Cooking Ribs

Time to bend and install the ribs (called frames in real ships).  These are 3/32" square cherry stock.  To bend them, I immersed them in boiling water for 5 minutes.  They can be handled with your bare hands almost immediately after pulling them out of the water.  One end of the rib is put in the socket on the keel, then slowly, slowly bent along the mold, then clipped down.  It took me about three minutes to slowly bend each frame.

And here's the frames (ribs), all bent and clipped into place to dry overnight:

And here are the starboard frames, dried and formed.  Note how the curve becomes more pronounced amidships.  This is the first time I've ever boiled and bent cherry wood -- and it worked great.  Only three frames broke, and it was because I was bending them too fast.