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.