A yard-arm eight feet long supports a square sail six feet wide, which is caught at the lower ends to the outer ends of the triangle frame.
The shoes attached to the triangle frame with bolts are fifteen inches long and the rudder-blade is ten inches long.
This is a rapid sailer before the wind, and with a little manœuvring the runner can be made to sail on the wind, though it will not run nearly as close to the wind as the ice-boats or scoots. Paint or varnish will give the wood-work a good finish, and under a stiff breeze this wind-runner will carry four or five boys.
Chapter XVI
HOUSE-BOATS AND RAFTS
A House-punt
A house-punt of very simple construction is shown in Fig. 1. The punt is from sixteen to twenty-four feet long according to the size desired, but for a party of four boys it should be twenty-four feet long, eight feet wide, and two feet deep with a cabin eight feet high.
The sides and middle rib should be of pine, spruce, or white-wood one inch and a quarter thick, free from sappy places and knots. If the boards cannot be had as long as twenty-four feet nor as wide as two feet, use two boards twelve inches wide and make one joint at the middle of the lower board and two in the upper board as shown in the drawing of the side elevation (Fig. 2). Six inches down from the top at either end and thirty inches in at the bottom cut the sides as shown so that the punt will have a shovel-nose at both ends and can be poled or sailed in either direction. Make a third or middle rib the same size as the side board. This is to be placed at the middle of the punt so as to receive the sheathing and deck planking. The arrangement of this middle rib and the side boards is shown in Fig. 3 and at A in Fig. 3. A batten is shown to which the upper and lower boards of a side are nailed fast. If the two boards are used it will be necessary to arrange these battens along the inside of each side about eighteen inches apart. They should be of tough wood five or six inches wide, an inch and a quarter thick, and two feet long.
Galvanized boat nails should be used, and when driven in from the outside they should be clinched at the inside. Good boat nails are of malleable iron stiff enough to go through hard-wood but ductile enough to be turned over at the ends with a light hammer and quick, sharp blows.
The sheathing and deck planking should be not less than four inches and not more than six inches in width, and before it is put on it should be well sun-dried to take out all moisture. It should then be given two good coats of paint on both sides to make it water-proof.
Lay the sides and middle rib bottom up and begin to sheath from one end. Lumber sixteen feet long should be used, and this, when cut in half, will make two pieces from each length. If matched boards are used smear the edges with white-lead before the boards are driven together, but if straight-edge lumber is employed it will be necessary to lead and wick the joints. This is done by taking a piece of round iron one-quarter of an inch in diameter and eight inches long and bending it as shown at Fig. 4 A. Lay this on the flat edge of each board at the middle and heat the iron so as to form a groove as shown at Fig. 4 B. The wood, having been beaten in, forms a gully in which a string of lamp-wick can be laid as shown in Fig. 4 C. The groove must not be cut with a chisel for then its effect would be lost. The object of this treatment is that when the punt is in the water the joint swells forcing out the wood against the lamp-wick and making a water-tight joint. The edges of the wood and the wicking must be well smeared with white-lead in order to properly calk the joint.