I finished fashioning my oar on the 4th, and started varnishing it last week. Frustratingly, despite having a supposedly dust-free dedicated varnishing room, dust has managed to get onto the wet varnish, so I shall need to sand it down tomorrow before adding more coats. The aim is to get 6-8 coats on, and to create a finish like a sucked lozenge!

Our latest project is to make a mast for the one-design Victory boats, that are based in Portsmouth. We each had a plank of Sitka Spruce, and had to ‘face and edge’ it prior to machining them to the required thickness. Getting a 20ft plank really flat, and the edge square and true was a two day effort.

After this, we scarfed one end so we can join two planks together, making a 40ft length.

We levelled several trestles, and, on Friday, we did a practice run and then glued up the scarf joints.

Tomorrow, we will have to unclamp, clean up, and glue the 40 ft planks together. Then, we will make it square and start the process of shaping the mast. It will be tapered and have a slightly oval cross-section, which needs to be carefully measured and planed, in order to meet the strict specifications of the class rules for these Victory boats.

Like making oars, spar building is one of those really satisfying, almost sculptural, parts of boatbuilding. Clinker boatbuilding is another example … now there’s an idea!

I had two visitors this week, both ex-patients. Paul’s unannounced visit on Thursday was a pleasant surprise. I showed him around the shop floor, pointing out the projects I had completed, and showing him the various boats under restoration and construction. Richard’s visit on Friday was pre-arranged, and it was great to show my wood-turning mentor around, and to chat over lunch. It is lovely to catch up with people for whom I have been their family doctor over many years – a link to what now feels very much a past life. I do miss those long-term Dr-patient relationships, though I don’t hanker for a return to mainstream General Practice. Instead, on Mondays, I do a short evening surgery at the local Practice – not my old Practice – and enjoy seeing half a dozen patients. It’s ideal for me, not having the hassle of routine practice – just the patients and the medicine. And, it allows me to do my Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act work as a still-practising GP.

The week finished with further steps completed in my oar making project. Using the bollow plane I made in the joinery course, and a couple of other bollow planes, I scalloped out the blade.

With the spar gauge I had also made in the joinery course, I marked out and then planed the corners of the loom (shaft of the oar), Turing it from a four-sided piece of wood to an eight sided piece.

Then, I used a spokeshave to shape the back of the blade.

At close of play, I had started the process of melding blade to loom. This is going to be a tricky bit of sculpture. The loom is oval in cross-section as it meets the blade, and I need to get the edges of the blade to flow fairly into the loom .

The joy of doing this is tempered by the fear of making a mistake … take care, Stuart, don’t rush … just a little at a time!

On Tuesday 17th September, Boathouse 4 emptied as the College’s students went with one of the Instructors to the Southampton Boatshow. There were a few wooden boats, too few one might say, but one wooden ship made up for this, and was the highlight of the show.

The Frigate Shtandart is a reproduction of Tsar Peter the Great’s flagship of 300 years ago. Built over a six year period, with enthusiasm and volunteer labour, and no professional expertise, she is a remarkable vessel. The hyperlink takes you to the account of her build.

She is used for sail training and in films (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean), and carries seven fully-working canons. One of the students is a Captain on Sail Training ships, and he arranged for us to have a personal tour of the ship with Vlad, her chief builder and Captain.

His next project is to build a replica of the Cutty Sark, and use her for commercial cargo carrying as well as sail training!

Two days later, and we had another personalised ship’s tour, this time of our next-door neighbour, HMS Warrior.

The stern of Warrior has been enclosed in scaffolding and ‘shrink wrap since January. Her rounded aft end has a wooden embellishment, designed to make her look more the part of a traditional warship.

We were taken into that scaffolding-clad area, to look at the work being done, and hear how the Royal Navy Museum shipwrights are having to solve the problems arising from earlier restorations and rebuild the structure without plans. There is a fascinating mix of traditional and modern materials being used, but underlying this is the use of traditional skills – skills learnt in Boathouse 4 by many of those involved.

Our two week painting and varnishing module finished on Friday. OK, there is still some caulking to be done, and antifouling to be applied, but here she is, looking nice and shiny:

A lot of work, but a very pleasing result. Now I know how to paint as well as piss!

Last week, on Monday, we had a rare event in Boathouse 4 – the launch of a fully-refurbished boat.

Chubby has had a near complete rebuild, over the last few years. Two weeks ago, the owner brought in an old pair of oars, she wished to use with the boat.

These oars are old, and rather rough – let’s say, full of character.

I gave them a gentle rub-down and a few coats of varnish, and on the day of the launch, I set to to finish them off. One of the leather covers for the looms, which I had prepared, had been fitted over the weekend by one of our instructors, so I had the other to fit, and the copper bands to replace.

The leather covers are cut to size – here more difficult because the loom diameter was so irregular – then soaked to soften them, and sewn in place. As they dry, they shrink tight.

This week, having completed our painting and varnishing module, we are moving on to oars and spars. Our first task is to make an oar. We are using hemlock, which is light and has a fine grain. It’s really nice to be using chisels, planes and spokeshaves again!

Some say: “If you can piss, you can paint.” Of course, this is true in one sense: anyone can slap on a coat of paint. On the other hand – as with any activity – skill is required to achieve speed and the best results. And so we are finding!

Our progress on Westerman has been slower than expected. Our plan to complete the re-painting and varnishing in two weeks by Friday was always very optimistic. The decision to apply extra coats of undercoat, and the high humidity (over 80% some days) preventing us doing two coats a day, blew our plan out of the water.

We have caulked and payed some of the garboard seam (where the hull meets the keel), so the topsides are fully ready to paint, and have now had plenty of practice in applying paint … on with a roller and, always maintaining a “wet edge,” “tipping off” with a brush. This gives the best finish. Varnishing requires a cross-hatching method of application and again, maintaining that “wet edge,” so the all-important “tipping off” leaves no dragging brush marks.

We have also been preparing the spars – rubbing down, and applying new coats of varnish.

We needed to re-mark the boot-top. Most boats have a painted boot-top (stripe) around the waterline of antifouling in a different colour. Not just a simple bit of decoration, it can help to prevent fouling around the waterline by allowing antifouling to be painted higher up the topsides. The old boot top was too irregular to be simply reproduced, so we had to start afresh. There are at least two methods. The traditional method is to set up wooden battens at the bow, stern and mid-ships, level with the line to be drawn, and then, using string held taught across the battens, mark points on the hull. The modern approach is to use a laser level. We used the former. It is a tricky task, especially on a clinker hull. Once marks had been made, we “joined the dots” with masking tape – again, more difficult with it being a clinker hull. A lot of sighting down the line to make sure it was “fair,” and minor adjustments were required, before we were happy with the result.

It’s Friday, and a late finish, but we have managed to mask out the top line of the boot-top, and to apply a split coat of undercoat/gloss. We are looking forward to seeing her with the gloss coats applied, but we may have to do another split coat before we can get the gloss on – that’s after rubbing down between coats with fine sandpaper, and a wipe over with a brush cleaner-soaked rag.

There is at least another week’s work to do. The lower line of the boot-top needs to be masked off; the area below needs to be primed; the rest of the caulking seam needs to be caulked and payed; and then antifouling can be applied. Only then can the boot-top be painted. Oh, and there’s still more varnishing to do, both on the boat and on her spars!

It’s great to completely finish a project (and we will be “dropping back” on Westerman to finish the job), but the most important thing is that we have learned a lot. Two weeks was never going to be long enough.

Next week, we are supposed to be moving on to our four-week Spars Module, starting with making an oar. I don’t know, but we may spend a few days on Westerman beforehand – it really would be great to get that gloss on!

We had a lovely time in North Yorkshire. The heather was ‘out’ and the moors looked spectacular. There are some beautiful villages, and really good pubs. The walk across the top of Sutton Bank (James Herriot’s favourite walk) gave spectacular views across the vales below. Afternoon Tea at Betty’s in Harrogate was a great experience – well done Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford for initiating this great British tradition!

York Minster was very grand, but I preferred the Abbey Church at Ampleforth – perhaps because an excellent tour from ‘Father Paul’ was rounded off by him giving Sylvia and I a private tour of the crypt. Crypts, cellars and basements always hold a strange fascination for me. Freud would have a reason, no doubt, but I think it’s the element of secrecy and discovery that gives them that allure.

We visited the home (and factory) of ‘The Mouseman’, Robert Thompson, whose trademarked furniture we also saw in the Minster and Abbey, and the local church. Spotting the mouse is rather fun . The adzed scalloping to the tops to his tables, pews and other furniture reminded me of our Tudor boatbuilding module – where, ironically, the adze was used to create a flat surface!

Hutton-le-Hole, a beautiful village just south of the North York Moors, is home to the Ryedale Folk Museum. Nothing to do with folk music, it is a collection of reconstructed buildings from the Bronze Age to late 9th Century, and home to the Harrison Collection (of more than 10,000 curios and artefacts collected by two brothers).

The Harrison collection includes many medical artefacts:

This last exhibit reminds me of a story from WW2. Churchill was asked if a supply of condoms could be sent to the Russian allies fighting in severe wintry conditions. They wanted the condoms to cover the ends of their rifle barrels, to stop them getting stoppered with frozen snow. “Yes, of course,” said Churchill, “Just label the boxes English, Extra Small.”

Back at Boathouse 4 this week, we have started our two week ‘Painting and Varnishing’ module. Our task is to paint the hull and varnish the brightwork on Westerman, a Navy whaler. I had de-rigged her before our holiday, and we had removed her caulking and done a few minor repairs. Now, we have to get her looking good and – hopefully – ready for the water.

Ah, the weekend … time to relax. A classic boat festival nearby, at Birdham Pond Marina this weekend was too good to miss. Sylvia and I went yesterday, and there were some super classic yachts and small boats, as well as some classic cars and vintage bikes. AND there was no charge for the beer and wine, because they had not requested the temporary licence in time. Very good Pale Ale, and all the better for being free!

One of my fellow students, James was there, and we met our recently-retired Instructor too. Now I believe it when people say I look so much better since I retired – after just two weeks, Bob was looking years younger already! James and I did some networking with local jobbing boatbuilders, and with Tim who runs the boatyard here. Altogether a super afternoon.

And today, Sunday, we had our daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren for lunch and the afternoon.

Our Grandson has a new pedal bike, a step up from his balance bike. He soon got the hang of it and enjoyed pedalling up and down our road.

We have reached the half way point of my course in Boathouse 4. The year is going so fast. I wonder if there is time enough left to complete the process of putting my final years of Practice life behind me. I realise now that this is part of the reason for doing the course, even if it was not the original intent. Legal and financial strings, though flimsy, still bind me to the Willow Group – something highlighted only this week!

We have travelled today to ‘God’s own country’ – Yorkshire – and are staying in a stone cottage, just north of York, for a welcome week’s break.

It is just after 5, and I am sitting in the pocket hankerchief of a garden, that adjoins the cottage, taking in our suuroundings. A soft breeze barely tempers the heat of the sun, and the air is filled with birdsong and the buzz of bees. House Martins and the occasional swallow swoop overhead, and several different butterflies dance around me. A cock pheasant runs across the nearby field, as a pigeon swoops up, clapping its wings before gliding on.

As the shadows lengthen, the birds in the holly hedge sing even louder and sweeter, and I wish that I could identify them from the trills and tweets they are making.

The sound of the bees buzzing around the lavender, reminds me of Yeats’ poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43281/the-lake-isle-of-innisfree): ‘I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, …

In medieval times, rest was a healthy ‘activity’, whereas frantic work or listless idleness were taken as a sign of not being at peace with oneself. I can certainly identify with the former!

Brook cottage is certainly a lovely peaceful place to spend a week away, together. As the Welsh would say ‘Ile i’r enaid ddod o hyd i heddwch:’ a place for the soul to find peace.

Ahhh … tools! Can you ever have too many? I have been very fortunate to have inherited tools from my Dad, and to have been given tools by one of my patients, who was the Foreman in the joinery team at a local large boatbuilding firm, Camper and Nicholson. With birthday, Christmas and retirement presents, I should have been fully equipped, but it’s strange how strong the draw is to extend ones armamentarium!

I have mainly sourced additional tools from eBay, and the vintage tool stall at Winchester Market (on the first Sunday of the month). I bought a couple of items in an on-line auction a few months ago – it would be great to attend one of the David Stanley auctions some time. I have also bought from Tooltique – an on-line vintage tool dealer, who refurbishes and sharpens their tools really well, and prices them very fairly. On eBay, it’s fun to find and bid for good examples of vintage planes etc, especially now that I know the market fairly well, but it’s getting harder to justify buying additional planes now!

One of our group picks up treasures from car boot sales for next to nothing, but a recent visit to our local car boot sale was very disappointing.

Fellow students have recommended Leeside Tools as a place to get good second hand tools, but with my Saturday mornings usually taken up with DOLS (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) medical assessments, I have not got around to paying them a visit – until yesterday, that is. I was prompted after one of our gang of four bought a superb Stanley No. 7 plane there for a remarkably good price.

The shop is made up of four or five extensions and rooms, so it is only as one ventures deeper into these areas that the enormity of their stock becomes clear. Wow, what an Aladdin’s cave!

As well as a wide range of new and vintage tools, the owner, David, has created a small museum, full to bursting with his collection of planes, plumb bobs, brace and bits, and more.

Anyway, I didn’t find it difficult to find a few items I ‘needed,’ including some ‘pig-sticker’ mortise chisels, an I Sorby No.6 gouge, a Stanley No.80 cabinet scraper, and a 2″ chisel.

While there, a chap came in. “I need some tools from this list,” he said, brandishing a piece of paper I immediately recognised as the tool list for IBTC Portsmouth. And so it was, that I was able to give some – hopefully helpful – advice to one of the students due to start the joinery course in two weeks time. “Take a look at Tooltique.co.uk for your saws,” I told him, hoping David wouldn’t mind – well I had advised on his purchase of a Stanley No.4, boxed, for just £28, a reasonable starter block plane, a £6 vintage coping saw, and some chisels, including a nice I Sorby 1/2″. In fact, I rather enjoyed helping him spend HIS money!

A LITTLE ASIDE FROM BOATBUILDING:

I am no longer a regular GP, but I have witnessed and experienced the strain on NHS services and workers from the perspective of General Practice, which has been particularly hit by the reduced funding under the recent period of austerity. So, perhaps more than most, I maintain a close interest in the NHS, and was interested to hear the recent announcement from our new Prime Minister, of an extra £1.8 billion for the NHS. This announcement bears close scrutiny.

The headline figures are an extra £1.8 billion over the next five years, including £1billion for the coming year.

The 2018/19 NHS England budget was £115 billion, so an extra £1 billion for this year is only an additional 0.86%.

THE BACKGROUND:

Accounting for inflation, NHS spending has historically grown at an average annual rate of about 3.7% from 1950/51. However, the average growth between 2009/10 and 2014/15 under the Coalition government was 1.1% and from then to 2016/17 under the Conservative government was 2.3%.

Last year the government announced that an additional £20.5 billion in real terms will be made available for the NHS in England by 2023/24. When it was announced, this meant an average increase on the NHS’s budget of around 3.4% a year (i.e. nearly back to average annual increases). However, with inflation over the next few years set to be higher than expected, the actual real terms increase will be less than 3.4%.

At the time, health experts said that this money will “help stem further decline in the health service, but it’s simply not enough to address the fundamental challenges facing the NHS, or fund essential improvements to services that are flagging.” In January 2019 the National Audit Office said: “There is a risk that the NHS will be unable to use the extra funding optimally because of staff shortages.”

Across the country, many NHS trusts are in deficit, because they are spending more than they’re bringing in.

The NHS was also asked several years ago to find £22 billion in savings by 2020, in order to keep up with rising demand and an ageing population. So, the Government is promising nearly the same amount of increased spending over five years as the amount of savings asked of the NHS for the same period!

IS THIS £1.8 BILLION NEW MONEY?

The Nuffield Trust has said that this money isn’t new. It says the £1 billion added to the NHS capital budget was actually “cash hospitals and other NHS trusts already have, but have been forbidden to spend. They earned it last [year] in incentive payments for cutting their costs”.

But this money couldn’t be spent on the day-to-day running of hospitals, so it had to be spent on capital projects instead: things like IT, equipment or new hospitals. Ironically, with a total spending limit placed on capital spending, trusts found they weren’t going to be allowed spend all the incentive scheme money once they had it.

The Health Foundation says that “As a result of these spending limits NHS trusts were asked to reduce their capital spending plans by 20% … This meant that some trusts had money available to them which they were being asked not to spend.” This 20% reduction has now been reversed with the announcement of money for the NHS.

As the Health Foundation puts it, from the perspective of NHS trusts, this is “money they’d already thought they could spend”. But the Health Foundation also says that from the Treasury’s perspective it’s correct that this is ‘new money’—as it’s an extra £1 billion of spending this year that it hadn’t planned for previously.

The Nuffield Trust had the same view. It says that it “will feel like a new spending commitment for the Treasury. That is because it will no longer be able to recycle NHS trust cash stored in government coffers to fund other bits of government funding, and the total amount of money going out will therefore increase. However Mr Hancock was wrong to claim this was ‘new money’ to the NHS. From the point of view of trusts it is not.”

TO CONCLUDE:

NHS spending in the past decade has increased annually much less (about 60-70% less) than the average annual increase since its foundation.

The latest announcement is for a 0.8% annual increase for this year – hardly likely to reduce the approx 40% of trusts in deficit!

The Treasury will be spending more than it expected on the NHS, but NHS Trusts will be accessing money that they had already earned (but told not to spend).

We have learnt not to expect our representatives in Government to be straight with the voters, and tell us how it really is. The NHS remains a political football, when what is needed is a cross-party consensus, long-term planning and public agreement over what should and should not be funded.

Silly anachronisms continue. For example, a well-off patient with an under-active thyroid, has ALL their NHS prescriptions free, not just their thyroid replacement tablets. Conversely, someone who is struggling to make ends meet, but not in receipt of key benefits, may be paying for three or more items for their chronic eczema/ asthma/hypertension …

The NHS is a ‘holy cow.’ Politicians can play smoke and mirrors with funding pledges and announcements, but short-termism, and fear of upsetting patient groups, means that nothing really changes.