Thursday 11 August
A nice day for glueing today so JP and I set up the keel timbers so that we could glue and clamp the scarf joints on the bench. JP also put little bits of blue masking tape on the hull of boat 2 to mark where more glue was required to complete the fillets along the planks. It looked like the Norman Gunston version of a skiff post shaving.
Adrian went back to cutting the last two lap joints on the cross beams for boat 1 and then with a bit of nervousness on his behalf, used the router to round the outer edges.
John I and Paul W came in together and I got both of them to use their shaping skills to trim the small upper parts of the frames to fit into the gunwales.
Veronica went back to shaping the stern stem for boat 2 and then moved on to fitting it to the keel.
After tea break where we talked dogs and ate fruit cake and chocolate digestives, we started the glueing process.
We had to leave one of the beams for another time as it overlaps the joint with the smaller frame sections that John and Paul were working on.
I had to work fast filleting boat 2 as I had asked the committee to come in for a meeting at 1pm and they were gathering. Luckily Clem and Lesley, who are rowers, were able to have a technical discussion with JP about how to fit the rowlocks to the skiffs while I finished up.
Now we have a deadline of November 5th for a launch date there is a steadily mounting pressure. I’m an optimist and I’m sure we can make it but it is going to be tight. Lots of hands will get us there. To that end I have volunteered myself to be interviewed on local radio tomorrow morning at 8.10.
Have a great weekend. Cheers Dave.