Spring Boatbuilding School 2007

[Boatmik]

Howdy all,

I am madly busy doing the 4th day of this year's boatbuilding school.

A couple of days ago it was just a big empty space.

Now there are boats sprouting everywhere. Storer boats, Oughtred boats, Redmond boats, Bear Mountain boats

I'll put more pics up here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/sets/72157602281214723/
each day

Best wishes
Michael

[bloggs1968]

Mik,

Must be inspiring seeing others put their boats together and learning new skills. Good pics. We were only having a discussion at work this week on the usefulness of milk crates in the workplace and I see Duck Flat has a good supply too!

How long does it run for?

regards,

AD

[Boatmik]

Howdy - it runs till the evening of the 11th October.

If anyone wants to drop in it swings along from 8 until about 4.30 each day.

25 Secker Rd, Mount Barker

MIK

[Boatmik]

More photos up today.

All the boats keep going together. The Eureka is fully stitched and microfilleted - this allows the wire to be pulled out. Then a bigger fillet will be put over the whole lot. In the ends the inside will be just glass taped. This is more laborious than the standard method but means the copper wire is totally invisible or removed

The Kayak is also stitched and Jon has decided to pull the copper wire out too. So he is microfilleting thismorn.

The Bear Mountain Rob Roy Canoe is about 2/3 stripped up. The Paulownia being used for the stripping looks very neat and tidy. It will be a very pretty and very light boat.

The McGregor Canoe has had its first two planks hung and they have gone on well. It is a stretched version of the original as Derek wants to sail in it with his partner - and the original is not quite floaty enough for two adults

Yesterday was a bit of a hard day for many - but that is to be expected - only two people here have built boats before. This morning everyone cheery - specially the resident Pom (Derek) whose team has won the rugby! The Aussies are philosophic.

MIk

[Boatmik]

The Bear Mountains strip plank canoe is having the last paulownia planks cut into place as I write this (they dont' need me). So I have just put up today's pics (link at the top of this thread.

It has been quite interesting in terms of speed.

The Oughtred Granny pram is fully skinned - but started from a second hand building frame (headstart). So too the Eureka Stitch and glue canoe. Tomorrow the Goat Island Skiff and the Whisp will have their bottoms fitted - so will be fully skinned as well.

So if your clinker boat is small and simple and the building mould is already made up then it is possible to beat a stitch and glue or "instant" construction boat.

The more complex clinker shapes are a long way behind now, but are starting to pick up a bit of pace.

Everyone is still very happy including David Wilson (the other instructor) and myself.

The upshot of the day is ... now that all the boats LOOK LIKE BOATS there is a real sense of acheivement in the air.

MIK

[Boatmik]

More photos today. The paulownia strip boat has been given its first fairing then the nail holes and cracks filled with a mix of paulownia wood flour, Q-cels and epoxy. You can't just use the wood flour as it goes too dark - so you make a mix of around 24% woodflour and 75% Q-cels - which are white and very easy to sand. Matches the timber quite well.

Don't like staples - you cant fill the holes to make them disappear and sometimes you need to use several staples in one place if the plank is heavily twisted so end up with lots of dark speckles.

The photo gallery above now has almost 500 images. I plan to divide it up between the different boats and have a gallery for each one with some sort of basic commentary. But CRAZYBUSY now - so after the dust settles.
:aro-r:MIK:aro-l:

[Eli]

Really loved the gallery. Looks like so much fun. I'm hoping to do a strip kayak at some point.

[Boatmik]

Howdy Eli - that's what it is about!!!

Everyone - have updated with the next bunch. The clinker feather pram has come off the mould - there is a sequence of that.

The internals of the GIS (Goat Island Skiff) have been mostly fitted.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2380/1538921249_4ed7d0c22b.jpg

The Whisp has the bottom glassed.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2090/1539211698_d0932db2d0.jpg?v=0

There is a sequence of trimming down the edge of glass tape using a spoke shave with some masking tape over part of the blade. Those pics are of the Eureka canoe. Look for the blue tape in all the pics. The edges of the glass tape were taken down further with a cabinet scraper and then sanded to finish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/1539579604/in/set-72157602281214723/

There is also a neat method of working out accurate bulkhead shapes - again the Eureka. Basically put a smaller piece of plywood or MDF in the plane the bulkhead is to go in and then use a hot melt glue gun to put pointers that touch where the perimeter of the bulkhead will go. A very quick and easy way to create a template.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/1539652436/in/set-72157602281214723/

Pity I can't put links to embed pics in this text anymore.

You will just have to have a look at the whole sequence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/sets/72157602281214723/