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.