The cross-pieces that fasten the boats together are bolted fast by means of long bolts that pass through the timbers and deck and into stout pieces of wood that are nailed fast to the upper part of the spreaders as shown at A in Fig. 8. The boats are decked over with the three-quarter-inch planking, and to insure an absolutely tight deck the wood may be treated to a thick coat of paint and covered with canvas which is pressed down well into the paint and the edges tacked down over the sides of the boats. The canvas is then given a coat or two of paint and allowed to dry thoroughly, after which it can be sand-papered and finished with the desired shade of paint.
Three spruce timbers eight feet long, three inches thick, and six inches wide are bored with holes at the ends where the bolts pass through them and into the boats. Running parallel to the boats three timbers are laid across the brace-timbers and on top of these the deck planking is nailed. These pieces are two and one-half by four inches, and ten feet long, and are bolted down with long slim bolts.
The decking is formed of slats three-quarters of an inch thick and four inches wide nailed down to these stringers. Spaces half an inch wide are left between each one.
The bowsprit is of three-by-four-inch spruce left with its square corners for half its length but dressed round at the outer end. It is caught under the middle cross-brace where the end is bolted, and extending over the front piece it projects four or five feet beyond the bow ends of the boats. With wire-cable the bowsprit end is stayed to the bow of each boat, where turn-buckles can be caught into eyes in the stem-posts.
The mast is of spruce dressed from a four-inch spruce stick and slightly tapered at the top. It is fifteen feet long and stepped at the middle of the front cross-piece and on top of the bowsprit where it is held in place with a collar and iron braces as shown in the illustration. Fig. 5.
Standing rigging of wire-cable stays the mast from the top to both ends of the front cross-piece as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 7.
Three short posts are made fast to the cross-pieces close to the decking, and holes bored in the tops of them will hold a safety-rope around the deck.
A SAILING CATAMARAN
The rudder-posts are of hard-wood one inch and a quarter thick and two inches and a half in width. They are three feet long and to the upper end of each a strap of metal is arranged to receive the tiller as shown in Fig. 9.