Monday 21 November
On Saturday I made a trip to the Anaconda shop in Albany, not a place I’ve been to before. It’s a camping and fishing store. Thanks to a very generous donation from John and Kerrie Davies I was able to buy 10 inflatable personal flotation devices (PFDs) for our rowers to use. They are reasonably comfortable and shouldn’t restrict our arm movements when rowing.
Today in the shed there was just Paul and myself with a visit from JP who brought in his drill press to use both on the bronze strips and on the rowlock pin holes. In transit the old drill press had come a cropper breaking the junction box. With a bit of electrical tape it was securely put back together by JP with Harry’s input.
Paul, with Harry’s help set about making an oar rest to go on the opposite side of the boat to the rowlock. When the oars are shipped in they will rest in a wooden crutch on the opposite gunwale to stop them bashing around. The oar rests will sit on top of a thole pin like the rowlocks.
I painted the second coat of the blue strip on boat 2 and we had visitors of JB and her work partner Carola from Perth.
After tea break, where we enjoyed chocolate digestives in the sun, I had a go at creating a footrest for the Stroke position in the back of the boat. I kept the prototype simple and going with what I had been told by the RFBYC guys is the most popular distance from the thwart, made a one size fits all piece that straddles the stern stem where it lands on the hog. There were lots of angles to work through to get the strange structure to fit into the lip on the cross member that supports the cox’s floorboard. It was also pretty difficult to glue up.
After leaving I went around to Dan’s to pick up the trailer after its weekend modifications and took it around to JP’s for storage.
I have got the bronze strip on my roof racks ready for drilling and installing on the keel, possibly tomorrow.
Cheers Dave