Catterline Coastal Rowing

Week 18 – 22 Jan 2012

“Wow it’s starting to look like a boat.”, Brendan Hall, Catterline boat builder

Six people were flat out on Sunday and were very productive.  Both planks #2 were bevelled and prepared for plank 3.  The component parts of plank 4 were scarphed.  The blades on the first two oars were worked on to start getting the blades into shape. Then there was a big epoxy session with two more oars glued up and two planks glued into position (plank #3).

This week coming we have a visit from the P6/P7 class of Catterline Primary School on Friday.  They  will be put to work as well as learning about the project.

Hopefully the planks 4 can be glued together, which will allow them to be attached next Sunday.

I forgot to report last week that we had our first lost time injury.  Whilst cleaning up excess glue, a finger managed to get in the way of a chisel.  A hospital visit was not required but a plaster was. 

This week, we somehow had glue in teenager hair.  The unfortunate was spotted trying to rinse his hair with water at the tap.  When challenged, he explained his predicament and then looked very concerned, when it was pointed out that we are using water insoluble glue for this boat. The question, “So what do I do?” followed.  The response ”cut it out” had his fellow teenager in stitches.

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Week 16 – 8 Jan 2012

The battle to get plank 2 recommenced after the Christmas Break.  A slow afternoon to ensure that the planks fit perfectly, complicated by a slight error on plank 1, which means there is a slight bulge in the bow.  However this should be minimal.

Whilst the plankers were scratching their heads, the oars were started and the blades for the first two were glued to the shafts.  There will be plenty of planing to come.

Week 17 – 15 Jan 2012

The two plank # 2s (port and starboard) were glued in position on the Friday and Sunday sessions.  All the head scratching and tweaking seems to have paid off as the planks both sat easily and snugly with  the garboard (plank #1).  The process just has to be repeated for the next four planks. 

In preparation, the components of plank 3 were glued together, so plank 3 will be ready to be fitted this coming week.  Scarphing of the remaining planks will also be needed, so that we are not held up by the preparation of these planks.

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Tom Robertson and his Dad popped into the boatshed on Sunday to have a look at the boat, on their way to buy a Christmas tree. Tom was keen to see what was going on and soon found a spokeshave in his hand and was busy tidying up the end of the bow end first plank, whilst Dad was chatting. Then the stern end of the plank needed tidying. Then it was time for some doughnuts (chocolate and jam). Then the rudder blade was faired. Then… It was 5 o’clock, dark and time to go home.

The Christmas tree…

Fortunately, Dad had cut down a tree and delivered it home in the time being.

The focus of the week has been the fitting of Plank 2. To ensure it fits, the edge of Plank 1 has to be bevelled and at the bow and stern, rebates have to be planed to get a snug fit. All fiddly and time consuming. But by the end of Sunday afternoon, the port side of Plank 2 fits snugly and is ready to be glued. Next week will be the last build before Christmas.

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So what has been going on in the boatshed, with a title like that, you ask.

Well, the wood burning stove went red, not in embarrassment, but due to the amount of heat it was throwing out.  Off cuts of plywood burn well.  The Spanish lassies refers to a number of Spanish windlasses that used to the attach the second garboard (Plank #1) to the hog.

These traditional techniques proved the best way to clamp the second garboard to the hog.  For the first garboard we used 35 clamps to bond the garboard to the hog.  However attaching the second garboard was not so easy as the first garboard was now in the way and the clamps could not fit around it and on to the hog.  Hence some ingenuity was required, with wood off cuts used to apply pressure to the garboard, with ropes from each end tied to the frame.  Then the rope was twisted to tighten and pull the wood off cuts down on to the garboard.

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Another good turnout saw six planes in action simultaneously at one point on Sunday. More shavings for the Hall’s chickens.

This would not have been possible without the planes kindly lent to the project by Frank Hepburn, along with a bag of other useful tools and a portable workbench.

The two Plank number #1s were glued on Friday and one of them is now almost ready to be glued in position. The final shaping of the hog to assure a smooth curve for the bottom plank (garboard) is almost done. But it is a slow job, with lots of sucking in of breath and looking for millimetre gaps between the hog and the plank.

Stephen Hall and Chris Anstock have now sussed how to scarph and glue planks and were able to get Plank #2 prepared and glued in an afternoon.

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The gluing of the hog to the frames, bow and stern stems marks the completion of the setting up stage.  The build instructions, we are following, state that the builders should retire to a local hostelry to mark the occasion.  (Details of date at the Creel to follow)

It was also a big week on publicity with articles in the Press and Journal, the Mearns Leader and on The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association web site.

After quiet midweek sessions, Sunday saw our biggest turnout to date.  Robbie Holst brought his father-in-law, Frank Hepburn along.  Frank, a retired shipwright in Aberdeen, was soon imparting his experience and wisdom to the boat builders.  He also served a good cup of tea.

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Three new builders joined this week and there was another good turnout on Sunday.  Clare Anstock completed the marking out the rudder on Wednesday evening, Joseph Rodger and Tom Gall strengthened the teenage input with lots of planing on Sunday.  Joseph also sharpened up his great grandfather’s jack plane, which is now suspected to be the oldest tool that is being used on the project.

The gluing of the fourth stem (outer stern) was made on Friday.  Considerable energy has been put into cleaning up the four large curved laminates that we have made, which the team have spent much time admiring.  Excess wood has been removed to bring them down to the correct width.  The hog was placed on top of the moulds and it fitted snugly.  So that the first plank (garboard) fits to the hog it has to be shaped.  This involves using a tenon saw to cut into the hog to ensure the angle of the mould continues into the hog.  This provides a guide as to how much wood has to be removed from the hog. Once this had been done, Brendan, Joseph and Tom set to planing the hog, which involves a lot of wood removal.

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Momentum is building with seven people turning out on Sunday, including Brendan Hall our first youth and Gary Donaldson, from Todhead Lighthouse.  Gary brings experience of building wooden boats with the Galgeal project, a great project that helps unemployed people on Clydebank by teaching traditional boat building skills.

The bow apron (inner) stem that was laminated last week has cured and has been cleaned up.  It is a wonderfully curved piece of wood that will form the bow of the boat. 

The outer bow stem was laminated, using the bow apron stem as the mould.  The stern apron stem was also glued up.  A dry run had been done on Friday that had identified more braces were required.  The gluing process was aided by the addition of more clamps.  The hog that had been scarphed was glued to create a 25 foot piece of wood that will be the backbone of the boat.

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On Friday Nick Dawson and Robert Plummer picked up the timber supplied by MacDougall & Masson. The timber has been cut for the stems, thwarts, hog and keel.  There are also four long straight knot free planks that will become oars.  Nick and Robert also finished cleaning up the edges of the planks that had been cut out of the plywood sheets supplied as the kit.

A large turnout on Sunday saw the bracing/moulds for the stem laminations prepared.  After drawing a line from the stem pro-forma, blocks of wood were screwed into the table (do not worry its a couple of sheets of chipboard) along this line.  A dry run was done to check that the 6mm laminates could be clamped around the wood blocks.  Then the seven 7.5 feet long laminates were painted with epoxy on both sides and then clamped around the blocks to create a fantastically curved piece of wood for the bow stem.

Once clamped, epoxy oozed out of the joins, which was scrapped off to reduce the later effort of planing hardened glue off.

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Tim Leitch joined the crew to lift the  number of people who have worked on the boat to 8.  So far over 70 hours have been given to the project.  The estimate build time is 600 - 800 hours, which means the first 10% has been done.  

All 36 planks have been cut out of the plywood sheets.  The task of planing off the tabs that held the planks to the sheets has been done on most of the planks. These 8 foot planks then need to be joined (scarphed) together to create the twenty+ foot planks that go onto the boat

The first scarph to join the planks was prepared.  This requires marking off 6 cm on the ends of the two adjoining planks.  One plank is flipped over and then placed on top of the first plank.  The end of the top plank is then aligned with the 6 cm line of the bottom plank. The two planks are then clamped to the table and the ends are planed down to provide identical scarphs on the two ends.  The top plank is then flipped back over and aligned with the lower one.  The first scarph was discovered not to fit perfectly, but a little more planing will get it right.

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