Wednesday Afternoon and All's Well

While I finished and fitted the fore stamerung (that's the cant frame at the bow) Mattis fired up the steam box to get the oak gunwales to behave, which they did, beautifully after 40 minutes at 100 degrees. By the end of the day he had the gunwales dry fitted, which means by tomorrow we can make a start on the rest of the frames and I will finish off the rudder which can be seen in the background.

The jobs are getting ticked off pretty fast now and it'll soon be time to flip her over, maybe at the weekend when Mattis will fit the sternpost (I've already ftted my stempost, which was a fiddle to say the least).

In effect we have made a conventional rabbet, but using an outer laminated stem and sternpost which are retrofitted to the aprons. Not sure we'd do it like this again, but rather cut a conventional rabbet in a solid stem/stern. The two part laminated apron/stem has its advantages. This hybrid needs more thought.

Sails arrive next week, and spars, so it's full on to finish her by the time the owner arrives on the 23rd to supervise and help the fitting out and trial sail.