AndyTBoater

Not entirely sure it was all the fault of the Stalhamites. The farmer who owns the field on the other side of the road from Tesco/ McCarthy Stone refused to sell the land. Many discussions were had with him by Stalham Town Council, Tesco, North Norfolk District Council and the planning department. He steadfastly refused to budge on his position.

Mrs Lovejoy just bought me some special cheese that lights up and sparkles at night. It's called Blackpool Hallouminations.

I got a 6ft telescopic that worked well for me. An old boy told me to use licorice for bait. I tried it and its great. I caught Allsorts.

Glued to the quayside is definite possibility. I am aware that JA has sold tickets for the launch/ sinking event already. I am also aware that the sweepstake related to how long it will float is (like their expectations for Tinker) filling up fast. I shall put my 50p on it never sinking I am still enough of sound mind to think that if it doesn't go in the water it cant sink.

It's an android but will try it yet other way up and see. Thanks.

Right. This thing where this pics automatic all go all upside downy on me has tested my patience long enough. I have tried all sorts but nothing seems to work. I think I (and you) should learn to live with it. If it offends your right way up world view then apologies but thats life. Progress (or lack of it) update Tinkers Log (book) 30/11/2021 Today was the day to bend 7 bits of 50x6mm Douglas Fir around the stem mould to make the inner stem I (and by that I mean JA and Kingfisher Robin) had tried with minimal success to bend all of this dry. In the end this wasn’t ever going to work so we had to break out the big guns. Dave’s glorious Steamer. Loaded up with a kettle of boiling water this was set running. 7 bits of wood (6 plus one for the pot) were lowered gently into the end which was stuffed with a rag to keep the steam in. After cooking for 30 minutes at Gas Mark Something the soft and pliable strips were withdrawn and clamped/ bent/ forced into shape around the mould. It actually went quite smoothly. It did take five of us to wrestle the strips into position. This may have been because everyone there was feeling helpful or the fact that the shop was very cold and the steamer/ wood combination gave a bit of much needed heat. I like to think it was the former but am willing to concede it was the latter. All strips bent beautifully and were moved away to cool and dry a bit. Next task was the jointing of the 2 planks that would form the transom. Planed flat, edge planed and biscuit jointed these were epoxied together and clamped firmly before being set aside to harden. With the temperature being a little cold this could take up to a couple of days to set. Whilst the transom was being prepared the bent strips had cooled and were released from the mould to be readied for their go at being epoxied. I covered the mould in cling film so that only the bits that I wanted to would be stuck together and went into epoxy mode. This was a lot harder than expected. Well a lot harder that I expected. I fought for ages to get all the bits coated on both sides and in place on the mould. The strips though, had other ideas and began to flail about uncontrollably. No sooner had I got 2 sticky bits together any attempt to line up the third was met with what I can only assume was a new form of wood based electro magnetic repulsion. The little devils would not stay where I put them and very soon I was losing the battle to keep them together, or even on the same work service. It looked like a speeded up Kung Fu film with 7 Samurai sword shaped bits of timber thrashing wildly in a veritable whirlwind of glue, wood and G Clamps. Luckily no photos of this exist so lets just keep that to ourselves shall we? In the end, the situation was only saved by a fellow boater who clearly felt pity for me and offered help. Luckily her assistance must have guilt tripped all those watching into helping as well. Some minutes later and all was clamped up and in shape. I, on the other hand was covered in slow drying epoxy. As were the clamps and mould and workbench. I even managed to epoxy my arm to the inside of my coat sleeve. No Idea how that happened or that it was even possible. With a triumphant air (and a slightly smug look on my face) I declared the job over until the thing had hardened and I could remove it from the mould to shape. This was when JA pointed out that all the cling film I had carefully wrapped around the mould to stop everything sticking to bits it wasn’t supposed to was in a gooey mess on the floor. It does look like I have very likely glued the bent bits to the former. If this is indeed the case Tinker may have a new addition in the shape of an MDF mould. I shall call it a feature and that will be the end of it. Late breaking news is that the cedar strips are being delivered here on Thursday. All is well now. That concludes this update and I shall now attempt to release my arm from the sleeve of my jacket before banging my head on a wall and crying myself to sleep. P.S. Not wishing to re open the argument with regards to pencils I was clearly told, on more than one occasion and by more than one person (you know who you are you rotters) that 2H are the way to go. I ordered and Amazon duly delivered and today I find out that 2H are so last year. 3H are de rigueur. And have been for quite a while.

If you put a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same boat, which would win?

Off working now until Wednesday but before I left my transom wood arrived. 2 bits of 11"x15ftx1" Utile. No pictures as it just looks like wood. I know that's a lot for one transom but 1. I will probably mess it up and have got enough for a spare un messed up transom 2. There is enough to do the thwarts, knees and outer keel/skeg. 3. Lovejoy needs something pretty for the helm position and maybe a new helm seat. All moulds are now cleaned, polished, cut for the hog and ready to fit now. I have one day next week for this and then Lovejoy goes to Robins for new decks and stuff so I shall be working on that until the end of February. And January/February are my very busy times at work so who knows how much I will actually get done on either of them. It's all go here. Ps. Replacement square and a bucket of pencils have also arrived. Onward and upwards

Not my fault. Some bigger boys started it and then ran away. The absolute horrors.

I`ll have you know I went on a pencil users training course. And I did a 1 hour boat building course at IBTC. I am almost a pro.

I know. Its put me back 2 or 3 weeks at least. I do have a bucket load of sharpeners for when I find out which are the correct pencils 2B, 2h, 4h, HB, 2beornot2be? Square, rectangular. round, octagon, six-sided-agon? And as for colours and whether an eraser should or not be included. Its a minefield.

Yeah. This one hasn't. It actually wasn't a cheap one so will be going back.

Just wondering if anyone wants to buy an 88 degree plate square? Bought it from Amazon and it arrived yesterday. Was measuring stuff earlier and noticed that the plans are exactly at 90 degrees to my square. So far so good Went to re mark a line on one of the moulds and it didn't exactly line up with the square. . Checked the square and its a couple of mm out over 600mm. Which means that if it shows square to the plans - the plans are not square. A bit of 3 4,5ing and both the plans AND the square are out in opposite directions. For fluffs sake. You spend £4.99 on a precision tool and it's not that precise. Who knew? Anyway. Just a case of remarking all the centreline and then rechecking that all the frames are symmetrical. Andy

Today I did a couple of hours on it and managed to get the moulds/ stations cut and shaped. Apparently moulds are moulds until they go on the jig when they become stations. They all fit and a quick, rough test showed that they produce a reasonably fair line. There is still a lot of fettling to do to get them shaped correctly and to ensure the centrelines and datum are good. I still have the transom to cut as this will act as the last station. Just need to source some nice wood. It suggests 12mm ply with a veneer attached but I think a solid piece of wood is the way to go. The stem former is cut but the other moulds need to be fixed and done before I work out where this goes exactly. And I need to form the stem around the stem former. Douglas Fir is ordered and should be here in a few days. By that time I am hoping to get the moulds attached and lined up so I can fit the hog. This will involve trimming and fairing the moulds, working out how much of the mould I need to trim away around the centreline to let the hog sit at the correct depth. The plan only shows that "you should cut away enough" for this to fit correctly. I love precise measurements on drawings. And it needs bevelling at every station to ensure the hull planking fits fair. In other news, the jig that I built instead of using the one the designer designed has thrown up an issue. Just a minor one though. Because I have built it to line the datum up with the top of the frame the jig now gets in the way of the curve between mould 7 and 8. (the bit at the pointy end.) To solve this I have had to cut the jig down by 9 inches and rebuild it but `tis but a mere inconvenience. All sorted now though. and without resorting to the big hammer sitting there. For clarity, the hammer is there to weigh down the spline I used to help transfer the shape from the plans to plywood. It is there in reserve though. Just in case. Statistical Update Fingers lost - 0 Jigsaw blades broken - Also 0 Plywood cut incorrectly - 0 Other wood (jig not included) cut sort - 0 Andy T Boatbuilder

So all is proceeding nicely. I have worked again today and haven't sworn, lost any fingers, melted or set light to anything. I have built the base frame and jig paying no attention to the suggestions on the plans. I may come to regret this but hey ho. It sits on the floor and is able to slide across the floor so I can work on both sides. It is pretty level at the moment but I will be marking the spots on the floor where it will sit in both positions and sort of ensure it goes back to level when I go from working on the left or right side. Please note it is not yet a boat so I will definitely be referring to it as left and right for the moment. Also, because I am NOT America I shall be referring to the moulds as "moulds" and not "molds" as those pesky yanks do. What is it with them and the letter "U" I have also cut the first 3 moulds and the inner stem mould. Rather than balance each side on wobbly uprights so all the Datum lines are level as the plan shows they should be, I have decided that the top of the jig will be the level datum. All the moulds will be slotted over the jig so that the datum sits level. Like this The first 3 moulds sit at quite a nice working height (i.e. sitting height) and should allow me to do the whole thing without resorting to step ladders or boxes to stand on. All the centre lines line up as well so I am quite happy so far. There isn't much room as you can see but when the ply is cut and made into moulds and a few bits are taken to the dump it should be fine, if a little snug. The centre mould is pretty much the final width of the boat. I have started to source the Douglas Fir for the inner stem and hog bits (look at me using fancy nautical terms like "hog") JA and Kingfisher Robin has said they will strip this down to size and help me glue it together. Not only am I not allowed to use the big scary woodwork tools but JA thinks I will struggle with glue as well :) He may be correct in all honesty. More updates etc. etc.

Are you not aware of the Leap Fortnight coming up in 2022?

Me too. In a previous life I used to design and build offshore cranes and stuff like that. Metal is so much more forgiving and there aren't many gaps that can't be filled by welding :) if only someone would invent a wooden welding rod that could fill gaps in badly cut joints. If there were one I would call it the Splintex 2000.

Evening. I hope this is in the correct place - I couldn't find a build section so as I am "restoring" old wood into something resembling a boat I thought here was as good as anywhere. After much deliberation, thought, consideration, reflection, rumination, contemplation and cogitation I have finally decided to build my first full size boat. When I say full size, its only 10ft long by 5ft wide but as the space I have to build it in is only 12x7 its about as full size as it gets really. Its this. An Inishmore 10 Cedar strip planked sailing/ rowing thing. I shall call her "Tinker" after Lovejoy`s mate. Or maybe something else. I dont know. Its almost certainly something I will start, get frustrated and angry with and eventually burn in a fit of rage but I am going to give it a go. How hard can it be??? Its just some wood and wood floats anyway - right? So I have ordered the Cedar and the wood for the build jig which I started this afternoon. Its going to be a slow process but the plan is to have it ready for end of August for the boat rally. I am also a firm believer in the adage that a plan is only there to show you how far you have deviated from the plan so we shall see. I have already changed the suggested build jig to something I think will work better and be easier to set up. Obviously the marine architect who designed the boat and drew it all out and lofted full size frames isn't as clever as me so there may be many changes. This is the first bit I cut for the build jig so its going well so far. I still have all my fingers and nothing has broken yet. I do plan to keep this build log going but what with work and Lovejoy refurb and other stuff updates (as well as actual progress) may be few and far between. Also, I do realise the plans are upside down but this is because I plan to build it suspended from the garage ceiling. And also because the pic wont turn up the right way whatever I do. Wish me luck

Another vote for Robin. Time served ships joiner and owner of one of the best maintained and looked after boats (apart from mine obviously) on the Broads Definitely recommend his work.

Yep. Around 1955ish apparently.

News update. I have been told today that there was a thin (about 1 inch wide) copper strip that ran around the whole pond and where required across the bottom to connect the islands to the main strip. I may be closer to the answer now. But always open to new information.

Was (and still is) a painted concrete floor. The trailing bar over a mesh floor could work.

Nope. Definitely fresh water.

Should I pitch this to BA and EA as an idea for more environmentally friendly boating? Sort of more seriously can anyone explain how these work? I was chatting about this with JA today. Electric boats need a circuit to run. The positive and negative can't come from the same overhead wire supply or it would just short out. So where did they pick up the negative/ return/ earth from? It has been suggested that it just returns through the water but even by 1955 standards this sounds like a less than ideal solution. The boats were there until at least the early 70`s and possibly very early 80`s.

Is stone cladding a viable alternative to varnish? No more rubbing down and waiting to find the right day/temperature/humidity levels. I feel a new business idea forming. Also I will be producing nautical mudweight cosies. Hand knitted, personalised with boat names and keeps the heat in. Andy