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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