Welcome to fall.

So it's time for an update. Hello to all those who we hear follow the blog from all over. Hope you all had a great summer and a beautiful fall. We are loving being able to work every day without sweltering or freezing.
We are on the 4th strake from the sheer. Whoo hoo! Now when kids ask if the vessel would float RIGHT NOW if it was in the water I can honestly tell them yes.  You can tell from the pics that she is getting that finished look to her hull. Notice the wine glass shape of the stern and the thickness of the planking as it borders the transom.

 Port side looking forward from the rudder.

 Taken from the cutting room. Notice the trunnels as yet untrimmed.

 Knightsheads. The planking is getting up there.

 Looking aft of the port side. All of the trunnels will eventually be trimmed and the whole side sanded.

Starboard side looking forward

We are going to keep working this fall until all of the planking is finished. Hopefully we'll be able to heat a small portion of the boat and do a little work this winter. We will need to coat everything with sealer and paint and then put the wooden ceiling (planking) on which should go faster than the exterior planking. We are trying to decide how to divide up the area below decks and have a few ideas. We plan to have the interior all drawn up before we put in the deck beams.

Stanchion Posts

 Warren sealing the posts with epoxy sealer.

 Looking aft

All the stanchion posts are in and sealed and cut off. We moved the interior walkways out by the sides of the ribs making everything less cluttered in the bilge. We are going to sand and paint the posts white and then drop the staging to continue planking.

Stanchion Posts

We have planked as far as we can before we move our staging planks..... so before we do that we are installing our stanchion posts which will be planked over when we continue the planking. They are looking fantastic.

They will be sealed, painted, cut off, and routered. They are made of 4 x 4 solid oak and they will support the top rail.

We will then drop our staging about 3 feet and continue with the planking. There are about 7 strakes left to do. Whoo hoo!

Visitors

What a fantastic day we had. We have many visitors come through our shop each year and we are always thankful for the wonderful people we have met while building Lena Blanche.
Today we had the Antique Tool Collectors Association come to visit.Some are not only tool collectors but boat enthusiasts as well, much to our surprise. It was a great afternoon with us showing and describing how this vessel is going together as well as a visit through the foundry and through our workshop basement where we rebuilt the engines for the Lena Blanche and built  our little skiff boat as a winter project.  These fellows (and one lady) showed themselves to be people of great knowledge and experience in so many different areas.
We demonstrated some trunnel making and then got a couple of guys to work driving them in the planking.
They surprised us with a present. They presented us with a slick that is over 100 years old. They had a leather sheath made for it and I can guarantee that the blade is razor sharp. A slick is a large chisel that is used by just pushing it through the wood, there is no mallet involved.
The weather agreed with us today and it was sunny and warm so we even got a chance to stand around outside and have a chat after the tour.I always love hearing about the grandfathers who were boat builders and about the different trades and hobbies that people pursue. It was a great opportunity to reminisce about our maritime history and different trades that you don't see very often nowadays and to hear stories that keep them alive in our memories. We also got to talk about the crafts and woodworking skills that so many of these men keep active with in their daily life.
Much thanks to them for their visit and for the slick. It will hold a place of honour in our boat shed and in our hearts.

Coupla New Pics

Since last week we have put on the gunwales, breasthook, and quarter knees. Next come rising,thwarts, after seat and forward cuddy.
We also got a plank fastened on Lena Blanche and will be  adding another today. Stay tuned for more pics in the next few days.

A Little Update

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.

Deadeyes

We've been waiting for things to set in the boat shed over the last few days and so while we've been waiting we decided to get a head start on the deadeyes for Lena Blanche. And you guessed it stripes are in fashion. You can't imagine the strange looks you get when you tell people you're making deadeyes but the rigging wouldn't be the same without them and we thought we'd make them spectacular. This is where we started with them but you'll have to wait for the finished product. They are made of black locust and angelique. Thank you, once again, to our friends from Atlantic Arbourists Ltd. for the gorgeous black locust- we are making use of every splinter.

 Glued up in long strips.

 Cut into blocks and then coarse cut in rounds and teardrop shapes.

 A closer look at an eye in the rough.

 Shaping to the line.