“Kids slow down build” – fact or fiction?`

Elizabeth, Poppy, Max and Josephine hard at work making things. The respective results were: 1x shed made DS, nails in wood, 1x airplane, 1x sailing boat. And it is going to take me 5 years to build this Sharpie....who is the slack one now.

Getting centred.

I puzzled about this puzzlement as I have an (not unreasonable) fear of building a bent boat. The new building gig takes much of this worry away, and providing you have a level floor, I believe it would get you within 10mm of ‘straight’. Which is amazing for ‘zero’ effort. I distinctly remember the agonising over the ladder-frame gig for my Whilly Boat, and the niggling doubt that it must have a twist in it somewhere.

So the gig is up, bulkheads in and the keelson is poised. The keelson is not the next item to attach, but it plays a great role of locking in the centres. So I fit it to the middle bulkheads and gently draw the keelson down at the ends, watching it slot in one by one. Forward fits like a tube sock, aft displays a single bulkhead shuffle to the starboard by 8mm! A swift kick at stations F and G (appropriately named), and a wiggle back to the port for the transom sees the alignment sorted.

8mm error is pretty impressive, I am sure it could have been left in the boat, but why not kick a fix in?

Bulkhead levels

Now to confirm the level. I reckoned that if I took a straight edge and rested it across the gig adjacent to each station, and put a level on that, I could confirm all is sweet. And this proved easy enough, but it did confirm I have a 6mm lift in the port for-quarter.

To the wedges! Some well placed bits of wood have partially fixed the twist, no matter how much I jammed in under that part of the gig, I could not avoid distorting the bow, so i have left a 4mm twist in the forward part of my Sharpie.

So watch out competitors, I expect to be unpredictable on one or all points of sail!
Well at lease more unpredictable than I already am…

Tool treasure.

I think this is the most loved tool of my collection. It belonged to my grandfather Stan Hodgson (Pop), and possibly his father James. It was painted red by Pop, this was his most excellent method of retaining tools.

This ‘brace and bit’ has no makers mark, but plenty of other marks from years of thorough use. It operates very smoothly allowing for control with power. Surely the utopian tool wields precise force?

What is the best use of a ‘brace and bit’ in today’s world? Power driving long screws or screws made of soft metals (brass or bronze) or old screws with dodgy heads. You will revel in the leverage and control this provides.

I thought scarfing was fun.

So I was in a hurry to acutally use my scarfing skills, and my new plane (thank you herr Jansen). I am a bit of a snob when it comes to wood work, I prefer to use the correct hand tools and techniques. About 10 years ago I was still belittling users of power drill-drivers. That is how silly I can be.

So, with this in mind, I had to join the keelson out of two lengths of 200mm x 15mm x 4500mm hoop pine. I was instructed to to a 10:1 scarfe, so I set up the stock and a bench, and set the plane, marked out the job and charged in to it. Twenty minutes later my arms were killing me. Three hours after that the scarfe was cut. Five days later my arms were still hurting. Actually the ache had migrated to my shoulders and neck and random upper-torso once unknown muscles.

I thought I had developed the family ‘curse’ of polymyalgia rheumatica, a blood borne muscular rheumatism that four of my close family are suffering through.

Enough whinging.

I am so proud of how it went, it looks great, does not distort the curve of the timber, and has puffed out my aching chest. Pity I’ll never see it once the hull is complete….

A slow beginning to 2011, boat-wise.

These slow periods need to be understood and forgiven. I think that if you let yourself get bothered by them, the joy of what I am doing is peppered with guilt. The fact is, life gets in the way of plans.

There was another small hiccup in the build though. Dearest well-meaning Robert pointed out that the future interior finishing of the boat will be slowed when I have to sand the verticle surfaces, therefore I’d be better sanding each bulkhead’s third coat when the items are flat, before I went any further. Uggh.

The interior view, before the final sanding.

So out came each bulkhead, on came the earmuffs, numb went my fingers.

Now I am back where I was in January, the boat is looking like a boat, though rather skeletal and wrong-way-up. I have even fitted the bow piece in and am able to shut the shed door… just (50mm to spare!).

Bow piece of the building jig in place.