Week Two

I’m happy with my progress so far, even though I don’t really have a yard stick to go by I feel I’m making good strides. During the week I finished lofting the stations and after another trip to Bunnings (I really should by shares in the business) with Nico to buy some extra tools I started cutting them.

That was a bit of a learning curve and I quickly learnt to leave a generous margin along the edge to clean up afterwards with the rasp/file I brought in the morning.

By the evening I’d cut all the stations and shaped about half of them.

The following morning Nico and I finished shaping the stations and then it was onto building the strong back.

I got most of it built when I received a call from Mum asking if we wanted to come over for a swim and salmon smoked on the BBQ. How can one refuse such an offer? So at 4:00 I packed everything away, grabbed Nico and our swimming things and headed off to Mums.

So the day finished a little earlier than I had hoped but the strong back is almost complete, I just need to add the legs and make sure everything is level.

Otherwise I got an email from Rod today that my planks will be ready middle of the week. I also found out that Gary Dierking makes sails so I will ask him if he can make me one later this year. So my task for this coming week is to buy the epoxy and fiberglass, finish the strong back and mount the stations.

Boat Length

After another series of emails with Gary (I hope he's not getting sick of me!) I've settled on six meters overall length. Hopefully this will mean I can still fit my car in the garage over winter while I work on the boat.

To maximise the buoyancy gained Gary recommended adding the extra 600mm to the middle of the boat. I will also be making the bulk heads a bit longer to help in case of a capsize or swamping (as Gary pointed out it will also mean less bailing).

Gary was also kind enough to send me the plans for a larger ama, which will allow me to add a bit of extra sail area to add a trampoline to the cross beams for resting on

I'm also toying with the idea of installing lockers under the seats with a couple of tackle and storage boxes in them. This will give me a small amount of water tight storage for valuables like phone and wallet.