16 May 2010

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.

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