveloped drawing in that I have no blueprints that give it.  We had patterns of many parts and I'm sure a fiddle head pattern was used to mark the wood for sawing to shape.  Now that you are going to do some work on the other bulwark you should first mark and measure, and record, the position of the gammon.  Then do the repairs and then make the new gammon iron.  I'll speak to that process later.

I wrote the last post on my word processor expecting it to be an email but I thought that there was something in it that others may want.  As I re-read my scribblings I was shocked that I forgot the promised pictures (actually I've done that so many times it no longer seems unusual).

This is Karen's and Jasper's Newporter up in the Canadian Pacific.  Note its length, it goes forward of the attachment of the stays'l with attaches to the anchor roller chocks on a "standard" boat; this one is not standard.  This picture is of what I call a bald fiddlehead.

Here we see the trailboards.  These are fiberglass moldings, with the curve molded in so they would not break when being installed.

This is the Chesapeake longhead.  Note the two long strips of wood running from the outboard end back to the stem and then a short way back on the hull.  This is where the trailboards are mounted, between the two strips.  It's a tight fit so the they act as the top and bottom raised edges of the trailboards.  The trailboards on these boats are made of two, sometimes three, pieces so that they hug the long head and the hull.  Note also the heavy (or heavier) straight beam that runs from the end of the long head to the hull, a ways aft of the trailboard "edges."  These act as braces that keep the long head from whipping in a seaway.

There is a very good book, sold at the WoodenBoats shop, that is about ship carving, by Hanna.  It contains a section on trailboards, and I recommend it as a good read and a possible spur to set you to carving your own trailboards.  Think about it, it would be fun.

The Old Man must now find his berth--my waking watch is long over.  I'll check this later and add to it what I have likely forgotten this time around.

Peace,   Clyde

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Those are the standard trailboards of the Newporter.  The design is molded in, which may aid in painting.  They are fiberglass and the latest ones had a gel coat full of bright yellow brass chips mixed in, giving the whole unit a golden appearance.  Then, just paint the flat surface and get a look very close to a gold gilded job.

One disadvantage as I see it.  These trailboards have an edge turned down to give it some "thickness" and to strengthen it.  But, the flat surface is about 3/4" off the hull and fiddlehead and the mounting screws passed through the flats, giving you a hole in the glass of the hull for the screw and nothing right on top of it to pull tight to the hull.  In time that would, I think, become an invitation to water to get behind the fiberglass (and you know the rest of the story).  Blocks of wood could be attached at those points to help keep the water out.  From that thought you can develop that design to your ideas.  Peace,  Clyde 

[Britton Moses]

I really like the trailboards shown in that second picture:)