Fig. 25 Fig. 26 Fig. 27 Fig. 28 Fig. 29 A LARK ]
This keel is attached with galvanized or brass screws, and a generous number are driven through the keel into the bottom edges of the centre-board trunk.
The rudder is made from galvanized sheet-iron as shown at Fig. 29, and is let into a one-and-a-quarter-inch round iron rudder-post and riveted fast. Just above the rudder-blade a collar of iron is welded to the post and this bears against the bottom of the boat. To prevent the rudder from dropping down a pin is passed through a hole in the post close to the deck and a large washer made fast to the deck will prevent the pin from chafing the wood.
Have the top of the post made with a square shank so that a tiller may fit over it and be held in position by a nut.
The rudder-blade should be twenty-six inches long and twelve inches wide.
The mast is fifteen feet long, cut from a four-inch spruce stick with draw-knife and plane. The boom is fifteen feet long, cut from a two-and-one-half-inch spruce stick, and the gaff is eleven feet long.
Extending out from the mast and attached to the deck is a short bowsprit five feet and six inches long. This is of two-by-three-inch spruce with the sharp corners rounded off beyond the end of the boat.
A wire forestay and two shrouds lead from mast-head to bowsprit and to both sides of the boat as shown in Fig. 24.
The main-sheet is seven feet on the mast, ten feet on the gaff, fourteen feet at the foot or on the boom, and eighteen feet on the leach. The jib is eleven feet on the forestay, five feet at the foot, and ten feet on the leach. The blocks are all of galvanized iron or wood, and three-eighth-inch Manila-rope should be used for the halyards and sheets.
This lark will ride well on the water, and if properly rigged it should be a very speedy boat.
A novel feature for the propulsion of a flat-bottom boat or punt is shown in Fig. 30. Two small paddle-wheels attached to one shaft are hung out over the stern, and by means of a sprocket on the shaft connected to another and larger one on the seat frame the wheels are turned by the boys who mount the seats and work the pedals.
The punt is fifteen feet long on the deck line and six feet wide. The side boards are twelve inches wide, and with the thickness of the deck and bottom planking it will make the total depth about fourteen inches. Through the middle a strengthening rib is run the same size and thickness as the outer sides as shown in Fig. 31. This gives an additional rib to nail the sheathing boards to and also an anchorage to which the uprights forming the seat frame can be made fast with bolts.