> After talking to you all for so long I have decided on and purchased the
> plans and materials for a Chesapeake 17. I still have to pick up the
> lumber for the shear clamps and I have a question. The plans say to double
> the length of your boat and add 3 feet to get the total amount of lumber
> you will need for sheer clamps. I can't fit 37' of wood in my jeep so I am
> going to get it ripped into smaller pieces at the lumber yard and scarf
> them together at home. My question is do I just get 4 pieces at 10' each
> or is their a more efficient way to go about this. The plans don't ever
> say how long the shear clamps should be, it just tells you to cut it off
> as marked on the drawing.

> Cheers, Dan

4 ten-footers sounds like a good idea. I want to see you fit those IN a jeep, though. Perhaps you might tie them to the roof, or let them dangle out the back.

I suspect the reason why the plans don't give an exact length for the sheer clamps is that panels for the boat may vary slightly from the plan. This is quite likely if they are cut from 8 foot panels of plywood and then scarfed together. (This is as opposed to scarfing the plywood into 20 foot long sheets, and then trying to cut the boat panels from this huge, flimsy assemblage)

Depending on how close to plan you make those scarf joints your boat's overall length will vary slightly from the plans. Probably you'll be off anywhere from an 1/8th to 1/4 inch, but really, it doesn't matter too much if the boat is even an inch or two shorter than the design, as long as the parts that are supposed to match, really do match. So, you make the panels first and then make the clamps match exactly what you have. Similarly, after you have made the hull, you make a deck that matches it perfectly by using the hull as a pattern for trimming the deck edges.

Hope this helps.

Paul Jacobson