110 Anarchy

[Steve Clark]

I

If ever there was a sailboat designed for planking, it would have to be the 110

When the110 was designed in 1937 Plywood had just been developed. All the existing single chine classes ( Star, Comet, Snipe, Lightning) were all planked in the conventional way, and are very traditionally built. The economy in these builds comes from not having to spile the planking. The 110 design intended to maximize the benefit of sheet goods. There was little understanding of how much one could torture ( or develop compound curvature) in the ply panels. Further there was a drive for maximum economy, which limited the width of any one panel to ~1220mm or fractions of 1220mm.
Given this, the genius is that a boat that performs so well could also be achieved.
In his various designs, Ray Hunt focused on particulars that he knew were critically important to the type. his 5.5 meters and displacement keelboats were minimal wetted surface area for example while his fast motor boats minimized water plane area at speed. The ‘10 series were minimum D/L where he was able to achieve planing dinghy like proportions with a small keel boat. As I said at the top, the ULDB Sleds followed the same path 40 years later.
SHC

 

[bsavery]

I have an honest question, and not having a marine architect degree always wondered. What does the double ended pointy stern on boats like these and canoes get you? It seems from my stupid dinghy sailor point of view having a wide planing surface on the stern helps stability on a plane.

 

[eliboat]

If ever there was a sailboat designed for planking, it would have to be the 110 Canoe.

You could even cross plank most if not all of the boat for even stiffer panel strength if you wanted. My 9.5m boat has planking in both directions.

I don’t know what thickness your okoume plywood is, it looks to be 9mm? You could plank that out with 12x190mm paulownia planks, butt polyurethane glued still glassed both sides, and have a lighter and stronger hull. Paulownia is good for stringers etc too, 80% of the weight and strength of WRC, a quarter of the cost. Sections the same weight as WRC sections would be larger and stiffer. You can also get laminated panel material. Bulkheads and frames were all CNC’d from 2.0x1.2x14mm paulownia panels.

Just beware, it is pretty soft. Treat it like a sandwich material and spread loads wherever you can. I used planks because I couldn’t get the curves I wanted using plywood.

Paulownia Timber

paulowniatimber.com.au

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Planking a 110 with basically wide strip planks would be quite easy and what I would like to do some day. Doing it out of Paulowina would result in a boat well under the class minimum weight of 910 lbs. This is achieved easily enough with fir ply as specified in the original plans. Going back to Steve’s point, Ray Hunt did a pretty damn good job getting things right… yes you can easily make the boat lighter and stiffer with more efficient foils etc, but the boat is great as it is. Part of me has always been curious just how good the 110/225 could be if made as light and stiff as possible. Pretty amazing for a boat designed in ‘39.

 

[eliboat]

I have an honest question, and not having a marine architect degree always wondered. What does the double ended pointy stern on boats like these and canoes get you? It seems from my stupid dinghy sailor point of view having a wide planing surface on the stern helps stability on a plane.

Planing in a 110 is one of the sweetest and most controlled planing experiences… not twitchy as all, as opposed to say an I14 or something that has very little in contact with the water in full anger. The 110 locks the chine in and is akin to a big wave surf board.

 

[Steve Clark]

A boat shop is a room with not enough clamps in it. We didn’t actually use every clamp, but there aren’t enough to do both sides at once.
Generally really pleased with how well the ply went down.

The ploy of using dry wall screws and backing them out after the glue has cured is not necessarily a winner. There are a lot of holes to fill, and just troweling some bog over the top doesn’t really do the job. Then there is trying to correct the surface. It’s much faster to conserve the factory finish as much as much as possible.
The panel in between the stringers is the first of 2 additional plies of 3/8” plywood in the area of the keel.
This permits recessing the ugly vertical part of the keel flange.

 

[WCB]

A boat shop is a room with not enough clamps in it. We didn’t actually use every clamp, but there aren’t enough to do both sides at once.
Generally really pleased with how well the ply went down.

The ploy of using dry wall screws and backing them out after the glue has cured is not necessarily a winner. There are a lot of holes to fill, and just troweling some bog over the top doesn’t really do the job. Then there is trying to correct the surface. It’s much faster to conserve the factory finish as much as much as possible.
The panel in between the stringers is the first of 2 additional plies of 3/8” plywood in the area of the keel.
This permits recessing the ugly vertical part of the keel flange.

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It looks amazing! I need to finish off my list of boat projects so that I can make room for one of these.

 

[WCB]

Planking a 110 with basically wide strip planks would be quite easy and what I would like to do some day. Doing it out of Paulowina would result in a boat well under the class minimum weight of 910 lbs. This is achieved easily enough with fir ply as specified in the original plans. Going back to Steve’s point, Ray Hunt did a pretty damn good job getting things right… yes you can easily make the boat lighter and stiffer with more efficient foils etc, but the boat is great as it is. Part of me has always been curious just how good the 110/225 could be if made as light and stiff as possible. Pretty amazing for a boat designed in ‘39.

Eli, would the Paulownia butt up against each other or would you use some sort of tongue and groove system to go edge to edge?

 

[eliboat]

Eli, would the Paulownia butt up against each other or would you use some sort of tongue and groove system to go edge to edge?

I would just edge glue the planks, but you could go tongue and groove or bead and cove if you like. My vision is only 3 or 4 planks for the topsides.

 

[eliboat]

A boat shop is a room with not enough clamps in it. We didn’t actually use every clamp, but there aren’t enough to do both sides at once.
Generally really pleased with how well the ply went down.

The ploy of using dry wall screws and backing them out after the glue has cured is not necessarily a winner. There are a lot of holes to fill, and just troweling some bog over the top doesn’t really do the job. Then there is trying to correct the surface. It’s much faster to conserve the factory finish as much as much as possible.
The panel in between the stringers is the first of 2 additional plies of 3/8” plywood in the area of the keel.
This permits recessing the ugly vertical part of the keel flange.

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And yet Steve I still see a surplus of clamps in the background.

 

[WCB]

I would just edge glue the planks, but you could go tongue and groove or bead and cove if you like. My vision is only 3 or 4 planks for the topsides.

Thanks! I want to use your vision to make a 110. With the beauty of all of those wood Stars in the Vintage Gold Cup in Michigan, it would be fun to make a 110 look like those planked beauties

 

[Steve Clark]

And yet Steve I still see a surplus of clamps in the background.

I said I didn’t say I used every clamp, just that I didn’t have enough to bond both sides at the same time- which as you know is one of the traditional things people do to keep boats straight.
SHC

 

[Sidecar]

I would just edge glue the planks, but you could go tongue and groove or bead and cove if you like. My vision is only 3 or 4 planks for the topsides.

On my boat, the bottom is double planked. Inner layer longitudinally, outer later cross planked. Glass sheathing (450gm/m2) is doubled up too.

i wouldn’t use paulownia anywhere near the 110 keel area. Use more suitable harder, denser and heavier timbers. Keeps the CG low too.

There are a few small sections of my boat which are either ply, or Tassie Oak because of local bearing pressure/ unavoidable fixings.

 

[WCB]

On my boat, the bottom is double planked. Inner layer longitudinally, outer later cross planked. Glass sheathing (450gm/m2) is doubled up too.

i wouldn’t use paulownia anywhere near the 110 keel area. Use more suitable harder, denser and heavier timbers. Keeps the CG low too.

There are a few small sections of my boat which are either ply, or Tassie Oak because of local bearing pressure/ unavoidable fixings.

I was thinking the same, that the center three or so planks on the bottom would want to be something heavier/stronger like mahogany or oak.

 

[eliboat]

On my boat, the bottom is double planked. Inner layer longitudinally, outer later cross planked. Glass sheathing (450gm/m2) is doubled up too.

i wouldn’t use paulownia anywhere near the 110 keel area. Use more suitable harder, denser and heavier timbers. Keeps the CG low too.

There are a few small sections of my boat which are either ply, or Tassie Oak because of local bearing pressure/ unavoidable fixings.

Yes… nothing exotic with the framing needs to be done. I’m not sure I would even use paulowina to be honest. First off, it is incredibly light, so I would have to add a ton of corrector weights to meet the class minimum. This wouldn’t be a bad thing for handicap racing, but my intent here is not necessarily to create a rocket ship, merely something beautiful. Planking with CVG fir would be more in keeping with the original plans, and would also be beautiful finished bright. Paulowina, while light, strong and fairly hard for its weight is a pretty boring wood look at.

 

[WCB]

Yes… nothing exotic with the framing needs to be done. I’m not sure I would even use paulowina to be honest. First off, it is incredibly light, so I would have to add a ton of corrector weights to meet the class minimum. This wouldn’t be a bad thing for handicap racing, but my intent here is not necessarily to create a rocket ship, merely something beautiful. Planking with CVG fir would be more in keeping with the original plans, and would also be beautiful finished bright. Paulowina, while light, strong and fairly hard for its weight is a pretty boring wood look at.

That was what I was thinking re: bright finished planked look. A mix of woods would be fun. Kind of like...

 

[Steve Clark]

There are plenty of Tijuana opportunities even with plywood. You can substitute ribbon face veneered
Sapelle or inlay Andy Warhol silk screens of Che Guevara on the deck. Or recognize that even the simplest version of this project is going to take 50% longer than all the time you thought you had, which is 80% longer than the time you actually have.
In this case fair, smooth and some attractive color is all I’m aiming for.... unless Robbie comes up wth something wild in the way of wraps.
SHC

 

[Sidecar]

^^^^^ Wood grained wraps?

Doing it in “decorative“ ply also means dealing with scarf joins to get the length. Hard to hide.

 

[Steve Clark]

Sidecar: that is a wonderful way to build a boat. I have done similar things on other builds.
In this case, the project was defined by some constraints that would not matter if I was only building a boat for my use.
I repeat, the 110 was designed to be built out of sheet goods. That is why it looks like that.
The major tool in this instance was a CNC machine and I tried to optimize that.
SHC

 

[Sidecar]

Steve

i understand what you are doing, the wood grain wrap was tongue in cheek. Sorry it flew over your head.

Most of my posts on this thread were directed to @WCB and @eliboat BTW.

Respect.

 

[Steve Clark]

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