Fantastic Day

What a fantastic day we had. The last couple of weeks we have been planing and sanding the hull of the vessel, a huge job. Now it is rounded off and looking much more like the ocean princess/work boat/home away from home that it is or will be when it's finished. The result besides a beautiful hull was about 1/2" of dust on everything in the shop.  So, for the last few days we have been sweeping, moving stuff, sweeping again and vacuuming floors, walls, windows, the hull, the walkways and the shelf. It was a huge job. All this not only because it really needs to be done before we can start the caulking of the vessel but because we had the Antique Tool Association coming to visit today. They have an annual meeting around this time every year and last year they asked if their after trip could be to our boatyard. We said,  of course. Quite a few of them showed up and if you look back over the blog you will see the beautiful slick that they presented us with at the time. We were delighted when Art Keeble called us earlier this year and asked us if they could, again, come and visit the shop and check on the progress of the vessel. Back by popular demand, he  said. Some of the guys didn't get a chance to visit last year and some of them went home and told a friend and so today around 30 of the men and women of the association came and spent the afternoon with us. Folks from all over Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, from all trades and walks of life. We even had a fine little fellow of 8 years old who I can see as a budding shipwright. Our boat shop was certainly a hive of activity and chatter as questions were asked and answered all around. It is always amazing to find out who has ship building or sailing in their family heritage or who has been a part of that way of life themselves.
This year we were presented with a grappling hook and rope from the Association, for which we are very thankful. It is used to recover lost lines or chains overboard or to fling over the capstan of the wharf to catch yourself from drifting away when there's no one there to catch your line. As a permanent part of our deck equipment it will accompany us on many a voyage. One of the members (Ralph Milton)also donated a lipped adze with a fully offset handle to our collection of shipwright tools. They are a pleasure to use, thank you so much.
Have a look at the fine crew we had today and their beautiful gifts.

Professional Design Input

Last weekend we had a visit from Emanuel Jannasch  and Dean Dumaresq. Emanuel is an Architectual Professor and Dean is a student finishing his Master's degree, both from the Dalhousie School of Architecture. You may remember that last fall we invited the students in that program to use our vessel as a project. They came to our shop and measured the vessel up and down, backwards, forwards and inside out. From these measurements they produced a model representing the usable space of the inside of the vessel and Dean produced a set of interior designs for the vessel itself. It is remarkable to see what the inside of our vessel could look like. This vessel is not a blueprint from someone else's design so the inside was also up for grabs, as it were. It was amazing to see the berths and galley and focs'le, even good to know that a head or two would fit into such a compact area. It is easy to see that Dean is quite capable in both traditional architecture and could lend a very competent hand at naval architecture as well. We are extremely thankful to Emanuel and all the students who took on this project. You did a wonderful job.