Much has rightly been said on the allergenic risks of using epoxy in home boatbuilding, I think there is a less publicised health risk. The prospect of building a big boat in a group on the shores of Loch Broom has generated a need for substantial numbers of epoxy mixing pots. Now we could of course buy them but the project is already costing us quite a bit and bearing in mind that the build is going to take place in a cold and draughty cowshed in the depths of winter we are going to be burning quite a lot of calories just keeping warm it seems to me we can achieve two objectives in one hit.

We are told to avoid heavily processed foods for the sake of our health – however raw ingredients, even in these days of over packaging, tend not to come in anything remotely useful for boatbuilding. So, purely in the interests of the hobby, I have been researching various products that look as though they might suit our purpose. It’s a hard job but, so far , my system has stood up to the research. I have sampled a number of products and enlisted the aid of my grandkids to try those less appealing to my palate, far and away the best containers are supplied with a microwaveable sponge pudding filling.

A sample steam pud - other varieties and brands are available

A variety of flavours are marketed – my personal favorite is the syrup pud, sickly sweet and very good for my dentist’s future income - others may favour the chocolatey ones.

Product to avoid are the individual fruit trifle type – the containers tend to be indented with strengthening patterns which militates against a thorough ‘poxy mix. The ideal pot will be smooth on the inside, enough flexibility to allow for cured epoxy residue to be popped out easily for container reuse on a subsequent day,  strong enough to be capable of serial use and large enough to contain enough epoxy that one individual can apply it within the ‘poxy pot life. Consumption of its original contents should not require too great a sacrifice on the part of the builder – you don’t want to be discouraged from building your boat by having to swallow something abhorrent. Yoghurt pots tend to be made from a styrene plastic which is only good for a single use.  For larger mixes I have found that the 500gm Glace Cherry containers ideal, luckily if you bake the Lemon Cherry version of the extreamly healthy HBBR Rally Cake  you will have a good supply. Experience has shown that however many you may think you need the reality will be at least double that number with a big boat like the St Ayles Skiff.

A small sample of the tested containers - illustration does not imply endorsement of content

The downside of this cheap-skate approach is the serious risk to your waistline and health. Granted once the boat is built most people will work off the surplus during the training sessions – although I have just realised there is a potential health hazard waiting to trip me up there as well. If we get serious about competing we are going to have to analyze our progress, because of the scattered nature of the  population building this craft the logical place to indulge this analytical process will be a local Hostelry immediately after a training session, it would be ungracious to avail ourselves of the cosy hospitality without properly supporting their Bar sales – yet more calorific consumption. For now though I guess I am just going to have to live dangerously and get used to a diet of instantish steamed pudd. I hope my colleagues in the project are equally prepared for self-sacrifice. We might have to be quick, with only a small supermarket locally and a neighbouring community  embarking on another Skiff there might be a run on the pudding counter, that should cause alarm and despondency amongst the health statisticians in whatever ivory tower they inhabit. The far Northwest Highlands prefered diet of Steamed Pud puts the local population on the road to obese ruin

Did I detect a momentary flutter of interest there? Sorry, birds of an ornithological variety – our annual influx of Redwing and Fieldfare has happened. I noticed a few a week or so ago then over the last weekend they appeared en mass. the Rowan trees which had been leafless but heavily berried are rapidly being stripped. So far no Waxwings which is disappointing, if they don’t arrive soon there will be no berries left.

I was delighted to see Micheal Storer’s report of his test sail of the first completed Raid41 built by Bryan Cull in America. It was gratifying to see that it was, after all, possible to sail the design without getting uncomfortably wet. A brief video was taken of the event and for those who followed the build and haven’t seen it yet, I am happy to be able to post it here with MIK’s consent. Thanks MIK and congratulations to Bryan on a succesfull build.

For MIK’s write up on the day’s test sail go here

For the sorry story of the English versions sailing misadventures see here  et seq.

Six months effort for three outings (as far as I can work out) - was it really worth it? I like to think that if a boat is used for more hours than it took to build then it was worth the builders effort, otherwise the figures simply don’t stack up.

The Prototype St Ayles Skiff

Interest has been sparked in Ullapool by the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project. The first Syndicate has been formed and a St Ayles Kit order placed with Jordan Boats. I suppose it was inevitable that having had a small part in the Prototype build that I would sign up. It is certainly going to be easier popping down to neighbour Adrian’s Cow Shed on the shores of Loch Broom than it was going down to Fife. It should also be interesting having a number of highly competent and experienced builders in the syndicate to keep me on the straight and narrow. We have, of course, got our very own Blog to record our highs and lows – it is intended to tell the full story warts and all – with luck blogging our mistakes will help others avoid making the same ones.

At the time of writing interest is strong over in Coigach (a little bit of paradise at the end of probably the best short drive in Scotland) and it looks as though a rival Syndicate is on the point of being formed. If we really move ourselves over the winter the first race might well take place in Loch Broom!

As a starter the fairly full photo record of the prototype build has been posted on the new Webby thing so if my therapy Ramblings have whetted your appetite why not pop over for a looksee – it’s early days yet but it will fill up with our own build over the winter months. If you are in the Loch Broom area and interested in joining a group please get in contact, if you just want to see what is going on then we will be happy to show you.

The fifth and final week of my recuperation in Fife consisted of further work fitting out the furniture of the interior. The remains of Monday after I had driven down was spent planing back the inwales to give a fair line along the top of the sheer. There were problems with opposing grain directions in the laminations of the inwales, larch tends to have a twisted grain anyway so there is always the risk of tear out. The use of a really sharp low angle block plane at 45 degrees to the line of the sheer minimised tearout to an acceptable level. The two planes I had honed up on Sunday only just lasted the course – by Monday evening they were pretty dull. There was a substantial pile of larch shavings to show for the effort though. Some time was spent (far more than could be afforded) considering the angle and position of the stem trim cut. This is an area where individualism will probably show itself – my preference is for a rather more curved effect but in the end time ruled and a straight cut was made just accenting slightly the line of the sheer. Tuesday morning saw the temporary Cox’s perch develope, this was a fairly organic process – laying a couple of appropriately beveled bearers across the stern planking at what felt like the right height with the seating battens decoratively arranged in a fan on top. All designed to minimise fancy fitting. I was quite pleased with the end result – gravity and a couple of small locating blocks hold the result firmly in place. Alec tried the perch out and demonstrated conclusively that only somebody in the petite category will be comfortable ensconced here. The Thwarts and beams were cut to size and clamped in position using the guide marks made earlier - a mirror was used to get a line of sight along the boat to prove parallel alignment. Once satisfied a 10mm drill was used to put a couple of bolt mounting holes through beams and frames. Necessary because the Thwart assemblies are likely to be removed quite often for maintenance during the life of the boat, painting out the interior is much easier with them out-of-the-way. The bolt holes were lined with short lengths of 10mm copper microbore heating pipe to reduce wear from the disassembling of the thwarts, 5/16″ Bronze bolts will be a light fit in the internal bore. That was pretty well the stage reached when my time was up and I had to head home to rectify 6 weeks of domestic neglect before the missis returned. Since then Alec has fitted the breast hooks, varnished the inwales and thwarts, primed and undercoated the interior. Almost there! The next time I shall see her is on the water on her launch day in a few weeks time.

click on the thumbnails for the bigger picture.

Hull chocked up and ready for furnishing the inside

Supporting wedge to prevent bow tipping forward when working inside

Preparing to drill the thwart beams

checking alignment of thwarts with a mirror

bolt holes in frames – lined with 10mm copper pipe to reduce wear

Thwart beam lined bolt holes

Beams held with temporay bolts to hold alignment of linings while glue cures

Cutting the stem to size

was the cut in the right place after all?

The temporary cox’s seat – simply held in place by gravity and a couple of small blocks

The temporary cox’s seat – once rowing trials have been held the final position will be confirmed

Alec trying the cox’s perch – makes it look like a big boat

Trialing rudder options – an offset tiller may be the best solution

Tea break

The never ending clean up

The view from the upper reaches of the workshop. Photo by Alec Jordan

Almost the plan view. Photo by Alec Jordan

Coated in Yacht Primer. Photo by Alec Jordan

First white undercoat on inside and outside. Photo by Alec Jordan

I went down to the Kingdom of Fife all those weeks ago feeling a bit down about boatbuilding – the Raid41 was such a negative experience that I was not sure I had another build in me. Alec’s good humoured cosseting and infectious enthusiasm has restored my confidence, recharged my batteries and left me itching to extend the little Green Shed and start the next boat, this will be a reversal of past experience – whereas my builds have been shrinking the next is going to the full extent of the expanded shed, an 18 footer and technically challenging with it, it will however be curvaceous – no more boxes for me, well not till I am placed in the final one. So a huge vote of thanks to Alec for the priviledge of being involved in a small way with the St Ayles Skiff, the therapy worked brilliantly. I am sufficiently hooked by this particular BIG boat that I have signed up for the Ullapool St Ayles Skiff build syndicate, hopefully the first of many for the West Coast of Scotland.

My neighbour Adrian from up the Strath called in at lunchtime today to help me out with a glut of apples and for a chat about the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project. It was far too wet and windy to be doing anything constructive in the garden, or anywhere else come to that.  He thinks, as I do, that Ullapool is an ideal location for one (or more) of the St Ayles Skiff’s to be based. Knowing that I had been lucky enough to have a small part in the prototype build down in Fife he came to pick what passes for my brain. Looks as though Ullapool No1 is well on the way to having enough support for start to be made in the near future (Any Loch Broom interest to be directed to Adrian – the more the merrier). Whilst we were putting the world to rights mention was made of the new build down in the Cowshed at Leckmelm Farm – Adrian was on his way down there to fettle the stem a little – so I took the opportunity to wander down and see what was going on. A rather gorgeous Sjekte was sitting planked up and awaiting timbering, built of larch, she sat glowing gently under the lights. I grabbed a few snaps whilst I was there and had a good look at the build techniques and came to the conclusion that it was probably something I might aspire to do in the future. Comparing the cost of Larch to the current cost of the ply I use I was struck by just how much more economic a build in ‘real’ wood could be. The other factor worth considering is the environmental impact – we are lucky to be able to source reasonable quality timber within a sixty mile radius, much better than hauling ply 600 miles up from Bristol plus all the energy costs of manufacture and shipping to Bristol. So once current stocks are exhausted it will be the way for me to go – I think. I was delighted to find my nose telling me that my preaching the virtues of  Varnol as a timber finishing agent is bearing fruit – following Adrians lovely restoration of an antique Thames Gig using the magic fluid to bring life back to some desiccated mahogany he has seen the light – it works just as well on new wood – and scents the workshop in a most attractive way. The only downside is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to lay hands on the stuff in this country, so my stocks are going to have to go a long way – I must find out if it is available in the Netherlands before I go over to the Oughtred Rally next Spring.

As usual click on the thumbnail to get the bigger picture

Wet & wetter plus a fair bit of wind, no gardening today.

First snap

Glowing Larch infused with Varnol

Stern, from a grovelling position

Adrian fettling

 

Monday saw a visit to another Sawmill, Scottish Woods , by Dunfermline – fascinating place once the horrors of Dunfermline’s streets had been negotiated. I think some better signage would help us furriners.  A large bundle of sawn Larch  was loaded up on the car roof and hauled back to Alec’s workshop . The weeks progress mainly consisted of more cleaning and sanding of the inside of the hull, fitting the laminated inwales and starting to sort out the thwart beams. The inwales seemed to take an inordinately long time to do, there are some tricky bevels to cut at the stems and deciding on the scarf joint took a little thought. Iain’s drawings imply the assembly of the inwale laminations then the morticing of the kabe slots – being essentially bone idle I thought that if the centre lamination was glued up in sections then the slots could be created at the lamination stage saving the need for some painstaking chisel work later. Because the Larch was relatively freshly sawn Alec decided to use Balcotan Polyurethane  goo, it was probable that the moisture content would be too high for a good epoxy joint but perfect for a Poly glue. This meant that the supply of clamps was stretched to the limit – at one stage we had over 80 clamps on the inwale! it’s a big boat and for Poly goo you need a high clamping pressure. Photographs are a bit limited this week, I thought it might be interesting to share the inwale preparation sequence we took for the ‘how to do it’  bit of the new Scottish Coastal Rowing Website . This last week was intended to be my last on the project, my temporary return to batchelor freedom ends shortly with the return of SWMBO from babysitting duties in the sunny south and a bit of housework is needed before that happy day, however I am reluctant to miss seeing the completion of the boat so will go back for a final four day stint which should see at least the first few coats of paint on. The interest in building seems to have come back and I have enjoyed the challenges presented by a big boat so it might not be premature to believe that Alec’s therapy has done the job.

Almost forgot the big excitement of the week, the project got a write up in ‘The Times’ on Friday- does this mean it has establishment approval.

 As usual, click on the thumbnail for the bigger picture

taking the vertical bevel angle of the stem/sheer joint

taking the horizontal bevel of the stem/sheer joint – having two bevel guages helps

marking the vertical bevel on the inwale stock

Inwale stock marked up for cutting, subsequent planing the taper will remove all the rough sawn surface

Making the cut, japanese pull saws make this almost childs play

beveled inwale stock ready for tapering

cutting the midships scarf in the inwale

Midships scarf on the first layer of the inwale lamination, placed so as to be concealed under the Kabe plate

Alec testing the stroke rowing position, this lead to a 65mm shift in the designed position of the stroke Kabe.

you NEVER have enough clamps, 80 in play and more would be useful.

Kabe peg in the slot left in the middle inwale layer

first two layers of the inwale lamination in place, note kabe peg slots

Position stopper for the third and final inwale layer, on the prototype this does not run the full lenth of the sheer.

The third inwale layer glued and clamped to the previous pair.

and from the stern

After a busy weekend doing the chores, mainly laundry and trying to keep pace with the disintegration of the garden I returned to the Kingdom on Monday. Cromartie Timber had delivered on their promise of some good larch cut a smidgen on the large side so an already sore back (too much ironing!) was exacerbated by the loading process when I called in - amazing how heavy a 10ft thwart plank is. A fairly smooth journey down the A9, helped by the presence of enough heavy goods traffic to keep my speed down to something approaching sensible, found me back at Alec’s workshop in the early afternoon,  this time without navigational mishap. Tuesday saw the outer stems going on reasonably easily, clamps and temporary screws held them in place whilst the epoxy cured. The ‘apprentices’ from Adam Smith college came up on Tuesday to see the build in progress. They have been selected to build the Scottish Fisheries Museum St Ayles Skiff in the workshop at the Museum in Anstruther under Alec’s guidance. They seemed a keen bunch of lads and I will be very interested to see their finished boat, it is really encouraging to see the younger generation taking an interest in boatbuilding – I wonder if they were warned just how addictive it can become . Wednesday saw the stems planed back level with the keel flat and the keel glued in place, lack of suitable larch in a long enough length meant that a scarf joint was needed roughly in the middle. Hindsight suggests that this scarf would be better done off the boat, trying to align a slippery, poxy coated, chunk of timber at an uncomfortable height led to the inevitable slight ‘kink’. This means more work to correct after the event. Whilst the glue was curing the interminable use of hot air gun, scraper and sandpaper to clean up the plank joints continued. Some light relief (not so sure Alec saw it that way) took up Thursday morning when representatives of ‘The Thunderer’ stopped by to interview Alec and the local Fife Rowing Champion from a past era, Willie Davidson, about the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project. To aid photographer Ashley’s search for the perfect shot we decamped to Dysart with Willie and the model – The day couldn’t have been better and I was delighted to see some of the famous Dysart Yawls on the hard, evidence of some significant restoration work being done to ‘Windward’ which was good to see. Thursday evening saw a significant milestone in the build – enough bodies were assembled to lift the hull off the moulds and turn her over – a very smooth operation due to Alec’s planning. As my back was still letting me know all about it’s earlier misuse I was excused lifting duty so was able to snap the occasion, the lighting could have been better but I got something to remember it by. As the hull came right way up I was amazed by how much more beautiful she became. The full impact of her size was felt for the first time as well – it’s almost as if when looking at the hull upside down the sightline just flows off the hull, right way up there is nowhere for the eye to slide off, the volume of the hull seems to absorb the sightline and bounce it back. She is one big boat but I am sure once on the water she will shrink as all boats do. Friday saw a half day’s effort starting to clean out the epoxy squeeze on the inside of the plank joints – slow and tedious work but essential to the final look of the boat. A leisurely journey back up the A9 – leisurely because of the sheer weight of traffic heading to the far NW of Scotland, I had forgotten Loopallu was this weekend, a significant local musical event which seems to attract ever more people each year. Next week should see inwales in place and the thwarts fitted, might even get to the priming stage but there is a lot of sandpaper to wear out first.

Is the therapy working – well I am certainly sleeping better now and am far too busy to worry about the recent boatbuild failure – although it is sad that ‘talk like a pirate day’ was taken as cart blanche to pirate my snaps to elsewhere in the blogosphere.

As usual – click on the thumbnail to see the bigger picture

Thwart beams and thwart planks en route to the Kingdom

Introduction to the boat, Adam Smith College ‘apprentices’

Alec taking the rough cut off of the keel before fairing the curve

All done before turning over

Willie and Alec ‘posing’ in Dysart Tunnel

Artistic shoot against the creels

Alec at Dysart

Up she goes

and roll gently

Whew, we didn’t drop her

Luverly

Whatever the angle, she is grand

Nonchalant muscle men – or a very light boat

balanced hull, she is happy on her keel

now for the big clean up, note specialist equipment!

Back home again after a second week of intensive activity, well intensive on Alec’s part, I only have one speed – slow, mostly ahead. I got back to the workshop on Monday after a fairly disorganised start – forgot the anti BP tablets and had to make a dash back home when I remembered at Lochend which put an extra 40 min in the journey. I have already packed them for next week so that’s one thing less to delay me. The length of Larch to make up the rest of the keel survived the journey and my poor navigation on the back roads of Fife. When I eventually arrived I found the second plank had been fixed over the weekend and Alec busy fairing up the frames, the boat is being built with most of these in place to make fairing them to the planks much easier, I think getting them in the right place is greatly eased by doing it this way as well. Once the frames were faired up it was simply a case of beveling lands, cutting gains and gluing planks for the rest of the week. The longest day was Wednesday when Alec managed to hang two pairs of planks, a welcome appearance of the sun helped get the epoxy off to a reasonably quick set. Thursday was a rather more relaxed day, the Sheerstrake was hung after lunch. The accuracy of the planking line up from the CNC cut planks has been a revelation, once the satisfaction of successfully spiling planks has worn off this will be my prefered build option, it is so much faster, my only reservation is over losing the ability to carefully choose the grain alignment on the scarf joints for my brightly finished hulls – seeing the St Ayles Skiff painted up will be interesting, it may move me towards a paint job on my own boats.
Friday saw the clamps quickly removed and the snaps of the fully planked hull taken before I headed back through the Fife countryside towards the other end of Scotland and home. Now that the hull is planked I am even more excited by the project – judging by the number of visitors to the build during the week I am not the only one.  I called into Cromartie Timber on the way home to see if the Larch for the thwarts and braces had yet been sawn so I could get a really early start on Monday, sadly not, but whilst there I saw some extraordinarily fine woodwork, Ardival Harps have their workshop tucked away inside the sawmill office.  If you are at all interested in musical instruments I urge you to have a look at these – true craftsmanship. I could have happily spent much longer gazing in awe but the sun was still shining and the garden sadly needed attention. Got home to find about a third of the apple crop on the ground from Tuesday’s storm and evidence of the pestilential bunnies – how is it they know what are weeds and which the choicest flowers, and chomp the flowers. I wouldn’t mind so much if they did the weeding.

As usual – click on the thumbnail to see the full picture

Set up for fairing the frames – single handed. bungy cord holds the batten firmly in place

marking up the thwart position on the frames – batten clamped across the ‘top’ of the sheer and a simple plywood template used to strike a line 8″ below gunnel.

slipping some thin polythene between frame and mould to prevent inadvertant gluing.

Scots Porridge? no – the gloop to go on the laps, nice and thick for the more vertical planks.

cleaning off the surplus gloop – used for the next section of planking

General view of the workshop

In situ scarfing – easier than trying to manhandle a 22′ plank into place.

The planking up completed – result of a weeks effort

The planking up completed – low angle view

The planking up completed – bow end view

in East Wemyss – everybody’s talking about it !