Mon 4th April
The wet weekend was a topic of conversation as we gathered this morning. Nick had had 35mm in his rain gauge. We had quickly forgotten how beautiful the weather was on Friday when JP and I sailed down to the blue water coming into the inlet from the ocean. In fact it was hot and humid on Saturday before it rained late in the evening. Mark rode into the shed on his electric bike and we were soon joined by JP. Geoff Bowley and Paul W popped in, the latter with a kettle to replace the earn which has had several accidents where the tap had leaked water across the bench.
The work began slowly shaping the first plank to receive the second. After discussion about how best to cut the edge of the plank to thin the overlap to zero at the bow and stern we went with a diagonal bevel to give us some flexibility.
JP did a mercy dash to the shops to get milk and biscuits and came back with more dark chocolate digestives and a packet of Hobnobs. We had a proper tea break having decided we had everything just about ready for gluing except a final tape up of the moulds. We did the usual resin wet up to prepare the surfaces and then got cracking with the glue going back for more when we weren’t confident we would get squeeze out. We were attempting both sides in one hit again and so on with the starboard plank first. Clamps on from the middle working outward with two screws at each stem end. Then lots of cleaning up and getting a bead or fillet in the join using the radius of our fingers. All in all a good result. This time we made a last minute adjustment, tying down the forward ends of the planks to touch the moulds.
It was quite late when we packed up but we had promised to call in at Mark’s house to turn his boat over. When we got there we were all amazed at how lovely his Tammie Norrie dinghy looked with two coats of resin.
Looking forward to having the Denmark Senior High School Year 11 boatbuilders in the shed tomorrow morning to give us a hand. Onto plank 3.
Cheers Dave
PS Just thought I’d update you on Peter Kovesi’s adventure. He has sailed from Perth all the way down the coast to Cape Naturaliste where he nearly got swept around the corner in light winds and a strong current. Using his outboard he got back to Dunsborough safely and set off back to Perth the next day again motoring to Busselton. The last two days he has had had good winds for the long legs back to the Dawesville Cut where he arrived late this afternoon.
