Smack Yacht "Volante" Volante was build in 1870 at Wivenhoe as a yacht but in the style of a fishing smack. She has recently been acquired by the Pioneer Sailing Trust who lifted her from the Orwell mud in which she had spent nearly 50 years. Although recognisable, she had sagged and twisted as she settled ever deeper into the mud & so was now beyond a case of replacing a few frames & timbers. Sadly, Volante was in such poor condition, it was felt that a complete rebuild was necessary. The Trust will restore her to her former glory at their premises in Brightlingsea. Although records of her build can be found, no drawings or plans have survived to show how she was intended when she was new. In light of this, Scott has been asked to produce a new set of drawings to assist the rebuild process. It was decided to incorporate CAD to enable much of the fairing to be completed before cutting any timber. The advantage over traditional restoration techniques is a large labour saving when fairing the oak frames as much of this has already been done - but inside the CAD software. Firstly, the existing hull was measured as accurately as possible. Not only were the overall dimensions measured but also the location and scantlings of every frame & timber to enable a record to be built up. The sweep of the sheer was measured in all three dimensions along with the stem, keel & stern post; these lines were then faired and treated as fixed curves around which the sectional shape was applied. Volante is interesting in that she has tumblehome and we were all keen that this feature was retained so that the restoration be as accurate as possible. Once the drawings had been completed and approved, the frames were printed full size on mylar film to produce templates for them to be cut to. Most frames are doubled up and so are two 4" timbers put together to make one 8" frame. Due to their thickness, there will be some change of shape across the frames, especially nearer the bow and stern, and so three lines were plotted for each double frame and two for singles. The three lines represent the forward, middle and aft outside edge of each frame enabling the bevelling to be completed before the individual frames are stood up in the vessel. This reduces the necessary fairing to a minimum allowing a quick progression from fitting the frames to the keel assembly and then on to planking the hull. Volante is planked in 45mm timber, this skin thickness was deducted from the moulded hull shape to dictate a rabbet line to be drawn against the keel assembly, into which the hull planking would locate. The forward seven frames are inclined. What this means is that they are not square to the keel but are nearly square to the hull planking. After careful measuring, these frames were again plotted full size and fitted in the same way as the other "square" frames further aft. At the current time, progress on Volante has stopped due to a high yard work load. It is hoped to resume the project early in 2012. Build photographs show progress to date (Spring 2011). |