The scene has been set. The plans have been poured over. The wood has been purchased. Let the battle begin.
I have built enough small boats that I know that there is a wide range of things that can go wrong with what should be a simple project. Paul Fisher’s plans are quite clear and the process of stitch and glue is fairly simple. Yet between now and the launch I am sure I will have to do and re-do, to re-measure and re-cut, and to be ready for disasters on my own making. With my last boat it was having it fall off the saw horses and spring open along the freshly glued seams. Not exactly back to the drawing board but it was certainly back to something.
What is also inevitable is that at some crucial juncture I will discover I do not have the right tool. This is the principle which has ensured the success of Lee Valley Tools and Canadian Tire for many years. I have a lovely new plane and a new drill but I know that will not be enough and I am sure to spot some widget that is guaranteed to make building soooo much easier.
The decks have been cleared. As can be seen from the crossed tape measures it will be a tight fit but at 4 feet the width is no greater than the last dinghy and I have made some changes to provide for the extra length to a total just under 12 feet.
Three sheets of 1/4 inch fir plywood, exterior grade, good one side the very best that our Canadian woods can provide. However I discover once I get the sheets home that the plywood comes from Chile. But it is lovely plywood. I have spotted no edge voids which must be filled and the good side has not a single knot punch-out. Even the obverse appears to be high quality. Certainly better than the Canadian plywood I built with last time. God knows where the pine and spruce for the in-wales and out-wales comes from.
As Sylvanius Stall noted “There are a thousand thwarting details that suffer the fixidity of every great project.” Today it is the fact that rain on the still frozen ground has meant that there are puddles on the workshop floor and so the layout must be delayed until at least tomorrow.
Sailstrait 