Friday saw the last day of our slightly extended joinery course. As a nod to the timetabled move from Joinery to Boatbuilding, scheduled for 28th May, we had a couple of lectures: naming boat parts, and interpreting line drawings, but we continued to work in Joinery 1, our second home for the previous 12 weeks. It did mean that most of us completed our Deck Beam exercise, and our stepladders which is quite an achievement. Frustratingly, my third deck beam – the one being marked for City & Guilds – was the worst of the three … rather loose. But it’s done, and I also managed to put some fittings in my tool chest lid on Friday, to accommodate some saws, which was a good note on which to end the week.

This week is an INSET week – i.e. a designated week’s holiday. We headed down to Cornwall, to see James and Steph in Helston for a few days, and we had a super time. We were joined by Tony, Sylvia’s brother, and visited both old and new sights/venues/restaurants: our favourite fishing village of Porthleven, and some beaches that were new to us (Porthadu & Gyllynvase). James took Sylvia, Tony and I on a tour of the base, and this time we had a guided tour of the cockpit of a Merlin from one of the trainee pilots – more switches than you can shake a stick at!

We start on lofting next week. Lofting is the taking of line drawings to full-scale, and then using these to make moulds and components for the build. This process was only superseded by computer CAD drawings in the 1980s. Previously, and traditionally, the only space to draw out the full size of a boat or ship was the loft above the boathouse floor – hence the term ‘lofting.’