Friday 28 October
I’d taken the rowlock blocks home for homework. More sanding to get the Sheoak to shine as it should. The main action for the day was to glue them to the gunwales of boat 2 and to shape the stern stem so that everything would be ready for the first coats of varnish this weekend. Dr John joined me in the shed and lightly sanded the resin coat we has applied yesterday.
I was making a lot of noise with the orbital sander so it was a relief to finish the stem post which I have kept in the same pattern as on boat 1 and have a cup of tea with Dr John. We were joined by Geoff and Lesley for morning tea. There was coconut dream cake and fruit for Geoff.
After morning tea I helped Dr John reach places where he couldn’t with the sand paper. There were only a couple of obvious resin runs that Harry helped to spot and they were easily removed. When Dr John had left I had a go at reshaping the top of the bow stem which I wanted to be slightly flatter on the top. This done I finished off the rowlock blocks with JP’s orbital polisher and then taped up the gunwale around where they were going to be glued.
Kay had invited her walking group to tea and cakes at 2pm in the shed to get a good look at the boats. I was able to tell them about the St Ayles Skiffs and the coastal community rowing movement to build them. One lady’s father had been a shipwright on the Clyde in Scotland and another had come from a fishing family in Bunbury where they built clinker boats in the traditional way with copper nails and roves (washers) and lead paint.
I mixed up some glue as I was talking with them and started glueing in place the rowlock blocks trying to avoid getting glue on any other surface. When they were on and the excess scraped away I was able to remove the masking tape around their position before it became a permanent feature.
During this last step JD turned with the towing eye U bolt that he had extended by cutting the old thread off and welding on two longer bolts. He had to re-drill the holes and stress test the boat with some heavy bashing to get the slightly thicker section bolts in and out. Then he found that they were now too long. So back to his workshop to shorten them.
One week left to launch day and I’m fairly confident most things are falling into place. I still haven’t got the new sleeves and collars for the oars as there has been a delay in Sydney. We might have to use the oars we haven’t pulled the sleeves off yet. Oh and if anyone can lay their hands on a battery operated PA system for the Launch Ceremony please let me know.
Cheers Dave.