Wednesday 12 October
Today started at 8am with a trip around to JP’s as he wanted some reassurance before committing to drilling all the screw holes in the bronze keel band. The countersink for the screws we had bought nearly went right though the band before the screw head was flush and this was causing some concern. There won’t be much stress involved on these fastenings so I was not too worried. JB and I walked Kester and Sebastian while JP drilled holes at 400mm centres along the band. When we got back I loaded up the remaining oars and the two bands that were finished and after dropping JB and Kester at home went into the shed.
It was a very quiet day in the shed which is just what I needed to be able to concentrate on getting the beams cut so that they will sit at the right height to support the thwarts. Its a slow process of setting up a marked up piece of wood with the heights from the keelson to the base of the beam and clamping a cross member to be horizontal assuming that the boat is horizontal in its frame (which I had checked first). Then I used two battens of wood to measure the distance across the boat where the lower front side of the beam will touch the sides. From that point, using a bevel gauge to get the vertical and horizontal angles of the adjoining planks, I transcribed the angles onto the beams for cutting. I should have taken photos but it was all engrossing stuff.
JP put his head in for more of his own work on Sally Anne but ended up helping me cut the angles into the breasthooks with Harry’s drop saw. After he had left I also cut the curved fronts with Harry’s band saw. All went well and they fitted nice and snugly thanks to Veronica’s measuring.
There are lots of interesting jobs for tomorrow, from belt sanding the gunwale to finessing the fit of the upper frames and glueing the scarfs on the outer gunwale.
Cheers Dave