Alley Oop! Over she goes!
Gee a lot has happened in the last two weeks.
In the moments in between, as we wait for the paint to go off, the afternoon crew have been active making the rudders, the thwarts, preparing the gunnels strips and even thinking about the oars which we will be using. Let’s face, it we won’t get far without them.
It took us the best part of 10 days to get the undercoats and secondaries on, before we could put on the final coats with the need to cut back each coat as the ever present runs would appear, no matter how careful we were with the finishing stroke of the brush.
Turning the hull over was the aim for last Monday, but before we did that, the protective keel strip had to be attached to the keel and the brass strip was produced and measured up for the process of drilling the holes and then carefully laying it on the keel to ensure a good clean fit. Once the strip was given the all clear, then on it went. The brass screws being used had to be put in by hand as the chance of breaking off the head when using a power tool was in our minds all the time.
Then the turnover. Some of the frames were removed and the remainder were left in to keep the hull stiff and planks were attached to them to act as landing posts as the hull was moved off the cradle. The pictures tell the story as it was moved off, dropped onto the landing posts and then rolled in place. From there, all that was needed was to put it up on the cradle and put supports in under the hull to hold it steady. We were glad to have the majority of the bosun’s team in attendance at that moment as it was indeed a turning point of the build.
The hull was stripped of the tape used to keep the glue under control and then the use of hot air guns made it an easy job of cleaning the excess glue off the hull interior. But the tape was hiding another problem, there were gaps that had to be filled with more glue and once we had scraped and sanded down the interior, new tape was laid and the gaps were filled with a fresh batch of glue.
It’s not easy, but the hull is beginning to look like a boat and the careful work on the fittings being carried out by Ken Baxter and his team will finish off the boat nicely. The next job is to tidy up the interior, Everdure it and then put the undercoats and finishing coats. Another couple of weeks or so at least.
As ever, visitors are welcome to come down and see what’s happening and if you call at coffee time, there’s always a brew spare.
Rick Steuart
