It was a hot day in the shed with temperatures over 30 degrees under the Alsynite. Harry met me when I got there and promptly left for the a Men’s shed morning and it wasn’t long before Adrian, JP and Paul W arrived. We unclamped the frames and after breaking the shaft of a glued in screw Adrian used the soldering iron with great effect to release the other screws holding them together. Despite some sticky patches the keelson came off the moulds fairly easily and I set about cleaning it up with a good sand. The scarph joints came out really well, if I do say so myself. Leseley joined us and she and Paul W set to with my new spoke shave, an old file and sandpaper to clean up the frames and get them ready to go in the boat.
Meanwhile Pete Wilson dropped by with a magazine article on how to make the basic plank clamps more efficient. He then turned his attention to the problem of the narrower upper hog plank not meeting the moulds like its lower wider glued on partner. We could lift the hole hog but that wouldn’t keep the designed hull shape or we could use filler when we turn it over which seems more sensible. He pointed out that we needed to get the moulds where they support the hog to be level, which I fixed later on. Paul H joined us and began to clean up the taping of the moulds so they don’t stick to the planks. We had a tea break and a piece of very sweet Danish Coconut Dream Cake.
JP had disappeared with all the chisels and planes to go and sharpen them on his slow rotating grinding stone at home. He came back later and finished them off with an interesting gadget on a flat sharpening stone. We ended up with the hog and frames dry fitted to the moulds.
On Monday we will hopefully have the glue to make up the bow stem as we need it now to make the next step. We can start fairing the hog and the stern stem.
Just a note on yesterday. JP and I took his trailer over to Albany Rowing Club and met Tim Newbold who had been storing 14 oars and an oar rack for us which have kindly been donated to us by Murdoch University Rowing Club. MURC had been down at the weekend for a rowing regatta on the Kalgan River. The ARC shed was full of amazingly sleek craft including a new carbon fibre skull. Not our thing at all but still I could see JP was tempted. I liked the rack of old wooden oars at the back of the shed which they cut up for trophies. When JP got home he realised we had 9 starboard and 5 port oars. Luckily we only need 4 of each.
Cheers Dave