Tuesday 23 August
A grey day but not too cold and not wet so we decided to fill the permanent keel screw countersink holes with dowel and epoxy. JP nipped over to Thorntons for dowel but again the 10mm diameter wasn’t in stock and we made do with 8mm and more epoxy. They will still be well sealed in.
I had the wedges for boat 1’s rudder gudgeons ready to glue with the leftover from JP’s job and set them in place. I was also back working on fitting the thwarts. I had used a chisel yesterday to cut out the indent for the frames but today I tried out the saw attachment on the oscillating multitool. It wasn’t really any better at getting a good finish than my chisel work but it was faster. By the end of the day all four thwarts were in place but in need of refinement and support.
Paul came back in to finish what he started on the bow breasthook and was backed up by Veronica who took on the job of cutting the aft breasthook. Her careful approach with working out the angles and how it will fit paid off and it fitted as planned. Now for the shaping.
JP and I again discussed the merits of the angle of the thole pin. Using his newly minted rowlock block and the oar we have in the shed, persuaded me that the angle of the gunwales (inboard to outboard) would benefit the rowlock position as the oar was pulled through the water, by being orthogonal to the oar.
Roger had the job of cleaning up the excess glue from yesterdays work on boat 2. This he did with a chisel which worried me a little. After tea break I got a lesson from him on how to sharpen a chisel which was good of him. Then we packed up my car with the stretcher model and leftover ply and took it over to Cam and his class of students at the High School. The students are going to knock up six of them as a class project which is great. Roger and I were able to look over Tiki, the old motor launch they are restoring. The restoration is going really well.
Back at the shed JP had some bad news, he had broken the saw blade on Harry’s band saw making the rowlock plates. We’ll have to replace that tomorrow.
Boat 2 just needs a final sand and it will be ready to coat with resin, JP and I may even do the first coat tomorrow as the weather is looking good. I’m planning on turning over the boat with the help of the Denmark High School students on Tuesday at 11.30 and invite everyone to come and join in.
Cheers Dave