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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