Monday 19 September
We had a very successful sausage sizzle and raffle outside the Supa IGA which supplied the snags and buns on Saturday, thanks guys for being such a tremendous community supporters. We now have enough funds to complete the project and run a rowing club for a year. Many thanks to all those who donated gifts to the raffle and especially to Kay for the brilliant display of the raffle boxes. Thanks to the volunteers who manned the stall and barbecue dishing up great hot dogs and bacon and egg rolls. Well done to the lucky three raffle prize winners, Lorraine, Georgia and Chris.
I had time to make the most of the good weather on Sunday and get another couple of coats of varnish on boat 1 gunwales. They are looking really good now.
Today was a real mixed bag weather wise, from sunny to heavy rain and much cooler. Mark and I held the fort in the shed. Mark got into the puzzle of the sheoak slats that will make up the cox’s and bow seats. They all needed sizing to get a symmetrical pattern which fans out. He made a template, then worked out how to get enough slats out a piece of Sheoak and disappeared with Harry up to the other shed to cut them out with the band saw. It took a while but by the results were good and we will be able to glue them up when we get some glue.
I worked on fitting the port side inwale batten at the stern of the boat. It took some time to get it to fit but eventually I got there using just the pull saw. My technique is definitely improving with experience.
John D joined us for tea break along with Harry and we had fruit cake on hand to keep our energy levels up. After tea break I worked on the rudder yoke which will have ropes attached to steer the boat with. I had researched Facebook for a design but realised that everyone does it differently. I had traced out a rough idea and then cut it out of plywood and set the rudder in position to se how it would look. I preferred having it in the horizontal plane and decided to notch it into the back of the rudder and leave a little shelf sticking out the back. JP appeared briefly and we discussed the merits of Sheok vs 18mm plywood. We decided on plywood as it will be something that will be knocked about a bit and will require maintenance. I cut three more pieces of 9mm plywod to the shape for laminating together, when we get the glue. I also cut the notch in the rudder with a pull saw and newly sharpened chisel. Then for protection I coated them in resin.
Before I left I also mixed up a partially thickened batch of resin and using a syringe injected it into a gap under the gunwale laminate which had come apart during the glueing operation the other day.
Sadly no sign of the glue arriving at home. We will have to get on with more woodwork and sanding tomorrow.
Cheers Dave