Lazaretting

 

In boat building, as in most activities I guess, there are lots of inter dependencies. You can't put the rear cockpit sole down till the outboard doubler is in, which might interfere with the lazarette support which needs the seats in but they can't go in till you put the side cleats in which requires you to know where the lazarette goes. I dry fitted what I could, and decided arbitrarily on a location for the forward lazarette cleat, based in the size of my fisherman's anchor which I hope to store in there. The crunch will be whether I can get a hatch small enough not to interfere with the tiller but big enough to get the anchor in and out.

Funny word "lazarette", lots of dodgy etymological theories out there on the internet about the origin of the word, but Lazarus clearly is in the chain somewhere there.

I am slowly  chipping away. Maggie is appalled at my slow progress, but should have the soles and the seats down in the next week or so.  Maybe ready to turn over by the end of next month.  

Stephen who has bought plans for #667 came to have a look at progress and try out the cuddy for size. It will be really nice to have another SCAMP in progress.  I better get cracking or he will be on the water before me!

Steaming along

 After a lot of shilly shallying, I cut and scarfed  new pieces for the gunnels. I can use the other bits for the deck carlins.

When I came to clamp a new piece, it was clear it was not quite going to fit.

Clamped as hard as I dared, it was close but no cigar. So I tried a method both Gerard Van Drempt and  Chris Hurren suggested ... clamp one end and steam and fix small sections as you go. 

Anne has a nifty little hand held clothes steamer. Using a bit of plastic bag about a metre long, I steamed progressive sections for about 5 minutes each, then clamped that bit in place, then moved on to the next bit.  Slow but it worked nicely.  I have 9 gunnel and carlin pieces to fit so I hope I get a bit faster.

I can work on the gunnels while I wait for the epoxy and then the undercoat and paint on the cockpit sole sections to dry. After much indecision, I finally cut the circular holes for the Armstrong hatches in the sole pieces. I am not sure that having the large hatch into the water-ballast tank is such a great idea. 

I have put my centreboard pin on the water-ballast tank side, and if ever I need to get access to it I will be glad of that big hatch. That damm centreboard pin has consumed a disproportionate amount of time. I suspect the bushings are ever so slightly out of alignment. I could jiggle it home before but now thanks to my over cunning bolt system,  the darn thing is a few mill off sitting fflush. The good news is I managed to not epoxy the plug into the garboard drain fitting.

So, the project is still moving, and if I keep moving it has to get somewhere. There have been some lovely if chilly days this week, it would be really nice to get back on the water. 

I have finally settled on a name for the SCAMP: "Anjevi". In good Welsfordian tradition (look up "Joansa") it is an amalgam of my family's names: Anne, Jess and Vincent.  And it sounds a bit like Anchovy, which Wikipedia tells me is a small, blunt nosed fish, sort of appropriate for a small, blunt nosed boat.

Now, I have to decide on a colour scheme ....

Whisky plank and Welsfordian curves

 I finally got to glue on the whisky plank on the weekend. I tried to get Oz to pose for a shot to record the occasion. He was deeply disapproving.

The odd bit of wood is a brace, to hold the ply in place firmly till the epoxy sets. 

Anne is in the Epworth hospital in Richmond after knee surgery. I have been catching the train over to visit most mornings. Hopefully another week or so and she will be home.  

I can get an hour or two of work done on the boat most days, but somehowI am a bit inefficient and muddled at the moment.  EG I mixed a batch of epoxy yesterday then could not for the life of me find the handle I needed for the roller to spread it.

One looming challenge is to get the 10 by 30 mm stips of Oregon to conform to the graceful but quite steep curve of the gunnels. Gerard kindly bought me some long plastic bags for steaming. We tried it, but, silly me, I put the start of the bag and the steam pipe input right at the point where I had epoxied the scarf joint. Which of couse melted the glue and the joint failed.

Today I tried carefully clamping on a gunnel strip, little bit at a time. And it seemed to work. Tomorrow I will screw it on, and try my luck with the next strip. 

Jim at the Dinghy Shop is back temporarily from his cruise up north. He hit a large solid object which should bot have been in a marked channel, and damaged the keel of his boat. Proving the maxim it is an ill wind etc I was able to stock up on screws and order some more epoxy and various fittings. And the 2 x 250mm  Armstrong hatches I ordered moths ago finally arrived, just in time to do the cockpit sole.

So, not great progress but at least still moving forward. Beautiful day today, would have been lovely on the water!