It's not a race

 Various apologists for the dismal performance of our nation's vaccine rollout have been resorting to the response:"It is not a race."   And, given how slow and erratic my progress is on the Skerry, I find myself reaching for the same justification.

But in my case at least, there is some wisdom in the approach. As I take my time, I am doing some things that I would certainly have skipped if I was racing for a deadline, and which would have been much more time consuming to add retrospectively. Like foot braces for rowing.

It took me most of the afternoon to  cut, shape, locate, drill, glue and screw them on, and I will need to flip boat, fill, let set, and sand the screw holes, another couple of days there. But my lovely 8 foot Canadian spruce oars turned up this week, and I felt I should have the boat ready for some serious rowing.

My other time consuming addition has been "D" rings attached with epoxied webbing to the forward section floor, to lash down a couple of inflatable beach rollers as bouyancy bags. I nearly epoxied them into the wrong end of the boat, one of the perils of the  double ender.

If (when) I do capsize this boat, I hope they lwill hold. The other addition you can see is a couple of  bits of wood each with a slot, that I can fit a hoop of wood into. This might be a support for a little front tarp, a shelter for Oz if the weather is damp, and might help with supporting a weather cover when Derry has to go live outside.

I stumbled over an impressive dinghy cruiser I had not heard of before: Giacomo de Stefano. His journey, by sail and oar, in a Ness yawl, from London to Istanbul, took 15 months, and nearly killed him.  Early in the movie of his jouney Giacomo observes: "There are no records to break or deadlines to meet, just curiosity and wonder of being in the world."  It was not a race.

 

Whisky fillet

 

According to Leo, the nice youngchap on the Sampson Boat building company videos, there is a tradition that the last plank to be fitted to a boat is referred to as the  "Whisky Plank" and celebrated as the name suggests. There is still a lot of work to be done, but somehow the essential creation of the boat is complete.

Somehow that didn't translate to the glued lapstrake of the Skerry, with only three planks a side. But this evening i finished the last fillets on the Skerry, and that did feel like a significant step in process. Pretty much all the construction is now complete. The Whisky fillet. I might need to get some to mark the occasion. 

Vale Peregrina

 

I sold Peregrina, my much loved Mirror, to Jim at the Yacht Club. He wanted a boat for the tackers too big for Optis and too small for Pacers. I am glad she has gone somewhere she will be used. I rode down to the foreshore later today, and there she was, with two kids doing a nice job sailing her.  So a good outcome, but I have a really empty hole in my heart. I loved that boat. 

Gang aft agley

 I got a call from Anne from Katoomba hospital on Sunday. She slipped and broke her collar bone. I managed to organize flight up to NSW first thing Monday, various trains up to Katoomba, collected her and her luggage, then reverse to get home again. She  is home safe and ok, the orthopod says a clean break and  she should be feeling much better in two weeks. As an injury it is quite disabling, and a bit of assistance required to do things. Skerry works have largely ground to a halt, though I couldn't resist trying the mast fit. Sort of looks vertical.

So I won't have the boat ready for Sunday. Probably just as well, I can take my time and do a better job.

Slotted

It was distinctly brisk on our walk this morning, and the sea birds all looked like they had a rough night with the storm last night. I tossed and turned a bit, worrying about the big task for today, cutting the centreboard slot in the thwart. Routers can do a lot of damage very quickly.

After a lot of measuring and fussing, I  drilled a couple of holes, connected them with the jig saw, then very slowly ran round the perimeter with the flush bit on the router. A bit of sanding and filing, and I have the top slot done. I will flip the boat, and cut the bottom slot tomorrow. That, and fillets under the seats, and I will be pretty much finished the construction phase. A bit more coating, a lot of sanding, then painting. Maybe I can be finished for WBA sailing day in a week tomorrow. Or finished enough. 

 

Different perspective

Bjorn shared some of his photos from our trip last week. It is always interesting to see the familiar from another perspective. 

A great shot of Ozzie "looking very Zen" as  Bjorn put it.  Once the Torqeedo fired up and we started careening around the boat harbour, I am afraid the Zen calm was shattered.

Until the wind picked up, the surface of the water was like molten glass. Great images from a very pleasant sail.

Not easy being green

 This morning I launched the Core Sound to try out the second hand Torqeedo I bought a few weeks back. It has no tiller, and a separate throttle. The idea is you steer with tiller.

The good news is that the short  shaft is an ok length with crew weight towards the stern. I was worried the prop would cavitate, but does not seem to be an issue. 

Not so good, the prop is about twice the size of the Honda's, and I could not turn to starboard in the harbour space without hitting rudder blade with prop. I should have just turned the boat using dock lines, and we could have motored out no worries, but, by trying to be a smartarse, I put on a good bonehead boater display before we were finally pointing in right direction. Bjorn came out with me today, and very kindly witheld any criticism of my boat handling, and refrained from jumping ship.

The Torqeedo can push the Core Sound at 4.6 knots, max. Display says I can only do that for a couple of miles, but that is plenty for getting in and out of harbour. At around 2.5 knots display tells me I can do 19 miles.  I used about 16 % of battery fiddling round, getting in and out of the harbour today. It feels very civilize though, and it is great to be able to clear the transome once you don't need engine.

The wind was light today, so we broke out the mizzen staysail, which seems to help. And eventually the wind picked up a bit, and we enjoyed a nice run over towards the Jawbone.

All in all it was a good day on the water, and I learned a few things. It was good to have a break from Skerry building.