Caledonia Yawl Week Five- Making oars and paddles

At different times throughout the course we have other activites to complete- including making oars.

It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable process and gave us room to put our own stamp on the finished product. I chose to make a paddle for a SUP Board (http://www.supsurfmag.com/) out of the Sitka Spruce we were provided with. This wood is relatively light and strong. I first had to square of the length of Spruce and then work out how to bend the shaft near its base to crated the 'crank' seen in SUP and outrigger paddles. I chose to cut 28" long kerfs into the base of the shaft and then insert more Spruce. This allowed the shaft to be bent around a 'former' and glued into place.
Once the glue had set and any exces cleared off I glued on two pieces of spruce and two pieces of mahogany either side of the cranked section. These would form the blade of the paddle.
The shaft had to be tapered from its base to its peak and then shaped the shaft into an elipse which turned through 90 degress from just above the blade to the position on the handle. This is a process involving many small stages that if followed result in a smooth and progressively shaped shaft. Its no good having a wonky/ lumpy shaft I think you'll agree.
The blade then needed to be shaped and this was a delicate operation as it was about 4mm thick at the edges. By Thursday evening I have shaped a great looking paddle and I will spend Friday constructing the handle and laying fibre glass over the blade to strengthen it. I cant wait to use it when paddling a board and I already have ideas about different methods of construction for a similar paddle.

Caledonia Yawl Week Four

We have had great weather down in Lyme Regis this week which has given us a good excuse to pop our head out of the workshop and soak up the rays at break times. I had a swim on Tuesday along Monmouth Beach and the water wasn't even cold! Happy Days.

So, on the weekend when we weren't watching the Red Arrows or drinking beers in the sun David and I with hthe help of John got the Garboards glued on with epoxy resin and so now we can work on planking the rest of the boat. On Monday I was on Gripe duty. Agrip is a wooden clamp that we will use to clamp on plank to the next wilst the epoxy resin goes off. We needs a clamp every 3 inches which means approximately 42 gripes holding every plank in place. We had about 7 gripes so I spent monday and most of Tuesday making these out of square sectioned pieces of oak about 18 inches long. Laborious but it had to be done. After that I was able to give David a hand bevelling the upper edges of the Garboards which will provide a 1 inch wide 'landing' for the next plank. The angle of this bevel changes all the way along the boat so we had to make sure the transitions were smooth and undetectable toherwise there would be gaps when fitting the next plank.

In the evenings I was working on a table I have been making for my mate Nick. He asked for a 'rustic' coffee table for his lounge so I think I have come up with something he will like. Its top is makde of reclaimed pine, the legs are oak and there is a small piece of magogany forming one of the throught tenons. It should do the job!

After work on Tuesday and again on the way to work on Wednesday I stopped off at the big car park abouve the beach to try out my skateboard. The deck was left behind at the BBA so I bought some new trucks and wheel and voila, I have a new toy to play with. I hope to make my own deck in the next couple of weeks using a vacuum resin infusion method we have learnt in out GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) lessons.

Now that I amm aquiring llots of new skills and know-how I find that my mind conjours up all kinds of side projects I could be working on and there just isnt enough time in the day to start them, let alone get them finished. I will have a go at a few of them for sure.

Caledonia Yawl weeks Two and Three

This post doesn't include pictures of the boat itself because it hasn't changed much since the last post but I promise we have been working hard 'fettling' different parts of the backbone structure read to accept the Garboards (the planks nearest the keel). One of the pictures is of me planing the starboard garboard to make sure the upper edge is fair and is a mirror image of the port side.

We have had some nice weather for the last couple of weeks so any break time has involved swimming in the tea breaks on the beach, paddling a SUP board round to the harbour and taking Eleanor out on a fishing trip. Not a bad work/play lifestyle!

This weekend was the start of lifeboat week and The Red arrows turned up to wow the crowds gathered on the beaches. Dave, John, Lula and myself stood on Monmouth Beach awaiting their arrival until the air was filled with a crackling roar as the 9 aircraft shot over the cliffs behind everone and began their display leaving trails of red, white and blue smoke trailing in the sky.

Now that the garboards are on the planking should speed up as the days go by so I will have more photos of that to show you>

Caledonia Yawl Week One

David and I lept into action as soon as we moved 'downstairs' onto the floor of the main workshop. We clambered down the creaky and over-steep stairs to our allocated area and spent the morning arranging our tools under the workbench that would be home for the next six months. After a little head scratching we realised the 19'6" Caledonia Yawl was not going to fit where we had planned to go and so a reshuffle of the workshop ensued.
It was past lunch time, after 2 moves that we finally got settled. First job was to level two eight foot long boxes on which the boat would be built. These has to be leveled along their length and breadth- a task which we seemed to do with relative ease.

Next we brought the plywood moulds down from upstairs and one by one we errected them on their pre- arranged positions on the boxes like the rib cage of a decent sized beached whale. We sat back at the end of day one and realised that we had made up for lost time and had pulled level and ahead of some of the other parings. Its not a race, honest!

Over the rest of the week out next jobs all revolved around making the backbone of the Yawl. This includes the 'Hog' which is a central single piece of timber which will sit on the keel and provide a place for the bottom planks to secure to and the two stems, bow and stern. The stems are back by aprons so in all there were four major laminations to be done and we chose to do two of these off the boat and two of them on the boat to give us varying experiences. There were pro's and cons to both techniques, David preferred laminating off the boat whilst I liked the other method.

One thing became apparent and that was the size of this boat. 19'6" long and 6'6" wide. It dominates the workshop and when planked it will obstruct the view across the room which one currently has through the gaps between the moulds.

Banter in the workshop continues to grow and David tag line of "Oh, no, no, no!" ring out along with "You slag", "you slag"- a tribute to the double act of Smithy and Gavin from Gavin and Stacey.

The faces of tourist appear at the door as they seemed quite impressed with our early efforts and it seems pleased that hand tools are in abundance. Worthington, Justin's Springer Spaniel with his smashing quiff stands guard at the entrance and gives a fierce bark to passing dogs warding them off his patch and away from the sausages Wendy sometimes brings out to him from the kitchen.

Every few days we all flock around Dave Govier like seagulls around a trawler as he shows the second hand tool he has for sale. Vastly cheaper than buying new and a chance to buy tools that will outlast us all. 90% of my tool kit has come from Dave.

One of hte most valuable things done is observing others and listening to other peoples ideas. By doing so the best method or technique is identified and put to good use which enriches the experience and saves time in the long run.



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Lofting with David

There are eighteen people on the boat building course but only 9 boats are being built due to the space restrictions in the BBA and because if all of us worked on our own boats without any help thy wouldn't be finished this side of 2013. So 9 people will project manage and work on the building of their own boat from materials they have purchased and the other 9 people (me included) will work on these boats and get to move around from boat to boat. The advantage of being transient is that I can experience as many different types of building techniques as possible and walk away with a more rounded experience and potentially a better chance of getting a job. I will miss out on owning a boat and will have not put the hours in to project manage a build but its all swings and roundabouts.

Lofting is when full scale drawings of the boat are produced on huge pieces of hard board. I worked with David to loft his 19'6" Caledonian Yawl which took the best part of a week and a bit. We lofted three different views of the boat on the same piece of hardboard- Profile (side on), Half Breadth (Birds eye view) and Body Plan (viewed from the bow/stern), after which the lines resembled spaghetti thrown at a wall, as Mike our instructor would say.

Pencils, rubbers, rulers of all sizes, lofting batons, wooden batons and quick clamps became very familiar to us as we used them to manipulate the table of offsets provided by the boat's designer. We plotted these points on our huge grid and drew lines that connected into what we thought were fair and would produce a good looking and functional boat.

We then used the lofting to take full scale measurements used to produce the plywood moulds around which the boat will be constructed. There were seven moulds in all and it was important that all of our lofting and mould measurements were exact. A quick way to transfer the shape of the moulds onto the plywood was to tap small nails on their sides into the lofted lines. The plywood is then laid on top and a after a few whacks with a mallet the imprints of the nail heads are left on the plywood. These imprints are then connected with a lofting baton and a pencil and the shape of the moulds can be cut out.

Doing this for over a week produced many furrowed browns and gasping yawns as we tried to soak up the information and work load. David and I worked well as a team with my drive and his considered thoughts and calculations. I cant wait to start building the boat for real and to see these lines become a tangible 3D form.

Week 5: Clinker Section and Tool Box

We seem to be spending longer and longer in the workshop as each day goes by. Less time has been taken for lunch and I have stayed behind until 8pm on a few occasions as there is so much to do! I also started two new jobs- working in one of the pubs called The Vounteer and working as a handyman for a local lady which should help keep the wolves from the door.

For the past week we have been building a Clinker Section- a scaled down model of a cross section of a wooden boat built by overlapping wooden planks which are nailed into place using copper nails and roves. There are numerous techniques and tools used in its construction which kept everyone focused and the workshop had a definite industrious feeling to it as the chatter died down and furrowed brows hovered over workbenches strewn with pine shavings, copper nails and tools.

Next on the list was a tool box. This is a piece of work we have all been looking forward to making. Its a typical thing for an apprentice to produce and use as a tangible CV when visiting prospective employees- the quality of one's dovetail joints could be scrutinised and hopefully a job would follow. We have chosen to use mahogany which is a very nice wood to chisel accurately.

















As of next week we will begin the Lofting stage of our course which involves making full scale drawings of different parts of the boat and in preparation for that we took the lines off an existing boat which one of the lads will use to make his own boat. It is becoming clear just how quickly we are moving through the course and time is tight as no sooner than one thing is finished than another set of technical drawings are presented to us. The lofting means we will be taken away from our workbenches in the day so anything unfinished will be tackled in the evenings or on the weekends.

The weather has continued to draw us all outside on our breaks to listen to waves swash up the beach and on one such occasion we noticed a large section of the cliff above Monmouth Beach had collapsed into the sea. We eventually worked out it had happened between 9 and 10am one morning and before long there were people walking down to inspect eh pile of charcoal coloured earth and boulders strewn down to the low water mark.

I have taken myself off for a swim in the sea at around 5pm a couple of times this week. At that stage in the day I am fairly tired and my concentration levels are waining so to allow me to continue to work in the evening a quick dip is just the ticket. To say the water was bracing would be and understatement and after 5 minutes of swimming around my face was aching from the cold and my hands refused to close but I emerged from the water a new man.