Monday 20 June

Mark was wondering if anybody was going to turn up this morning and sent me a text as I arrived. We were joined by Geoff and we all needed some woodworking to keep us warm on this dank day in Denmark, WA. Geoff and I worked on fitting the long blocks that will be the start of the blocks that form the next laminate of the inner gunwale in boat 1. It took a couple of goes to get them to fit using the pull saw to cut the right angles while Geoff sanded them to a bit of a curve to match the curve of the first laminate and plank.

Geoff putting a curve in the bow gunwale block

Mark used a combination of plane, multi-tool and belt sander to adjust the plank lands on the frames for the rest of the planks in boat 2.

Mark using a batten to show Geoff how you can judge the shape required for the plank to land squarely on each frame.
Bevelling the plank land with a coarse disc on the oscillating multi tool.

Geoff had brought in a Danish cream cake for morning tea that we devoured when Harry and JP turned up. JP came with a packet of Ginger Nuts, but they were kept for another day.

JP lines up plank 3 for glueing, all the guide holes are in the right spot on this plank

After tea we started to set up for a two job glueing marathon. Firstly to glue plank 2 into place on both sides of the boat and secondly to glue the scarf joint in plank 3. JP set up Plank 3 and we marked plank 2 where the frames were going to land then turned over plank 2 on the boat for wetting up. Mark tidied up the tape work over the moulds and I sanded off some rough edges to the planks and we were ready to go. Usual process was followed: wetting first then buttering up nice thick epoxy on the lands and onto clamping. It went calmly and smoothly with no rushing as the epoxy was in no danger of suddenly going off. JP assembled the scarf joints single handedly while I got on with the cleanup. We had more than enough glue and I was able to put a decent fillet on the outside of the plank lands and down the inside of the stems.

Tip: don’t extend the wooden C clamps beyond the edge of the new plank and then there will be a clear run to get a clean fillet with your finger all along the plank land.

Mark wasn’t going to get epoxy on his Denmark Rowers sweat shirt and left us to the cleanup. JP after having kindly fetched me some lunch from the bakery, cleaned up under the boat and then did the cleanup of the tools and trays while I finished up and cleaned up the shed for tomorrow when we could repeat what we have successfully achieved today.

Concentration required to get a smooth and consistent fillet.

A reminder that the AGM of Denmark Rowers is on Monday 4th of July at 7pm in the Riverside Club and our webmaster, Peter Kovesi has agreed to come down from Perth and entertain us with stories of voyaging in dinghies which have been followed in this blog.

Cheers Dave