Home again

Week sixteen and on Saturday I arrived back in New Zealand Cecile decided to stay on a week longer in New Caledonia on account of my trip to Australia at the end of the week.

Even though the plane landed at 15:00 and I arrived home at 16:00 I managed to get the third inner gunwale glued in place that evening.

Sunday morning it was off to Bunnings again to get more brushes and some wider clamps to help glue in the bulkheads. Once home I glued in the last inner gunwale. While waiting for that to dry (overnight) I cut out two pieces of ply for the ring frame, squares for the wae  saddles (I’m going to have to put a glossary at the end of this post) and pieces for the wae themselves.

The instructions for the plywood saddles and ring frame call for 6mm thickness. Because I only have sheets of 4mm I’m going to glue two pieces together to get 8mm. Same for the wae, I need pieces that are 60mm wide and 20mm thick. Since I have spare 60mm by 8mm pine for the iakos I will laminate a couple of pieces with some ply in the middle to get the specified 20mm thickness.

With all my clamps being used to hold the inner gunwales in place while the glue sets, I’d done all the gluing I could for the day. The upside of Cecile still being in Noumea this week is that I’ll be able to get some work in tomorrow night as well. So all going to plan I will glue all the pieces together on Monday after work so that the glue can set over the week ready for attachment to the hull next weekend (which is a long weekend).

No picture today, there hasn’t really been enough visible progress to bother plus it was already dark when I finished for the day.

Glossary:

Aka: Cross beams that attach the ama to the main hull, also called iako.

Ama: The second hull or float that is attached to the main hull to give additional stability.

Iako: Cross beams or outrigger booms used to hold the ama parallel to the main hull.

Pola: Poles that sit across the two iako and can be used to support a net or trampoline.

Ring Frame: A frame that attaches to the inner sides of the hull and under the deck but is open in the middle.

Vaka: The main hull

Wae: Short beams located just below the gunwale level to strengthen or stiffen the hull sides. These are usually used to lash the iako to the vaka.

Driver Halt!

Week fifteen and all work has stopped because we are in Noumea. Last Tuesday Cecile's Grandmother passed away. So I recommended that she fly to Noumea with Eloise to support her mother who was very upset. In the end we went over as a family so that I could act as an extra pair of hands.

As its worked out things have been reasonably sedate, it's rained for two days. But on Friday we did get to go out for lunch and time on the beach. Nico took to the water like a duck!


Today is the wake and the children are not allowed to be near that for cultural reasons so Cecile will get a brief moment to say good bye to her Grandmother before she goes through a cleansing process so that she can hold Eloise again. The upside is that we can go to the beach if the weather has cleared.

Tomorrow is the funeral and after that its time to catch up with the family visiting from France. Eloise has been a big hit with the extended family and she is couping very well with the attention and heat (although the locals will tell you it's cold!).

Sometimes Things Just Fall into Place

Last week I was worried about sourcing timber for the iakos and gunwales. I thought I would try one of the timber merchants (Timspec in Mt Roskill) and pick their brains to see what my options were. As I feared they only supplied timber in set sizes and I would need to find someone to cut it to the sizes I wanted and would be happy to recommend a couple of places.

The first one they recommended was Shale Woodworking in Onehunga. So I ordered the 4mm Gaboon plywood I needed for the bulkheads & ama and gave Shale Woodworking a call.

When I called Shale Woodworking, after I had explained what I was looking for the first thing Martin said was, “well you’ve struck a goldmine here”. What happens is that he ends up with a lot of off-cuts from previous jobs and was happy for me to pick out what I needed. So I drove over my my notes and we decided on some beautiful, clear 3.5m lengths of ash for the gunwales and pine for the iakos. The following day he had cut them to size and I was able to pick them up after work.

So if you are embarking on a similar project I would highly recommend you give Martin a call (09 636 8763).

End of week fourteen and I’ve run out of clamps!

I’m in the process of gluing on the inner gunwales and as you can see you need a lot of clamps! I could hold them on with screws but I would rather not. Unfortunately that means that I have to do strip a day to allow for drying time. As it happened Saturday was a slow day after too much indulgence on Friday night and Sunday morning we went to the pool. So apart from getting two of the four innerwales glued on, I only managed to cut out and shape the two bulkheads.

State of the boat at the end of the week:

This coming week I’m off to Absolute Marine to buy the fittings I need for the bulkheads.

Water Tight

Well in theory it has been watertight since the outside was glassed but now finally, four weeks later the hull base is complete.

Week thirteen and talk about doing things the hard way; according to the instructions the inside layer of fiberglass can be laid one of two ways. Length wise like the outside or with the fiberglass cut in short strips and laid across the hull. The advantage of the second method is that its easier, while the disadvantage is that you need to overlap the sheets leaving visible lines after all is done.

Of course I decided on a third option. Instead of cutting each sheet side to side, I cut enough to lay one side at a time. I was half way done on one side before I paused to wonder if I had read the instructions correctly.

Oh well.

On the upside it there will now be two layers of glass on the inside of the stem to give it a bit more strength.

The actual job wasn’t too bad, although it took a a while before I got my technique right, just in time to wet out the last sheet!

What the boat looks like at the end of this week. Since then I’ve given it a final coat of epoxy and now its time to let it dry.

Next step is to install the bulk heads, inner gunwales and ring frames. But before I can do that, I need to buy more wood. The plywood for frames and bulk heads will be easy enough to find, but I’m at a bit of a loss on what to do for the gunwales. Bunnings only stock pine and rimu timber (I suspect it will be true for Mitre10 as well), while from my online searches it looks like all of the timber merchants only stock large sizes that will need to be cut to the sizes I need. This will also be a problem when I need to build my iakos and the boom.

I don’t want to get a band saw so my options are looking limited.

1. Settle for rimu.

2. Borrow a band saw and cut to size (not sure where from).

3. Get another company to dress the timber.

Stay tuned…..

Sailing

Regrettably not yet on the canoe.

Week twelve ended with a trip around Rangitoto Island on the boss’ boat. The day started beautifully, with two knots of wind (not ideal for sailing but the sun was shining). After motoring for the first hour we set sail for the rest of the trip. Gradually the winds climbed up to eighteen knots which pushed us along at a respectable eight knots. During the whole trip the swells remained quite modest with the only real waves coming from the fast cat ferries.

Apart from a great day on the ocean, the trip also showed me that it was feasible to make a similar trip in an outrigger. I’m thinking of making weekend trips of it, launching from St Heliers Beach and camping on Mototapu island and making day trips from there.

Back to the Ulua, I’ve planed and sanded the inside, filleted the two stems and faired the rough patches. Next step, hopefully this coming weekend is glassing the inside.