Thursday 13th October
John I and Lesley found me doing a bit of sanding this morning which I was doing to keep warm as it was cold again today. John I turned his attention to the frame top pieces to get them to fit snugly under the inner gunwale and flush with the main part of the frame.
Lesley took over from me in sanding the rudder for boat 2.
I moved to making the floor support for the cox’s floorboard from a discarded end of the keel timbers. Cutting the angles required to seat it down on the keelson and then making an extra piece across the top which will support the floor to the rear of it and the as yet unmade footrest in front of it. I went up to Harry’s shed to use his table saw but couldn’t work out why I couldn’t switch it on. I rang Roger, who recently finished putting it back together for Harry and he came around. He showed me the safety switch under the blade guard which only switches on if the blade guard is properly installed. We set it up again and it worked.
Veronica dropped in to proudly show her sister her work. Veronica’s arrival is always proceeded by Barnaby rushing in to greet whoever is in the shed which is such a nice development since he first came into the shed in trepidation of us all.
Lesley had again excelled on the cake front today making beautiful date muffins for morning tea.
After morning tea Peter K, our webmaster extraordinaire, turned up with JP (who couldn’t stay). I had a surprise meeting with Peter yesterday afternoon when I went to check on my boat on the way home and he was looking out across the inlet. In the shed he got into boat 2 and sanded the fillets that no one else could reach. He also taught me at technique of using a sharp blade or chisel to scrape the excess filler off the boards without damaging them.
After I had had lunch and the others had gone I helped Peter clean up boat 2 and when the dust settled and I was alone, I painted a third coat on the green strip of boat 1 and then took the masking tape off.
Glueing jobs have been steadily piling up this week and we should get around to them tomorrow despite it still being cold and wet. Boat 1 needs its metal bits attached and will then be ready to turn over again for a final coat of varnish.
Cheers Dave.