Our 1948 18-foot Century Seamaid is well on her way to having a virtually all-new bottom from the waterline down.
All be three new frames, the stem and the gripe, as well as the chine frames and bottom bow have been fabricated and rough-installed. (We use FAS grade white oak for the structural members.)
Once Joe finishes final fabrication of the stem, we will remove, seal and bilge paint all structural members.
Once sealed and painted, we will install her new bottom frame bedded in 5200 and secured with silicon bronze wood screws and carriage bolts. We will use longitudinal strings to ensure an absolutely true and fair frame.
We are replacing the Seamaids’ single plank-on-batten bottom with a True 5200, which is double plank. To ensure the new bottom’s final thickness matches the single-plank bottom, we use 4mm Aquatek Marine Plywood for the inner skin, followed by FAS grade Meranti planking planed so that it lands fair with the keel and just shy of share with the chine planks.
The inner skin is bedded to the battens and frames using mahogany 5200 and silicon bronze fasteners. The outer skin will be bedded in a 1/8-inch-thick layer of white 5200, save for mahogany 5200 forward where the bottom planks sweep above the waterline.
We will be updating you again sometime next week, when we should have the frame members and inner skin installed.