Tuesday 11 October
After so many scarf joints have been planed and glued we are finally on the last ones today and Ted was here to plane the joints (his first shot at it). I nearly had the order of which batten would go where on the outer gunwale of boat 2 before others started arriving. Ted and I stumbled through the decisions about which was the better looking side of each batten and how to arrange the variation of wood colour and grain appearance so that when it is varnished it will look good (one side at a time). Then I showed Ted how to mark up the joints and clamp them to the work bench and off he went creating three joints.
Mark went to work cleaning up the old oars by removing the old sleeves and stickers and after a google search on how to clean up carbon fibre, gave them a rub down with a scotch pad. They could do with a spray of urethane clear coating according to Mr Google.
I felt guilty putting Lesley back on sanding duty but yesterdays glue excess is better removed while it is still a bit soft.
Adrian went on with his project of creating supports for the cox’s seat but he only had an hour to spare.
Veronica was determined not to waste any time getting into making first the templates for the breasthooks and then working out where to cut the wood from in JP’s diminishing table.
I sanded the green paint strip on boat 1 ready for painting in the afternoon. Then I slipped out to go and see the great guys at Denmark Signworks to get a quote for making and applying transfers for the names and logos on the boats.
When I got back the kettle was on and Lesley’s tray of freshly baked scones was starting to be devoured by the team. Ted had also bought in a very tasty lemon slice. We had an interesting conversation about the lack of conservation that the industrial scale wheat belt cockies practice.
After tea Ted moved on to shaping the small pieces of the frames that will now be glued in place to lock in the inner gunwales.
Colin who used to drive over from Albany and work with us dropped in with his wife Pauline and friends David and Lynne to take a look at the progress.
I was mid way through cutting another plank out of JP’s table top for Veronica’s breasthooks when JP turned up. He was working on his boat today and came in to use a couple of tools but he helped with the job at hand. Veronica marked up the sheoak for me to cut and left with the friendly Barnaby. Ted also set off back to Perth promising to return before launch day.
I had lunch and started painting the second coat on the green plank while listening to World Music on Denmark FM. I also painted the business end of the footrests with non-slip paint.
I’ll be in again tomorrow.
Cheers Dave