Welcome back. Come on spring!It's been a cold winter and we haven't spent a lot of time in the boat shed. We have missed Lena Blanche over the winter but we visit and give her a pat along the hull and let her know that spring IS coming. We have shimmed out a couple of her frames along the stern and will be planing them out to receive the new planks in the coming weeks. Over the weekend it was warm (?) enough to get in and carve out and place a new plank and the one for the other side is ready to go in place too- after we get this next storm over with. Our goal is to have the exterior planking finished by July and have the stanchion posts in too.
We have not been idle though. We built a 16' lapstrake skiff in the basement during late Feb and early March. We are now waiting for a wood sealer for the hull so we can place the ribs in this little beauty. She is all pine planked with the stem, stern, transom and keel all oak. This type of skiff is excellent to row and takes a motor as well. They can also be adapted to sail.
We have also been making knees for Lena Blanche and for the little skiff. Knees are angled wood with a continuous grain- no cross grain. They are used for bracing deck beams, gunwales, floors etc as a gusset. A natural grown knee would be the root of a tree and the wood as it turns up the trunk- usually of hackmatack or spruce. The laminated knees are steamed wood bent in a jig. They are equally as strong. The ones we laminated are of 3"oak. The knees pictured are for the Lena Blanche. The grown one next to it are some we purchased and are typically used in dory building.
So that's what we've been up to. We are looking forward to the warmer weather and being back to great days down in the shop.Thank you to all of you who have visited or called or emailed over the winter to find out about the progress on the vessel. We hope to hear from you in the near future.
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