Spring..?

It seems spring might be finally here, most of the snow is gone and we are above zero (celsius) both day and night (still ice on the water though). So I unwrapped the boat today.

My daughters playing pirates

Did some odd jobs, mounted the oarlocks, fitted the rowing seat, foot brace and finally mocked up the push-pull stick.

Oarlock. Yes, they are high, I am tall and if they are too high I can always cut them down a little.

Marked where the seat reinforcements will go.

Had to modify the foot brace quite a lot to make it fit.

Testing a piece of oak to see if it is useful as a push-pull stick, and yes I think it will be.

Lets hope te weather stay so we can see some progress.

Time today: 1 h

Rudder gear

It has been a really long time.... hopefully I  will update more frequently now that the weather is getting better. It is still below zero at night (celsius) and a few degrees above during the day.

Tried to adjust the rudder gear today, after fitting it last year I found I could not put the rudder back on the boat. The pintles and gudgeons are such a fine fit that just a few degrees off make it impossible to put the rudder in place so today I tried to refit it......

Pintles in place

Rudder stock nailed in place

All done!

Time today: 30 min

Boat show

Went to the boat show in Stockholm today and as can be expected it was mainly plastic, electronics, engines and clothes. But I managed to find some wooden boats, one under repair below.

I also found a guy who sold woodworking tools, mainly from Anant and Kunz. Spent some time in his booth and ended up buying a Kunz Spokeshave No.53.

I got a good price and it is a really clever spokeshave. Instead of moving the blade up and down to adjust the cut depth it has an adjustable mouth so that you very easily can fine tune cut depth.

Cleats done

Finished the sanding of the cleats today (in the picture one is not done yet).

So now it is time to start thinking about:
- Oars
- Masts
- Adjusting the centreboard case (it is too high)
- Fine tuning the rudder pintles
- etc etc

Just need some warmer weather......

Cleats IV

Continued with the cleats, again as I do not have a good wise I had to get a little creative and screwed the cleats onto a piece of wood (again).

Preparing for work (yes, it is my kitchen table, it is -16C outside so the basement is just above freezing)

Screws in place

Ready to start shaping

Plan shape done

Time today: another measly half hour

Cleats III

Looks like the "cleats" series of posts will be a long one, not very much progress for each installment.

I do not own a good wise so I screwed the cleats to a plank so that I could make the long cuts,

In progress

Cutting done

Next it is time for spokeshave, rasp and sandpaper.

Time today: 30 min

Roller stands

Spent some time today to assemble my Christmas gift from the "workshop" Santa.

Roller stands

They will come handy when it is time to cut the birds mouths for the masts staves.