33' Tahiti- two

[Holloway M G]

What size steam bent ribs should be used in this size ship and how can they be fasten to the floor timbers. The plans call for 2"x21/2" sawn frames fasten (bolted) to the side of the floor timbers.

[Uncle Duke]

OK. I'm old and I'm not understanding the question, I guess.
Plans call for 'this' by 'that', bolted to the frames.
Your question is "what size?" and "how to attach?"
What am I missing here - are you deviating from the plans? If so, how?

[outofthenorm]

Maybe one of the more knowledgable members will chime in here with a yay or nay to this, but if you've decided to steam bend rather than saw, you're likely going to have to change both the dimensions and spacing of the framing. As was said in reply to your other posts, you're not gonna have too much luck bending any real curves into that dimension of timber. I'd want to run the changes by a qualified builder or NA before making a decision.

Sawn frames bolted to the sides of floors isn't unusual. A sawn frame has more meat than a bent one and the extra meat allows for big bolts. But, there are examples of bent frames side-bolted to floors - I think Herreshoff did it that way sometimes IIRC.

If you're deviating a lot from the plans - and I can't see why you would do that with this boat - I'd suggest that you pay for some professional advice on scantlings.

- Norm

[Patric]

If you get the book "The famous Tahiti Ketch - Her history and how to build her", which includes the Tahiti II plans and a step by step description you'll find the instruction to "saw the frames out of 2-in white oak planks, as recommended by Hanna for the original Tahiti, making them 2 1/2-in thick and 2-in wide. Since it's not possible to get planks wide enough to cut out complete frames, a splice is necessary at the chine." No change in dimension was called for by Hanna for the steam bent version and since the Tahiti II is simply a scaled up (by 10 percent) version of the original design, so you'll get away with it. Again, I think stripping her might be a sweet idea...

[Clyderigged]

There is a fairly active Tahiti ketch group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tahiti_ketch/
You might try posing your question there.
Fair leads and Best of luck
Jamie