Stitch & Glue flatbottom

I am in the process of thinking through a flat bottom stitch and glue design.

Would the sides sit on top of hull or would they butt up to the sides of the hull?

 

It is indifferent. Most stitch and glue have a gap that gets filled with glue. After you fair the seams, the wood edges usually disappear as they get rounded off.

 

As Gonzo said, its totally up to the builder, and the angle of the two sheets will have a lot to do with how they 'sit'

Where the 'planks' are at small angles, you will get nearly a butt join, but as the angles increase in the middle, you will usually tend to push them to the position where that the two inner edges are touching, and exposing the raw edges of the plywood for filling. If you don't align the edges on some plans, and let one or other of the planks overlap, you may get build errors as subsequent planks are two low or high, especially on multi-chine boats.

Sam Devlin likes to put a bit of a chamfer on the inner edge of his planks, which makes them easier to position. This works well, but means extra trouble for the builder.

On a 'flatbottom', if you had to have one or the other overlap, I would be inclined to have the bottom panels under the sides, to provide a bit more support for the sides.

All in all, I don't think it matters that much, except for ease of building.

 

I'm thinking if you have to ask this question, are you sure you're able to "design" a boat?

 

It also depends on thickness,say if your floor is 3/4 and the sides are 1/4" then you could screw the sides into the floor so they would be flush on the bottom.if they are both the same thickness then like Watson suggested you put a chamfer on both edges so they have a nice flat spot to sit on.then you can use bolts to keep them alligned.

 

The general rule is to have the bottom planking protect the topside planking, so typically it's covering the top side end grain, in a flat bottom single chine design.