An Apology...

Firstly can I apologise for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, a combination of factors has meant that I have been unable to access my blog.

However we have now finished planking, removed the moulds, and cut the sheer.  So on the basis that a picture says a thousand words...

Nailing on the Sheer Strake... the FINAL plank of the planking saga

Still nailing!

This is the point at which we had finished the planking, started to remove the moulds, but decided to go to the Pub to celebrate!

All the frames removed, amazing how quickly one can get moulds out when you've had a couple of pints.

Sheer Strake in place but without the final sheer (shape of the top of the plank) marked or cut

Cutting the Starboard sheer...

Cutting the Port sheer...

TARRRRAAA!!!

The Rose finally planked and ready for fitting out

So we have completed the planking, well behind schedule, but we can now push ahead with the fitting out that hopefully we will have more help with.  The next stage is to fit the Centre plate box, clean up the inside of the hull, fill and fair any knot holes and gaps and then apply a couple of coats of primer prior to putting in the timbers and floors.

The mast is virtually complete, the Gaff is complete and the mizzen mast is glued up ready for shaping, so while there is a lot to do all is now achievable.

The Sheer is the line of the top the plank which gives the boat its shape when it is in the water, it is considered one of the most important aspects of a boat and it took about an hour working with a baton to get the Jessica Rose's sheer the way we wanted it.  The old way of doing it was to run a string from the outboard edge of the transom at sheer level to the stem and then by eye mark the sheer in the same plane as the string! No I didn't get it either, so we used a very long sail baton clamped to the plank.

More to follow as we get into the interesting bit... thank you for your patience!

And so we progress...

I thought this was quite a fun 'phot and gives an impression of what she will look like head on.

There still needs to be a cutwater fashioned on the stem which will narrow the bow from 2 inches to about an inch, and of course she has to grow another 4 planks upwards to complete the hull.  We should get another pair of planks on tomorrow and then finish next week or by tuesday of the following week.

Then all we have to do is fit her out!!!

By December 7th...

Planking...

Well I did warn you; we are still fighting to get the planks on, although this week we do seem to have turned the corner and hopefully we will be onto more interesting stuff in a few days time when we start on 'inwales', eking pieces, breast hooks, hanging knees, and thwarts.  That is not to mention timbers floors, deck beams, and carlins... so I won't.

More 'phot's latr in the week..

Britain at Risk...

Boat will be featured in a programme called Britain at Risk that will be shown in February 2012.  Great fun to see it recorded, I don't feature, I was to old!

Spars... Introducing Rob!

It is important to mention that we have a new member of the 'Rose Team in the form of Rob who has kindly taken on the lion's share of the work manufacturing the Spars.  He is rapidly becoming the Course expert on the production of spars!

Tapering the stock

Producing a 17' mast that tapers from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches requires extremely careful marking out and is a time consuming process, in addition Rob has also produced the Gaff and has promised to assist with the bowsprit, mizzen mast and sprit.

More photographs to follow...

OK...

Sorry to have been off the air for so long but there is only so much you can say about the process of nailing planks onto a boat without becoming 'Mr Boring'.

However this week we have, between learning how to renovate old boats, started work on the mast and spars for the ' Rose and have put one of my birthday presents to work with quite fantastic results.

Two 17' lengths of Sitka spruce that will be tapered and then hollowed out prior to being stuck together and then faired into a mast.

Planing up the stock using a leveller plainer, 4 kilo's of tradition adding its weight to a razor sharp honed steel blade, slices through the timber like a hot knife through butter...

THE BEAST at work!

It is amazing how much umphh you can get behind a plane that weighs in the order of 4 kilos it really does produce a beautiful finish and while there are steel soled equivalents they don't have the same feel.  Incidentally the test of whether the iron is sharp enough, or not, is to shave hairs of your forearm, the ability to hone the iron to that sort of edge is also a measure of the quality of the steel... this one is very good. (I have a bald patch on my left arm where I got carried away.)

As to learning how to renovate boats this has involved lots of action with an angle grinder, hammer, and skill saw, none of it pretty.  However, we have succeeded in learning a great deal about removing random planks from a clinker boat.  Ironic really, as the sole focus of my life at the moment is trying to get planks onto a boat not taking them off!

Back to the 'Rose we are now something like half finished on the planking and 15 days behind schedule, I refuse to panic however.. really I refuse to panic... Mr Mannering...  There is still a great deal to do but I remain confident that we will be finished on schedule, well we will meet the finishing date the schedule went out the window several weeks ago.

Steaming the end of a plank prior to fitting

One of the complexities that has challenged us has been the tuck at the transom and the difficulty of shaping the end of the planks; it has involved considerable torturing of wood with the application of steam and large screws!  The other difficulty has been cutting the geralds at the transom to achieve a smooth transom shape that reduces the danger of snagging lines etc.  This is the problem with having a wine glass transom and planked deadwood.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be ordering the sails and trailer and starting to look seriously at the rigging, so we will be running a number of things concurrently to try and catch up.

So that brings you upto date with the current state of play and I promise to be more diligent in keeping this blog current.

Next update tuesday