Is that the time!

Once again the time bandits have got the better of me! I can't believe how this year is flying past. April already, at this rate we'll never get the boat to Barton Turf by late may, well not sailing at any rate.

There has been an awful lot going on, and even some boat building!

I made a list the other night , bad idea.

So the C/B case is in.
The floors are glued down.
The rubbing strips are on.
The inwales are under construction as I write this.
The outwales are made , - sort of - , will need some dressing.

The main thing I've been doing is making the thwarts which has turned into a major exercise.....

First you cut some lathes. and put them on your "work bench " an old bit of MDF covered in Ordnance Survey packing tape.
Bend these round the three blocks with plenty of Epoxy.

Use lots of clamps but be careful not to squeeze all the glue out.

Once the epoxy has set and you have scraped off all the excess repeat the process another three times.

Make some spacers and then glue the whole shebang together.
The one above is straight, its actually the forward thwart.
The one below is a side bench for the stern sheets.  

You'll need two of these and a bit across the middle.

Altogether between the forward and central thwart and the three piece sternsheets your looking at about 90 laths.
 None of this is required in the plans which specify nice wide bits of Mahogany and would have been much easier. Since the design was drawn up in the late 80's we have all become a bit more environmentally sensitive so I decided to use Sweet Chestnut which is sourced locally.

The Sweet Chestnut being a creative and individual type likes to grow in all sorts of directions and straight wide planks are hard to find so I used 8" planks which are finger jointed along their length.
Some purists will scoff and tut but I make no apologies for this, I'm still feeling guilty about the ply which has more "miles" than a lunar module.

The lack of width and a stubborn inclination to do my own thing led to a bit of lamination which in turn lead to relatively simple job taking all of three weeks and its not finished yet.

Next time childers, fitting gunwales............