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.

Scuttle

When someone hollers to 'go below' we now have a way to get there- that is... after we have a deck.We have spent the last month or so working on a beautiful deck house or 'scuttle'. It is made of pine and oak with a mahogany cover and inlay work. It will go through the deck and fasten to the deck beams.

Because Warren has links with Ireland we decided to add some shamrocks to the doors of the scuttle. Here is the template we used to mark them off. You will see I had excellent assistance from our cat, Maggie. She's always around for quality control. After that I used the scroll saw to cut out the shapes, then we sanded it all and laminated oak on top of the mahogany.

We also took some time to get some oakum ready for caulking. As soon as we are able to return to the boat shed we will finish the sealing and sand the hull. Then caulking. As a note to those who roll oakum- it may be a good idea to put some protection between the oakum and your leg for rolling. Extended contact with the pine tar could cause hives on your legs. Not serious but terribly itchy.:)
We had a couple of friends come and help us one afternoon. It was a great time of story telling, laughter, and good food and we got some work done.

Until next time, we are still battling snow and snow storms here. Hopefully, by this time next month we will have blue sky and warm weather.
Happy Easter to all.

Chain Plates and Deadeye Bands

We're doing a little metal work. Just wanted to show some pics of the chain plates (before galvanizing) and the metal bands that go around the deadeyes and attach to the chain plates. In the next little while we'll be making the boom bands and bales, mast bands and goose neck, bow sprit irons and jib hanks. The old term for this was ' ironing out the vessel'.

Deadeyes and Baggy Wrinkles

We have been busy inside for the last little while. It is cold outside and we have turned to the warmth and relative comfort of the basement to get some things made that we will eventually need.
We would like to say thank you to Page Baird, a fine wood worker in his own right. He is a neighbour and dear friend, who has been lending his hand to helping with the deadeyes.
About half of them are completed and epoxied and the other half need the cut out for the irons and epoxy finish.
We have also been busy with baggy wrinkles (baggy winkles, as my kids call them) I have about 10 of those done as well. They are the anti sail chafers that wrap around the rigging on the vessel.

Lovely Gift

Happy New Year.
We have been out of the shop for a couple of weeks now with the holidays and the colder weather. We have taken to doing in house work like making chain plates and baggy winkles. We won't need either right away but eventually they will come in handy and working towards something keeps our hands from getting idle.

We had a surprise and welcome visit from two people this morning that we have come to know through the building of the Lena Blanche. They are boat enthusiasts and charming to boot. Steve Wynn and artist Al Chaddock. Al presented us with one of his original paintings of the stern of the Lena Blanche and Warren in the foreground. We are quite thankful for this  lovely gift and wanted to share it on our blog. So with Al's permission:

We plan to have it framed and put up where we, and all those who come to visit, can enjoy it. And as Al requested we will use ' the finest galvanized nails' to display it.  Such a sense of humour. Thank you so much for the beautiful painting and thank you both for the visit. We hope to see you again soon.

We wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the best of the New Year. We have had an amazing year and have so much to be thankful for. In this season we often reflect on all the things we are grateful for. We have been blessed with a home and great kids. We have welcomed new members into our extended families this year- babies and in laws. We have had good health and are still able to do the things we want (no skiing or skydiving). We are surrounded by old friends and new ones.

We have gotten quite a bit done on the vessel this year and hope that in 2015 we will make an even bigger step toward getting Lena Blanche in the water and setting sail.

All the best to you and yours.
Warren and Andrea