Breasthook
The breasthook adds rigidity to Justine‘s structural elements near the stem head where the sheer clamps and sheerstrakes are attached. It has a triangular shape and lies atop the sheer clamps and against the stem and sheerstrakes.
I used off-cuts from the black locust plank I’d purchased for Justine‘s stem to make up a blank for the breasthook. I ended up edge-gluing six pieces, and inserting two 1/4″ bronze drifts into the blank for some extra reinforcement of the glued joints (and with forethought to where future fasteners would need to go). I made a plywood template of the space the breasthook would occupy and began to bring the blank to its final shape.
I planed a small amount off the sheer clamps so that the breasthook would lie flat against them, then cut the bevel required for a tight fit against the stem. I then used my block plane to plane the winding bevels on the end-grain surfaces that would contact the sheerstrakes. Some patience is required to get all the bevels to fit simultaneously.
Once the breasthook was fitted, I gave the underside and bevelled surfaces a coat of red lead, drilled for the fasteners, and spread 3M 5200 on the mating surfaces prior to driving all the fasteners. Finally, I planed a very slight crown on the top of the breasthook to match the curvature of the deck beam mold.
Afterdeck beams
Justine has a foredeck and a small afterdeck, both made of 9 mm marine plywood. Both decks are supported by white oak deck beams that run athwartship. I decided I’d tackle constructing the smaller afterdeck first because it would be easier and thus a good learning opportunity.
In the Flatfish and Fish Class designs, the afterdeck height lies about halfway between the cockpit seats and the top of the cockpit coaming. The afterdeck is supported by three deck beams, and the deck beams rest on cleats that are attached to the frames between stations 21–23. It’s not obvious from the plans, but these cleats need to have a significant twist, and some curvature, to fit properly against the frames. I made a jig so that I could steam the cleat blanks, then twist them into the correct shape and clamp them in the jig to cool.
The afterdeck beams are white oak, cut to the afterdeck curvature specified in the plans.
Foredeck beams
Justine‘s foredeck extends from the stem back to the forward bulkhead of the cockpit. Forward of the cuddy top, the deck beams are continuous from port to starboard. The deck beams are interrupted by the cuddy top, so from stations 10–12 they are half-beams that extend from the shearstrakes to the cuddy coaming on each side of the hull. In this post I’ll just illustrate the installation of the full deck beams up to the forward cuddy bulkhead (from stations 2–8).
The forward deck beams are fastened with #8 copper nail rivets that pass upwards through the sheer clamps and deck beams. Copper burrs go on the nails protruding from the deck beams, the nails get trimmed to the proper length, and rivet heads are peened atop the burrs.