grendel

no pictures as there isnt a lot to see, but the rubbing strakes and a lot of the rest of the timber has today recieved its first coat, 25% varnish, 75% turps, both sides have been done, and its drying really fast in this heat. the front cabin battens have had the white removed and received their varnish, and the decks and top rail have received a coat too. the cockpit interior was also given a once over.

laser treatment effectively corrects for one lens of the glasses, which would probably be the distance, leaving me with 2 pairs, add to that the fact that every two years my prescription changes, two years down the line i would probably be back to square 1 with 3 pairs. every two years my reading glasses tend to become my vdu glasses and i get new distance and reading glasses. maybe once i stop working and staring at a computer all day, things will settle down.

for me its always the ride of the valkeries.

I have been to decent opticians, and taken examples of what i need to be able to focus on at one time, basically drawings with a lot of vertical lines, close together, and they have agreed varifocals or even bifocals are out, when i need to be able to see the top and bottoms of vertical lines two foot long, and distinguish between them at all points, you just cant wear varifocals as the lines go out of alignment and when i look from top to bottom i could end up skipping sideways be several lines, which in my job is a serious no no, thus three pairs of glasses. i am also awkward as i have one lazy eye and also need rotation of the axis of the spectacle lenses for the other

this is something i have difficulty with, mainly due to wearing glasses, i have 3 pairs, distance, vdu and reading, and i am constantly changing between them, now i hear you all say varifocals, but really for the work i do they would be worse than useless. the majority of my work is transferring data from drawings to screen, to do this properly i need to see all of the drawing and the full height of the screen, varifocals dont give me a big enough area of view. but that said, i am constantly swapping between glasses, handling them and transferring from my hands to my face. hand washing yes sanitising gel only when i cant wash my hands, antibac wipes all the time. but i guess this puts me at greater risk, as does having a beard as face masks dont fit properly. so i am very careful to maintain social distance when out and about (once a week shopping).

Actually it keeps me fit, (a good looking instructor is also a bonus and keeps me motivated) plus its hilarious when a bee flies in and sits on the end of her Yoga mat

under certain limited circumstances a test run is not needed, take me as an example, i am returning to a yard that knows me, i have had several of their boats before and i am solo helming, i have had this particular boat only last year, so no trial run will be necessary as i know the boat, I have nobody else aboard with me so the risk is for one person, myself. The risk as Andy says is if i bring the virus to the area, or pick it up in the area and take it home to an area that may not have a great deal of cases at present. Passage through potter heigham bridge could be achieved by the yard member wearing gloves and a mask, and me waiting in the rear well deck while passage was undertaken. not impossible under the circumstances. but i am not the typical case, most hires will not be solo, most will need a handover. so that and cleaning boats between hires will be the main issue.

One thing i have learned is that despite no contact, with a little constructive thought and technology, group activities can continue. i am still regularly managing to do yoga, in fact my next session is in just over an hour. Despite what you are told when you ask to work from home, it is quite possible, and makes life outside work easier, by allowing more time to get things done.

of course not Tim, I think technically you are allowed to start at 8am for things like jackhammers on building sites but not on sundays (for building sites) I generally deem 8am acceptable, as i will normally have been awake several hours by then, especially when the neighbours have been up past midnight with a barbecue / fire chatting noisily. (actually in those circumstances i sometimes consider 5am acceptable

I think Tim has had his fair share of yacht club commodores that think they know the regulations but dont.

basically every boater would i am sure at least stop to find out what was needed if they saw another in distress, just last year i stopped and took an inflatable under tow when its engine had died on it, I spotted them waving and went over to see what i could do now as you probably know, most hire yards say that hire boats should not tow others, but as this was an emergency and this boat was stuck with a dead motor miles from anywhere i took them in tow, taking 2 of the occupants on board (the two non swimmers) and towed them the couple of miles to the wavney river centre. when i mentioned this to the yard on my return, far from being upset they thanked me for assisting someone in distress. And in my experience most other boaters are the same, they will render assistance where possible, or at the very least make the call for that assistance. thus my question whether you had notified the broads authority and obtained their consent before starting your campaign, as others have pointed out the Broads is pretty well covered for emergency rescue already. i know when we arrange our forum meets we generally try and get representatives along from the broads authority and the RNLI or the Hemsby team along to give safety chats and instruction, last year it was practicing with the throwing bags to see how far we could throw them, all good practice.

quite often the hire yards have a few for sale at the end of season, other than that keep your eyes open on the various brokerages around the area. I presume you are thinking of the fibreglass hulled boats, all at a single level, quite often with a forward well deck and a shape reminiscent of a bath tub.

just one thought occurs to me @CliveEdwards, does this scheme have the cognisance and approval of @BroadsAuthority? as they are the authority responsible for the broads?

smarden has a lewd lane (and that may be the cleaned up version)

I do use axminster a lot but these are lumber jack brand , until I find the sizes and patterns I use most, I will refrain from a spending splurge at axminster, I got 2 sets for the same price as a couple of cutters from axminster. my problem is visiting axminster to spend £50 and £300 later I come out with a car full of essentials. I do get all my bandsaw blades there, as the quality is good for those.

I dd once manage a complete fence on the roof, 4x4 posts and 16 foot 6x3/4 boards plus 16 foot 4x2's pressure treated timber, enough for 20 foot of fence, i use a couple of 4x2's to span the roof rack, these actually live in the back of the car, just in case.

easy, they came home on the roof, they span the roof bars perfectly, and then just get strapped down carefully. I can fit the 4 fooy span inside, but that brings the end of the 8 foot above the drivers seat headrest, which stops me getting in and being able to look forward, if i cut a 2 foot square out of one end they would fit perfectly around me.

Ah, yes router bits, my makita router arrived in its big blue box, and I have found I have no small roundover bits, so I ordered an assorted set up to 1/2", I do love this router though, its a lot easier to control than its bigger versions, and being the cordless one can be used anywhere.

the lad next door (in his 20's but mentally challanged) stops my daughter going into our back garden as he hangs out of his window staring and occasionally adds a wolf whistle for good measure, I was working in th front garden resizing some plywood so I could get it through the front door, and his idea of social distancing was to come up to the fence and talk to me from the width of the wheelie bin away. we once got accused of wolf whistling at the students next door, when I asked which room it had come from I was told the front bedroom, - my daughters room, I had to point out to the landlord that she would not be doing that, and that the culprit was probably the lad next door.

Tim, i can see the perfect clamp for holding those sides in place (as long as it can open far enough) in the background of your shots.

Well today went totally differently to how i was expecting, a request from my daughter to help fix her bed as some of the slats had cracked and it was sagging, lead me to heading to B&Q after i finished working at 3pm. if there is one thing i can say about canterbury, people here are very polite and good at queuing at the correct spacing, and inside it was as good, I made my way to the sheet timber section and purchased two sheets of 3/4" hardwood plywood (ouch my wallet felt like it had been robbed) once i got it home and with the back garden still full of rubbish bags awaiting an opportunity to book a once in 4 week slot, it had to come in via the front , so I got my cordless circular saw and planer and cut the pieces to length, one for her bed, and one for mine to replace the piece of 1/2" ply thats been there a while and isnt really big enough, then i chamfered the edges with my cordless plane, after which it was fit to come indoors, the offcuts to head for my workshop, and the sheets to head upstairs (once she has sorted out to be able to get there to fit it. I did my bed no problem and have now gained a 4 foot by 3 foot piece of half inch ply back, and have now tamed the springs on the bed frame section so we are half way there, the big problem was that she measured the width of her bed at five feet and a half, but neglected to say if that was a half inch or half foot, no matter the wood got cut down to 5 1/2 foot, if needs it can have 5 1/2" cut off. all this reinforcement works has been necessary due to her habit of walking across her bed, (not a sound move for someone overweight on a wood slat bed) and for the fact i have been using the edge of my bed as a chair while working from home. so despite personal accounts i have seen from around the country, about how bad things are in b&Q, i didnt find it a problem, in fact a member of staff correctly socially distancing himself helped me move the 8x4 sheets of ply onto my trolly by taking the other end, 8 foot away from me.

I still hire them, from Marthams, lovely old girls, there are still a few old wooden boats for hire

in the room, bearing in mind social distancing on the worksite.

I will join the silent majority of football haters, a lot of grown men kicking a ball around and paid ludicrous sums to do so. so that just means that since I dont watch the news and i dont watch sport, the TV will just be on talking pictures, or more usually nowadays youtube watching interesting stuff such as shipbuilding, or as I have recently found a wheelwright whos talents range from woodwork, metalwork and sewing the canopies for wagons and buggys.

they will probably add to that the phrase providing social distancing is maintained at all times.