Brrr Are you ready for Spring?

We've had a cold one haven't we? We were shooed out of the boat shed by cold weather and car troubles. Thankfully, the car troubles have been fixed. I know far more about fixing engines than I care to AND most importantly, SPRING IS COMING. Whoohoo. This weekend we are heading back to the shed and picking up the tools to continue on with the building. When we scarf the planks for the vessel we put epoxy in the splice and epoxy will not cure in the extreme cold so we haven't taken a chance with possible future leaks.

This does not mean we have been idle. We have 2- Detroit Diesel 4-53 engines that we have been dismantling, cleaning and replacing the inner parts. Everything had to be cataloged, scraped, checked over for any wear and now we are waiting for seals and refit parts. When it all goes back we will have 2 new engines. It's all looking good.
Keep warm.

Work in progress

Christmas is a few days behind us so we're trickling back into the shop. (Trying to work off all that turkey and those chocolates we've been eating) Thought you might enjoy seeing someone sweating a little- every trunn'l brings us closer to her finish.
We've heard of quite a few people who follow the blog quietly. Thanks for following and please let us know who you are in the comments or become official "followers". I'll try to update more often.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and that the new year brings health and good times.

New pics

We're still planking. We thought you might like a couple of new pics. Sure is getting colder to be in the boatshed. Brrr with us, we'll keep on planking, we're at the tuck and head for the belly planks.

A short update

A long overdue update on the progress of the Lena Blanche. You'll notice some beautiful planks on the bench ready to be installed on the vessel.  It's been a great time of learning and perfecting what works best with this  trunn'l method.We're drilling through 2 1/2 inches of pine and another 4 - 6 inches of oak and then pounding in the black locust trunn'ls.  All you need are strong shoulders and back and a stubborn spirit. Hard to go in equals harder to get out, that's the plan. We'll be working on the planking for the next little while as long as the weather doesn't drop too far below 0. We've also drilled holes where the propeller shafts are going to exit the vessel and marked the location for the engines.
We've been enjoying visitors from all over the world over the past little while. Word has certainly gotten around about the project. It's been a busy time.

Bolts Out Trunn'ls In

So..... because of the unavailability of bolts that we need for the planking for Lena Blanche and because secretly we have wanted to plank the vessel without bolts, keeping the vessel as close to authentic building practices as possible, we have decided to use treenails (trunn'ls) to fasten the planking. What are treenails (trunn'ls), you may ask. Good question.Trunn'ls are wooden nails, as the name suggests. They are as strong or stronger than iron bolts because they become part of the hull and, as a bonus, they don't rust. Black locust and juniper (hackmatack) are what are traditionally used for trunn'ls. Those woods are very dense and non porous and they swell in the drilled hole to make an excellent fit in the hull of the boat. They will be 7/8" in diameter and various lengths depending on where they go through the hull. The red oak that we used to frame up the vessel cannot be used for trunn'ls because they ARE too porous. You can actually make a 10" dowel with red oak and then blow bubbles with it in a glass of water.
Now that you're back from blowing bubbles.......
About a week ago we put the word out that we were looking for black locust and this morning we got a call from David Lee at Atlantic Arbourists Ltd. He said he had a few black locust logs for us in Hantsport. So we jumped into our trusty ole one ton and headed in his direction. He certainly did have a few logs! Many huge, beautiful logs. We couldn't fit even half of the logs on our truck. David and his crew graciously cut them in half so that we could get some of them on the truck and then chained and cinched them. He's got a great professional bunch of guys on his crew and we are much obliged to them.

Now we will have many happy hours making trunn'ls with our new dowelling gear.

Framing Almost All Finished

View through the bow sprit port.

 Looking forward from midships. The new shelf and clamp are in.

 Looking aft from midships.

The next thing to go in will be sister keelsons. Then we'll start fairing the hull to receive planking. Whoo hoo!
Lots of hard work over the last couple of weeks.

Had a visit from Peter Allen and his lovely wife tonight (May 26) He had a beautiful gift of a fid and a marlin spike that he forged and finished himself. He did a great job of them and we certainly appreciate the workmanship involved in their making. They will be cherished and used often. Thanks, Peter.

Bilge Stringers and Clamp

So, we've been working hard for the last couple of weeks now that the weather is fit to be out in. The first pic is of the floors and keelson in the Lena Blanche The keel, floors and keelson make a great backbone for this vessel. A strong foundation to build on.
The second pic is just to show the ribs, and keelson when they're all fitted out.
In the next two pics we've finished the bilge stringers and the clamp. The shelf is the next thing to be added. She looks like a giant skiff boat- would need some giant oars to go with that row boat!
The last pic shows the stern.  You can see her tumble home.