Who Needs a Gym…

When you’re building a boat?

Bad weather for most of the weekend kept progress to a minimum. The first iako was covered in glue from the laminating and I anticipated that there would be a lot of sanding to get back to bare wood. And unfortunately sanding needs to be done outside, in the rain. Not a recommended activity with power tools!

But I did manage to laminate my second iako, which was a good thing because by Sunday afternoon it was dry enough to work on it.

Sunday morning we went to French bay out past Blockhouse bay, the weather had cleared up and it was promising to be a good day. That was until we loaded everyone into the car. With a few warning drops, we got a sudden down pour! Luckily I was able to shout a warning to Cecile and she got inside the car in time. There went my day.

French bay is one of these lovely forgotten bays that dot the Manukau Harbour, the tide was in and there were ducks and seagulls on the water. Nicolas was in heaven! Every month the French Bay Yacht Club hosts a French market which we had to check out. Alas the market was small with not much of a selection. That said, Cecile still managed to buy some sausage and mustard along with the obligatory pastries.

Back at home the weather was still hit and miss, so I thought I might as well see if I can use a plane to get this glue off. As you can see it worked well and it was a nice physical job to warm me up.

After I’d finished with the plane I risked the rain and took them outside with the orbital sander. I managed to get one finished before the rain started to threaten once more.

So at the end of week twenty six I have two nearly finished iakos. This week I’ll get the wood to make the boom, rudder % lee board. I’ll also order the styrofoam to make the ama. I’ll also need to make some time in the evenings to clear up my work space to cut the ama template.

Over all I’m happy with the way the iakos have turned out.