Re: Meadowlark
The LFH Meadowlark design, first published in The Rudder and reprinted in
"Sensible Cruising Designs" is, like many designs of the late 1930s and
1940s intended for amateur builders, longitudinally planked with arc bottom
over sawn frames (the Lightning is another example). The sawn frames save
the necessity for construction of a mold that is later discarded, and the
planks have minimal taper and hollow to trouble the builder. Bottom planks
are parallel and end at the chine. As I recall (!), the Meadowlark has a
heavy chine plank to resist wear on the exposed feather ends of the bottom
planks. There is a wide lead shoe that acts as both ballast and a wear
piece in grounding and (I think), can be cast in pieces. LFH eliminated the
need for lofting by using a single, standard curve for many parts (the side
frames are slightly curved, too) in the manner of 18th century whole
moulding. Masts were hollow rectangular boxes that could be glued up out of
planks.
I don't know how easy it all turned out to be in practice, but he was
thinking of ease of construction in as systematic a manner as PCB ever did.
Peter Belenky
"Sensible Cruising Designs" is, like many designs of the late 1930s and
1940s intended for amateur builders, longitudinally planked with arc bottom
over sawn frames (the Lightning is another example). The sawn frames save
the necessity for construction of a mold that is later discarded, and the
planks have minimal taper and hollow to trouble the builder. Bottom planks
are parallel and end at the chine. As I recall (!), the Meadowlark has a
heavy chine plank to resist wear on the exposed feather ends of the bottom
planks. There is a wide lead shoe that acts as both ballast and a wear
piece in grounding and (I think), can be cast in pieces. LFH eliminated the
need for lofting by using a single, standard curve for many parts (the side
frames are slightly curved, too) in the manner of 18th century whole
moulding. Masts were hollow rectangular boxes that could be glued up out of
planks.
I don't know how easy it all turned out to be in practice, but he was
thinking of ease of construction in as systematic a manner as PCB ever did.
Peter Belenky