Monday 22 August
The first thing I noticed when I opened up this morning was that there was a chocolate mud cake sitting on the bench. I wondered who had delivered such a delicacy for the enjoyment of us boatbuilders. Later in the morning Harry owned up to it. He was batching it this weekend and snuck in a few luxuries when he was shopping.
A new member joined up this morning, Russell. He was the first and for a while only person to join me in the shed. He had heard me on Denmark radio and thought he would give it a go. He brought along the price of admission, a packet of Tim Tams and $30 membership fee. I gave him the job of fairing the keel on boat 2 which he did very efficiently with the belt sander. He had to remove the extra laminate that had be stuck on in the excitement of glueing up the bow stem weeks ago.
I went back to shaping wooden wedges to fill in my other miscalculations. Firstly the last of the wedges to go under the gunwale and then wedges to fill out the stern stem where the 40mm rudder gudgeons are going to be bolted on. For the latter I used leftover hoop pine from the stem battens.
Paul W was the next to arrive and I gave him the job of cutting the Sheoak breasthook. Harry joined in and took Paul off to his other shed to use the drop saw. When they returned it was obvious that something was wrong with the calculated angle of cut. After much head scratching they worked out a way to salvage the situation and went back to the other shed.
We had brief visits from Geoff and his friend Nigel and then JP who has a cold. Morning tea was a disjointed affair as Paul and Harry were up in the other shed when Russell and I needed a break.
Duncan joined us after the break and sanded the hull of boat 2 with Russell while I went off to Thorntons for more sandpaper which they are running short of like toilet rolls in a pandemic. I then got onto cutting the thwart planks to fit around the frames and managed to finish a couple by the end of the day.
Russell and Duncan had left by the time Roger stuck his head in and volunteered to come back after getting a sandwich to fill some of the remaining divots in the keel and some new ones that had appeared today. He just had enough glue left to glue my gunwale wedge into place but not the stem ones.
On Saturday I had been over to Nannup to deliver the spare oars we were giving them and to see the garden festival. I met up with John Thompson at the Men’s Shed there and had a good look at their boat. Here are a few pictures of their St Ayles Skiff which is looking really good.
Another good day can be had tomorrow.
Cheers Dave