(Dave Cliff reporting)
Its finally real, we’ve started the process that will lead to two St Ayles Skiffs being built in Harry and Kay’s wonderful shed. I rushed to get there a little before the allotted time of 10am with a ute full of tools and bits of kitchen top I had found at the amazing Denmark Tip Shop who have been generous in their discounts for Denmark Rowers.
I just caught up with Harry and Kay as they were leaving for a day in the big smoke of Albany. Then in walked JP and Adrian keen to get things started, closely followed by Paul W, John S, Ian O and Nick S, which certainly was enough to get started in cleaning up our side of the shed and provided a quorum for discussions on where to site the building frame/moulds, layout bench, tools bench and tea prep area. Discussion on where a bar fridge to keep the beers cold kept coming up and John S kindly volunteered to bring in his.
We noticed that there were rather a lot of large lizard droppings and we have probably disturbed the sleeping arrangements of a couple of large black skinks that I have previously seen in the shed. Today we only sighted a Gecko, which we had rudely awakened.
Having decided on where the planking layout table was going to be sited it was time to get out the tools and make the first cut. A 2.5m sheet of MDF, again from the tip shop, was set up outside to be cut down its centre line by Adrian. John S insisted on Adrian having ear muffs but would have much preferred (as I would) that Adrian had a dust mask. Nobody was really prepared at this first stage with their own PPE. Its going to be really important that we all bring our own dust masks and hearing and eye protection along to these sessions in the future.
JP and I discussed where to hang the all important skiff plans and decided that above the tool bench was the best option. The kitchen bench top was screwed into place for the canteen area but we may need more planking to cover the oily solid jarrah benches of the original garage. All in all a good morning’s work and as we drifted away we were happy with the results. Its a great workspace.
Re-convening on Thursday 17th at 10am for Pete Wilsons workshop on using Epoxy glues.
