SHIPWRIGHT'S SLIPWAY · FIRST LIGHT
KEELSON
Nine plies to morning.
Five slats are already laid and the keel leans one notch. You have four slats on the hook and six brass pins. Lay each slat with up to two units of cantilever, pin the joints that matter, and heel the whole thing twelve degrees at a time to see whether it still stands. After the last ply the yard bell rings a forced triple heel. Reach the chalk line and she is launched. Fall short and she is a fair coping. Put a piece in the sand and she is broken up.
- LAY
- Drag the ghost slat onto the keel. Its bearing turns red where nothing holds it up.
- PIN
- Drive a brass pin through a joint. A pin defeats shear and welds the two plies into one rigid piece.
- HEEL
- Twelve degrees, either way, spending one of three tide tests. Watch the chalk line of force: when it leaves the bearing, the joint opens.
Arrow keys or A/D walk the ghost. Space lays it. P drives a pin. Q and E heel. Tab selects a joint.
THE SHIPWRIGHT WAITS
HELD
The slipway is quiet. Nothing settles while you are away.
THE YARD BELL
LAUNCHED
THE SLIPWAY LAW
A slat bears on whatever is directly under it. A joint is the overlap between two plies; its bearing is that overlap less what the heel twists out of it. A brass pin takes no bite, so a pinned joint holds through any twist, but a pin welds the two plies into one rigid piece that must find a bearing whole.
Wet grain is a soft link: it loses twice the bite and three tenths of its grip, and a pin will not save it.
Every joint carries the mass above it. The taller that mass sits, the further the tilt slides its line of force sideways. Where the chalk line lands inside the bearing, the joint holds. Where it slides to the edge or off it, the wood opens.
Six pins against at least eight joints: choose the four you refuse to fix. Three tide tests, each a permanent notch of wear. The wind takes a notch of its own after every ply.