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Advice for making Cratchboards |
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 This is a cratchboard we recently fitted and is typical of what we prefer to fit a cover to. The board is located on the upstand at the front of the well deck and finishes flush with the boat sides which allows the cloth to continue in a straight line from the top. The king plank is located behind the board as against being fixed to the top. This gives three straight lines for the fabric to be worked from. The top of the board is approximately one third the width of the bottom, which creates more space internally and avoids a 'twist' in the cloth from the cabin top corners. This style is the easiest to fit a cloth to with clean and tight lines and is as easily made as a board with unnecessary angles and complications. Below are a number of examples of avoidable 'mistakes'.  A common misunderstanding is that an upstand of wood is a good idea for sealing the roof of the cover to the cabin. This complicates the cabin corners and often creates opposing tension points for the cloth. In this instance the addition of the navigation lights makes what would have been a very simple job pretty complicated!
 This one really gets my goat! Not only does it dictate width at the top of the board it is so easy to avoid by putting a bearer on the back of the cratchboard which can also be wider than the king plank and offer additional support to the joints.
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Advice for making Cratchboards 