This cat is a giant source of invaluable boat building information. He’s a great teacher and if you don’t already know he is on other RUclips channels as well. Hats off to you Louis and keep em coming!!!
I remember your discussion about magic lines on the Acorn to Arabella RUclips channel. The information you presented here added a lot if clarity to the subject of magic lines. I really enjoy your videos.
@Age M They have had a terribly discouraging time planking. Contrast that with the lining off job Leo did on Tally-Ho. There is no substitute for experience.
@@dnomyarnostaw That is absolutely right and they made it doubly difficult opting to go the scarfing route. The lining off was their biggest issue though. They installed a steeler after Lou's visit and another weirdly shaped strake in an effort to get on track. The bottom looks rather shambolic, but they are a resourceful pair and I'm sure they will get it right for those planks that are visible when she is afloat. It is a nettle they have to grasp, at some point.
The best wooden boat building video I’ve ever seen. Hands down. You explain it so well that even I understand it. Watched most of this at least two or three times. Excellent!!
Listening to you is an education. Loved learning about the "magic line". This actually is the same concept used in Riemannian Geometry of the shortest distance between two points. Reimannian Geometery is a geomtery that is used to describe curved space like the space around the sun. When two points are situated in curved space, rather than the flat Newtonian space, the easiest way to get from point A to point B would be defined as a straight line, i.e the magic line.
I was at school when the metric system was introduced in the UK. After being educated on that basis I left to strike out in the world of work, starting my shipwright's apprenticeship. Guess what? It was still imperial in that trade. Even years afterwards, at best it was a mash up of both systems and I still use both sides of the tape to this day.
I cannot emphasize enough Lou's immense natural communication skills. (On this channel or on the other where he appears.) This in itself is amazing. But in this partucular show, I want to underline the great shooting technical qualities, even more particularily the photo direction. Whoever you are, you sure know how to play with light, contrasts and ambiance. Three thumbs up!
777th view. One of my lucky numbers. Awesome explaination of your idea for the system for lining-off the second planking layer. I can't wait to see how it works in practice, and how you plan on getting the outer planking layer to lie down for setting and fastening. This should be quite the education. I can hardly wait.
Wow. It's amazing how much knowledge you have looked into your proprioception. It's like your body is doing all of this advanced maths by feel alone. It's remarkable to watch. Thanks!
I only build model ships which i double skin and this makes perfect sense to me. In actual fact i have learnt information that will help me in my model making. Thank you
In large scale commercial concrete construction(high rises stadiums) we commonly use metric forms to build off of imperial plans. Its a p.i.t.a. and i wish we could swap for metric. So much easier to layout etc.
There are benefits to both in different scenarios for certain, no reason to do away with either. I agree if it works better on something particular it's time to switch over. There's just no need to hold on to something just for the sake of it nor should we throw the baby out with the bathwater. I use a dual system tape quite a lot, often on the same project for different things, which ever is faster, most accurate and easier. A friend of mine does the same thing with a standard and decimal system tape for his line of work and was the one who suggested I try it for my field with a standard/metric rule. He was right on the money. My only complaint is sometimes the scale I'm using is on the wrong side of the blade, this is easily fixed by reversing where I measure from and would be really cool if the tape measure industry would make different "handed" versions, but not necessary. Come to think of it it would be cool if they made an opposite handed rule period. Anyway, I digress, great comment. :)
The taut string follows the shortest distance between two points on a curved surface. If you stretch a string taut between two points on a globe it will describe an arc of a great circle, which is the path that airplanes fly between cities distant from each other.
I remember flying from Tokyo to Minneapolis once, waking up after flying all night, looking down between the clouds and seeing snow capped mountains with no roads or cities, wondering where we could be. After a while it became clear we were over the Canadian Rockies, on a great circle route.
@MichaelKingsfordGray While this is accurate in an absolute sense, for the purposes of classroom demonstration the difference is insignificant. The Earth's polar diameter is 7899.806 miles. It's equatorial diameter is 7923.382 miles. That is a difference of 0.34%. For a twelve inch desktop globe to reproduce this proportion it would be a mere 0.040", that's roughly one millimeter, greater in diameter through the equator than through the poles. A difference so small that manufacturers of classroom globes don't bother to take it into account.
I don't think you want to play 3 dimensional chess with Lou! Looking forward to the actual planking so that this all makes sense. This is a lifetime of experience on display!
Aaaaaand thank you soooo much for using millimeters rather than centimeters. Only dress makers and teachers use centimeters. Pretty much all the productive industries use meters and millimeters.
love the transoms on those alden boats, what a complex structure! gorgeous rake and sweep ending at the beautiful overhang....can the planking not be beaded and coved?
Smashed the daylight clean out if the like butten for millimeters that makes your projects nice. Imperial might keep it from breaking clean in two, but millimeters will make it nice to have, look at, maintain and so on :)
Lou, thank you for this wonderful lesson. Would I be right to say that it depends mainly on the curvature of the sheer line if you can plank the hull with straight planks and how far down you can go that way ? Why does the magic line not run further down the hull, say, next to the keel?
I’m guessing here but I would think that with the number of these Aldens that have been built over the years that the “old timers” had a pretty good idea of where that first plank should lie in the hull. They might not have shared that knowledge with any fool that came along however. Now that I am old and fat I can find that line by the shape that the top of my BVDs take before they get old and stretched out. Thanks again Lou.
Great explanation. The magic line seem to be the same concept as a Great Circle line in navigation and can be found the same way by stretching a string across two points on a globe. But does anyone today still own a globe? I do.
"People didn't seek out the proper advice/ didn't go about it the right way........start having all kinds of problems". That's Acorn to Arabella. You may as well have just come out and said it.
Rewatch, but the "start' of the magic line are two points on the hull. Where they end up on the bow and stern is a function of where the two points are placed two thirds along the side of the hull. Ie. Where a straight plank would end up if nailed close to the two points to start.
Synthetic wood is next. It will allow traditional wooden boat building skills to continue. You know all those plastic bottles we recycle? That’s synthetic wood stock. 🍀
The metric system was introduced by French humanists during the miserable French revolution. It is based upon powers of the number ten because humans (and monkeys) have ten fingers in all. As such it facilitated counting on your fingers. The Imperial system, with 1/2", 1/4", 1/8", 1/16" etc. is actually based on the "binary" system, on powers of two, and as such it is utterly harmonious with modern computers which store and compute with binary numbers. For example, 1/4 is one divided by two to the second power. The reason why division is more difficult with the Imperial system is because of the mismatch between decimal numbers (again, they are based on powers of ten) and the binary-based Imperial system which is based on powers of two.
All frames are flexible, but the only pressure a frame has to resist is length ways, or compression. If you smash into a pier, the frames only job is to hold the planks together, and make the outward curve of the planks spread the pressure along the whole hull. Same for water and wave pressure. Ribs by themselves are not required to resist pressure from the exterior, or they would need to be overly heavy and large.
I find it misleading to speak of "the" magic line. A magic line is placed from a point on the stem to a point on the sternpost, where it is convenient to divide the space from the line up to the gunnels ("Gunwales") or Sheer Plank (or "Planksheer"), and from the magic line down to the garboard plank by the keel, into convenient plank widths. As Louis explains, a magic line is found by measuring down from the gunnels or sheer plank, with the magic line passing through 2 points equidistant from the sheer plank or gunnels, with those points typically being at thirds of the length of the hull. The magic line is adjusted up or down as convenient to allow convenient plank widths. Planks will usually be tapered to the stem and the stern as necessitated by the shape of the hull,, since the garboard to sheer plank distance varies along the hull. A magic line can be found by a tight string or by taking a long, straight piece of planking and placing it longitudinally from stem to stern without bending it to raise or lower its edges, i.e. without "edge setting" it. I find it to be a fascinating exercise to shape a boat out of straight pieces of wood. Framing a house is so much easier than building a boat.
@@thomasarussellsr In Volume and other areas deci and deca are used - but not in general engineering - mm and meters - 10th's and 100th's of a mil. Most artisans can work in both metric and inch - thou's, in the UK seeing it all started here. My brother is a patternmaker in the US and he works in both - but no centimetres!
@@graxav The nice thing with the metric system is that you can just think in orders of magnitue, be it millimeters, centimeters, meters or whatever. It's a scientific way of notation just put in common words.
@@graxav I am so happy someone understood. The last several feeds I asked this question in, I got jumped on for making these prefixes up, by more than just a few people. The lack of education in this world frightens me. Thank you for acknowledging my question with a knowledgable responce. You have at least partially restored my faith in humanity. I was seriously starting to think I was the only pesron with a mathematical or scientific education spending time on RUclips. I love crafts and craftsmanship. Even better is craftsmanship where accuracy matters, like ship building. Again, good to see there are others out there that recognise the lesser used 10th and 10-fold factor measures in metric.
Always a poet! Who doesn’t love a good picnic, especially when Lou’s serving? Very much looking forward to this. Excellent explanation.
This cat is a giant source of invaluable boat building information. He’s a great teacher and if you don’t already know he is on other RUclips channels as well. Hats off to you Louis and keep em coming!!!
Thankyou Lou your knowledge is pure gold we are lucky enough to see it in your videos!!
@MichaelKingsfordGray what ??? You must be drunk ??
I don't understand anything about it but it sure is fun to listen to someone so intelligent. Thank you for making these videos.
I remember your discussion about magic lines on the Acorn to Arabella RUclips channel. The information you presented here added a lot if clarity to the subject of magic lines. I really enjoy your videos.
@Age M They have had a terribly discouraging time planking. Contrast that with the lining off job Leo did on Tally-Ho. There is no substitute for experience.
@@gav2759 A lot of that was being a double ender. It makes for planking challenges.
@@dnomyarnostaw That is absolutely right and they made it doubly difficult opting to go the scarfing route. The lining off was their biggest issue though. They installed a steeler after Lou's visit and another weirdly shaped strake in an effort to get on track. The bottom looks rather shambolic, but they are a resourceful pair and I'm sure they will get it right for those planks that are visible when she is afloat. It is a nettle they have to grasp, at some point.
@@gav2759 Throwing around your vocabulary their Ray.
Anthony
@@gav2759 Like Ikea furniture...the next one they put together will be a cinch
I could listen to this all day! Thanks for sharing!
The best wooden boat building video I’ve ever seen. Hands down. You explain it so well that even I understand it. Watched most of this at least two or three times. Excellent!!
Lou...Doing it again...Because of your youtube channel I was able to build a small teeny weeny fishing boat...Awesome Teacher Dude!
Lou and crew show their experience in every aspect of this project. I love the practical methods Lou has devised to make the engineering simple.
Listening to you is an education. Loved learning about the "magic line". This actually is the same concept used in Riemannian Geometry of the shortest distance between two points. Reimannian Geometery is a geomtery that is used to describe curved space like the space around the sun. When two points are situated in curved space, rather than the flat Newtonian space, the easiest way to get from point A to point B would be defined as a straight line, i.e the magic line.
You are talking about taking the Great Circle Route around the hull. Very similar to the flight paths of commercial aircraft. Very cool.
Thank you for using the metric system.
And thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Watching all the way from Cape Town South Africa.
I was at school when the metric system was introduced in the UK. After being educated on that basis I left to strike out in the world of work, starting my shipwright's apprenticeship. Guess what? It was still imperial in that trade. Even years afterwards, at best it was a mash up of both systems and I still use both sides of the tape to this day.
Me too!😆
Me three. :)
Not surprising. The systems are good for different things.
Me too
Me four!
Fantastic, I never really understood the magic line before today. Zero edge set down the line, amazing. Thanks Lou and Ken.
I cannot emphasize enough Lou's immense natural communication skills. (On this channel or on the other where he appears.) This in itself is amazing. But in this partucular show, I want to underline the great shooting technical qualities, even more particularily the photo direction. Whoever you are, you sure know how to play with light, contrasts and ambiance. Three thumbs up!
Beautifully informative. A true joy to watch. Thank you. 😊
777th view. One of my lucky numbers. Awesome explaination of your idea for the system for lining-off the second planking layer. I can't wait to see how it works in practice, and how you plan on getting the outer planking layer to lie down for setting and fastening. This should be quite the education.
I can hardly wait.
Great Video!!! I would never build this way myself but the lessons in hull shape and construction are amazing. What a cool cool guy and a cool video.
Very knowledgeable, thanks for sharing
A magic line. What a joy to learn about something I’ve never heard of. I would love to come to your picnic!
Wow. It's amazing how much knowledge you have looked into your proprioception. It's like your body is doing all of this advanced maths by feel alone. It's remarkable to watch. Thanks!
Excellent video - very enjoyable.
What a Great looking boat so far! So much great information.
I only build model ships which i double skin and this makes perfect sense to me. In actual fact i have learnt information that will help me in my model making. Thank you
“Nice as pie” - I haven’t heard that phrase for a long time. Part of the “flavor” that I derive from watching your videos.
Great information. Thank you.
What a nice boat.....
In large scale commercial concrete construction(high rises stadiums) we commonly use metric forms to build off of imperial plans. Its a p.i.t.a. and i wish we could swap for metric. So much easier to layout etc.
There are benefits to both in different scenarios for certain, no reason to do away with either. I agree if it works better on something particular it's time to switch over. There's just no need to hold on to something just for the sake of it nor should we throw the baby out with the bathwater. I use a dual system tape quite a lot, often on the same project for different things, which ever is faster, most accurate and easier. A friend of mine does the same thing with a standard and decimal system tape for his line of work and was the one who suggested I try it for my field with a standard/metric rule. He was right on the money. My only complaint is sometimes the scale I'm using is on the wrong side of the blade, this is easily fixed by reversing where I measure from and would be really cool if the tape measure industry would make different "handed" versions, but not necessary. Come to think of it it would be cool if they made an opposite handed rule period. Anyway, I digress, great comment. :)
Now I understand edge set!
Absolutely great job!
The quality of the completed planking is superb. Fascinated how the second 'coat' will work out.
The taut string follows the shortest distance between two points on a curved surface. If you stretch a string taut between two points on a globe it will describe an arc of a great circle, which is the path that airplanes fly between cities distant from each other.
Something l remember teacher demonstrating 50 years ago😉
I remember flying from Tokyo to Minneapolis once, waking up after flying all night, looking down between the clouds and seeing snow capped mountains with no roads or cities, wondering where we could be. After a while it became clear we were over the Canadian Rockies, on a great circle route.
@MichaelKingsfordGray While this is accurate in an absolute sense, for the purposes of classroom demonstration the difference is insignificant.
The Earth's polar diameter is 7899.806 miles. It's equatorial diameter is 7923.382 miles. That is a difference of 0.34%. For a twelve inch desktop globe to reproduce this proportion it would be a mere 0.040", that's roughly one millimeter, greater in diameter through the equator than through the poles. A difference so small that manufacturers of classroom globes don't bother to take it into account.
I don't think you want to play 3 dimensional chess with Lou! Looking forward to the actual planking so that this all makes sense. This is a lifetime of experience on display!
Aaaaaand thank you soooo much for using millimeters rather than centimeters. Only dress makers and teachers use centimeters. Pretty much all the productive industries use meters and millimeters.
love the transoms on those alden boats, what a complex structure! gorgeous rake and sweep ending at the beautiful overhang....can the planking not be beaded and coved?
Great explanation of what could mystify most people.
Hey Lou. When are we going to get another episode? Can't wait man!
Another well-measured and informative video.
Pretty neat watching a shipwright explain a geodesic from his perspective. I've only had physicists explain it to me before.
Geodesic have many topological and also structural properties. Are used much in many aerospace structures.
Pretty nice explanation in my opinion. Thanks for the knowledge.
Yes. Metric system works. No messing with sixteens and eights of elephants foot :) greetings from Czech republic.
so true!
Smashed the daylight clean out if the like butten for millimeters that makes your projects nice. Imperial might keep it from breaking clean in two, but millimeters will make it nice to have, look at, maintain and so on :)
Lou, thank you for this wonderful lesson. Would I be right to say that it depends mainly on the curvature of the sheer line if you can plank the hull with straight planks and how far down you can go that way ? Why does the magic line not run further down the hull, say, next to the keel?
This is going to be interesting. I have the feeling that this new planking will be a sort of heavy version cold mold.
I’m guessing here but I would think that with the number of these Aldens that have been built over the years that the “old timers” had a pretty good idea of where that first plank should lie in the hull. They might not have shared that knowledge with any fool that came along however.
Now that I am old and fat I can find that line by the shape that the top of my BVDs take before they get old and stretched out. Thanks again Lou.
Bravo! Subscribed.
Look forward to seeing the whiskey plank go on.
super entertainer ... and I think I got it what a magic line is
Great explanation. The magic line seem to be the same concept as a Great Circle line in navigation and can be found the same way by stretching a string across two points on a globe. But does anyone today still own a globe? I do.
@13:19 tho that magic tape measure goes back into the sky!
I am interested why even make scarf joints, if backs of the planks and edges are going to be glued?
I want to be this man's apprentice
“We’re gonna make a picknic out of it” 🤣
"People didn't seek out the proper advice/ didn't go about it the right way........start having all kinds of problems". That's Acorn to Arabella. You may as well have just come out and said it.
How do you determine where on the stem and stern to put the ends of the "magic line"?
Rewatch, but the "start' of the magic line are two points on the hull.
Where they end up on the bow and stern is a function of where the two points are placed two thirds along the side of the hull.
Ie. Where a straight plank would end up if nailed close to the two points to start.
🤔 💡⬅️ the 'MAGIC LINE' is were ever you want it to be, right?
Synthetic wood is next. It will allow traditional wooden boat building skills to continue. You know all those plastic bottles we recycle? That’s synthetic wood stock. 🍀
The metric system was introduced by French humanists during the miserable French revolution. It is based upon powers of the number ten because humans (and monkeys) have ten fingers in all. As such it facilitated counting on your fingers. The Imperial system, with 1/2", 1/4", 1/8", 1/16" etc. is actually based on the "binary" system, on powers of two, and as such it is utterly harmonious with modern computers which store and compute with binary numbers. For example, 1/4 is one divided by two to the second power. The reason why division is more difficult with the Imperial system is because of the mismatch between decimal numbers (again, they are based on powers of ten) and the binary-based Imperial system which is based on powers of two.
Nice fastcap tape measure
Magic Line the planking equivalent of a Great Circle route in navigation.
Sounds like the magic line is about the same as the great circle route in navigation.
yay metric hehe gj sir
Metric for the win!
Another question which itches me for a long time. Why are you using flexible material for framing? Shouldn't a hull be as stiff as possible?
All frames are flexible, but the only pressure a frame has to resist is length ways, or compression.
If you smash into a pier, the frames only job is to hold the planks together, and make the outward curve of the planks spread the pressure along the whole hull.
Same for water and wave pressure.
Ribs by themselves are not required to resist pressure from the exterior, or they would need to be overly heavy and large.
hes referring to steve from acorn to arabella at the start 🤣
UK viewers are fine with feet and inches or metric, we use both.
I find it misleading to speak of "the" magic line. A magic line is placed from a point on the stem to a point on the sternpost, where it is convenient to divide the space from the line up to the gunnels ("Gunwales") or Sheer Plank (or "Planksheer"), and from the magic line down to the garboard plank by the keel, into convenient plank widths. As Louis explains, a magic line is found by measuring down from the gunnels or sheer plank, with the magic line passing through 2 points equidistant from the sheer plank or gunnels, with those points typically being at thirds of the length of the hull. The magic line is adjusted up or down as convenient to allow convenient plank widths. Planks will usually be tapered to the stem and the stern as necessitated by the shape of the hull,, since the garboard to sheer plank distance varies along the hull.
A magic line can be found by a tight string or by taking a long, straight piece of planking and placing it longitudinally from stem to stern without bending it to raise or lower its edges, i.e. without "edge setting" it.
I find it to be a fascinating exercise to shape a boat out of straight pieces of wood. Framing a house is so much easier than building a boat.
@Tinfoil Thank you for this sobre and simple explanation which gives the reason why to use a cord in this instance.
What I take away from what you're saying about the magic line is it's the "sweet spot" , it can't get any better one way or the other.
Very few understand geometrics. Lou see's it his minds eye.
Metric system? *weeps*
Of course! What else?
Happy Europe is sending best (metric) tape measure wishes to New England!
anyone else click on this to watch Lou? :-)
Sir I pray that your knowledge gets passed down like it was to you
Ya gotta be careful how ya say "edge set"!
My old man could put his arms around a 50 gallon drum and squash it.
Magic Mushrooms work way better...
El que sabe , sabe .
Plastic... sad. Might as well build a fiberglass boat.
Go Metric brother!! Just no centimetres please! Those are for dressmaking not engineering!! 😂🤞🤞
How about decimeters or decameters?
@@thomasarussellsr In Volume and other areas deci and deca are used - but not in general engineering - mm and meters - 10th's and 100th's of a mil. Most artisans can work in both metric and inch - thou's, in the UK seeing it all started here. My brother is a patternmaker in the US and he works in both - but no centimetres!
@@graxav The nice thing with the metric system is that you can just think in orders of magnitue, be it millimeters, centimeters, meters or whatever. It's a scientific way of notation just put in common words.
@@graxav I am so happy someone understood. The last several feeds I asked this question in, I got jumped on for making these prefixes up, by more than just a few people. The lack of education in this world frightens me. Thank you for acknowledging my question with a knowledgable responce. You have at least partially restored my faith in humanity. I was seriously starting to think I was the only pesron with a mathematical or scientific education spending time on RUclips. I love crafts and craftsmanship. Even better is craftsmanship where accuracy matters, like ship building.
Again, good to see there are others out there that recognise the lesser used 10th and 10-fold factor measures in metric.