It may be helpful, for those not familiar with the anatomy of wooden boats, if I describe some of the parts of what is called the centreline structure(s) – the backbone, if you like.

On a bigger boat, the deadwood – a wedge-shaped piece of wood that sits on top of the straight keel – is separate (viz dotted line), and attached to the keel. I have made the keel and deadwood in one piece – one less joint to fit and have exposed to the elements … and risk it opening up in future years!

I tried clamping the hog to the keel for well over a week, hoping to ‘dry bend’ it to the shape of the deadwood. However, when I took off the clamps, there was hardly any bend to the hog. So, I decided to apply some steam!

The structure of wood can be compared to a bunch of drinking straws, held together with glue. That ‘glue’ is lignin, and its property of softening with heat, making the timber pliable, allows woodworkers to bend wood to shapes it would otherwise not form without breaking. Direct heat from a fire has very largely been superseded by steam.

While I will need a steam box for the ribs, the foremost ends of planks and this rear section of the hog can be steamed using a plastic sleeve.

After 30 minutes (1 hour per inch thickness of timber, is the rule), Sylvia and I quickly clamped the hog in place, with a backing piece of plywood to protect the hog, and help prevent cupping (transverse curvature), which may occur with the wood in its relaxed state.

There is still a slight gap between keel and hog, an inch or so in from the end, but this should work out OK when I cut the hog back, to make room for the bottom edge of the transom.

Just visible on this view are some shallow checks (splits) in the deadwood, which I aim to formally repair, rather than just fill with epoxy/filler. I know, I’m not making a piano, but …

While I was waiting for the hog to ‘dry bend’ I took the stem to my bench, and cut the rabbet.

The rabbet is the recess in the stem into which the ends of the planks are seated. The lines that form the rabbet are shown below, and are derived during the lofting process, where the boat is drawn full-size on the floor.

The router work went better than I dared to hope. I re-drew the rabbet line and proceeded to chisel out the recess.

There is a risk that the bearding line might not be quite right, and one should make allowance by not cutting all the way back to the bearding line. This allows some ‘fat’ that can be trimmed off when fitting the planks. I think I have gone a bit closer to the bearding line than I should, but hopefully it will be ok – the students at IBTC have found that they have needed to extend the bearding line so … fingers crossed!

The final shape of the stem narrows to the front edge (a feature called the ‘cutwater’). I have left the stem square for now, as this will make clamping here easier when I come to doing the planking.

What’s next? Well, the timber for the transom and planking arrived safely, and those pieces that are too long for the garage are on the conservatory floor! I have started work on the transom, and am facing and edging some boards prior to ‘thicknessing’ them before jointing.