Meanwhile it must not be supposed that work on the new boat had ceased. Harry's plan, when fully worked out, provided for one twenty feet long and six and a half feet wide amidships.
The drawing (Fig. 2) shows the construction of the hull. As they had no means for doing any fancy bending of the boards, the bottom was made flat, and the sides sloping. The bottom and the sides were made in the following manner: Two stringers (A, A) were first constructed, which were made up of thin pieces nailed together, so they could be bent in the proper shape for the bottom boards, which were laid crosswise and nailed to these stringers.
Fig 2-3. Working on the new boat
For the upper edges of the sides, called the gunwale (B, B), similar stringers were provided, but they extended farther fore and aft, and amidships were fully six and a half feet apart, whereas the lower stringers amidships were four and a half feet apart. This arrangement, therefore, provided for sloping sides, and the side pieces ran up and down on the inner course. It will be understood that the sides and bottom thus formed were to be overlaid with thin boards running fore and aft, as in Fig. 2, as they had no means for matching the boards and thus putting them together tightly.
The sides were two and a half feet high. Six and a half feet from the forward end was a cross beam (C), into which the mast was to be stepped. At the stern the bottom was sloping upwardly at an angle and brackets (D) were extended back and joined at their rear ends, to which the lower end of the rudder post was attached.
Amidships a keel (E) was formed, projecting down from the bottom, this keel being, at its widest part, two feet, and tapering down to merge with the bottom, fore and aft. The cross section (Fig. 4) shows how well he had formed the vessel, proportionally.