What's in a name.

A scarf

So, until about 2 months ago, I thought this was a scarf.

By the way, I found this picture on a website dedicated to Dr Who scarfs, actually no, a website dedicated to Dr Who scarfs as worn by Tom Baker. (The longest serving of all the Dr's.) If you don't believe me, look at this. 

Dr Who Scarfs

Anyway, I have now discovered that if you spell it scarph, it is a type of joint. Yes yes, two months ago, I thought a joints was, well, you know.


Anyway, there are multitude ways to join two bits of wood together, and one of them is a scarph joint. With some trepidation we decided it was time to break out the planks and have a crack at gluing a couple of them together. The resulting two hour table building episode can be found in a previous blog.


So, we read the instructions and set to with my second hand plane. I can tell you that this was a nervy moment. We were chipping away at bits of wood that would eventually become the boat. An error here could mean a rather annoying leak, especially as we were working on the garboard plank, the one that is deepest in the water. It was surprisingly painless, we probably took too long over it, and were terrified of using time saving electric appliances on our rather expensive bits of plywood.

The pictures below show the results. The first shows two planks on top of each other, planed of course. the fact that the laminates aren't 100% parallel indicates we haven't got it 100% right. In the other, Chris is applying a coat of clear epoxy to the joints prior to mixing in the "white stuff" that thickens it up and makes it glue.




Two bits of wood, planed. That's my reconditioned plane
by the way



Wetting the joint with epoxy prior to the gluing

The results were a very nicely glued joint, not perfect. but pretty good for a first attempt.

New heights of procrastination.

We have scaled new heights of procrastination.

On Saturday, Chris came round to the boatshed (my garage) to get a scarph joint done. We were determined to have a crack at one, so that we could more accurately estimate how long it would take us to complete the hull.

As we removed the ply sheets from the pallet, it struck us that we had nowhere to put the planks to glue them together. I am pretty sure that an idea came to both of us simultaneously. Although the idea to say - "I've just had a brilliant idea!!" was definitely Chris's idea first. Hence, he can stick a flag in it and claim it as his.

Anyway, the net result is that we decided to build a table using the pallet and some bits of MDF we had left from a stem template. Given our new found woodworking skills, what would have been a 4th form design project at Acklam Hall School, (of the famous Mike O'Neill toast rack) was just another job to knock off in our quest to avoid actually building a boat.

So, an hour or so later, it's hard to tell as time really does fly when you are talking about making stuff, we had knocked out a really useful scarphing table.

This is me, cutting out the top of our patented scarphing table

Anyway, we did eventually glue some wood together. But that'll be in tomorrow's blog. You'll just have to wait.

By the way, based on the time it took us to scarph the first plank, we should have the boat finished by Christmas. Next year, or the one after. And we'll have 48 tables.

More about the trip.

The serious summer rowing season is getting under way. Last weekend the Royal Wanganui International Regatta – also known as the Jury Cup - took place. The Wellington Rowing Club’s women raced magnificently to row through their opposition and win by almost a length. This gave me some bragging rights over Joe for a brief time, but not for long as his Novice women shrugged off the effects of his coaching to win by such a margin that they were on their way back up the river before some of the opposition had even finished (or so Joe told me). The Novice men then also performed well and we saw some great racing from the schools that row under Wellington’s umbrella.

One of the highlights of the event, though, was the stoic effort of young Harry O’Neill (Joe’s son), who, when his doubles partner found himself unable to continue sculling, refused to give up and pulled them both along at a furious pace for most of the course. Not only did he complete the course, but they didn’t come last. A valiant and determined effort. I hope Joe is prepared to emulate his son when it comes to dragging my carcase down the Waikato...

Anyway, the point about the season getting under way is that it gives us an opportunity to scout out some of the obstacles along the route, since we have to travel up to Lake Karapiro a couple of times in the next two months to help our crews in the main regattas that lead up to the National Championships.

On the day we set off, we need to decide whether to cross Lake Taupo from Turangi in a straight line, or to hug the shoreline – all depends on the weather. Almost as soon as we leave Taupo, we encounter the Huka Falls: no question here – we shall have to carry out our first portage. A few kilometres later, we come to the first dam at the end of Lake Aratiatia.

Thereafter, there are 8 more dams to be negotiated. The one at Lake Karapiro is probably the trickiest: it is very big and there would seem to be no access for some distance downstream of the dam. Next March may see us trundling our boat for several miles in search of a suitable point of embarkation. There are also one or two passages where the river is quite fast flowing and even a couple of points where we encounter rapids.

After Hamilton, the challenge changes in character: the river widens, yet grows in power: lots of shallows, lots of swirling currents as well as tree trunks, rocks, sandbanks and French submarines.

Part of the fun will be dealing with the surprises along the way, but a bit of reconnaissance will, we hope, make sure that the biggies are catered for.

A stem and Astern.

Having had confirmation from Alec that we needed to fix our error, and the rather unnerving opening line from him that suggested "First, carefully cut the sternpost from the hog..." I put my mind to a solution.

Luckily, I hadn't glued the hog to the stem, so it was simply a case of working out where the transom knee crossed the sheer and moving the hog back before securing to the apron.

I swear I didn't make all that mumbo-jumbo up, and it all actually happened, but I would be lying if I said I didn't make it kind of more boatbuildery than it needed to be.

Alright - in English - I moved the inner keel back a bit till it was in the right place.

Anyway, the important thing is the measurements are now more accurate and we have a benchmark for other "Badgers" to be built. (We intend all subsequent Waikato rows to be races, and we'll need competition).

Anyway, crisis averted.

Astern and a stem, plus our first mistake.

We have now got to the point where mistakes will alter the actual shape or length of the boat, so it's important to get it right.

So, we decided to glue the Sternpost in place and promptly got it wrong!

There is a discrepancy between one of the plans and the instructions, we had to make a judgement call. The conversation went something like this.

Chris - "If we should fail?"
Joe - "We fail, but screw your courage to the sticking place, and we will not fail"
Chris "Oh, ok".

(Actually that's a conversation between Lady Macbeth and her old man, thanks again to my dad, who was also my English teacher at school).

So we screwed, or clamped, our sternpost to the sticking place and left it to dry. I actually had second thoughts overnight and emailed Alec Jordan of Jordan boats, who has been so helpful in the past. The dilemma was obviously too much for him too, he replied asking for my phone number and was then rushed to hospital with chest pains.

Again, the glue dried wonderfully, and our mistake was made permanent. Based on current calculations, the boat will be 4 inches too short. For those of you watching this in metric, that's 3lb 2oz.

Rather poor picture of the sternpost glued to the
hog in the wrong place.

Tune in tomorrow when I will tell you how I got us out of this mess.

Oh, and Alec, get well soon, We kind of need you to.

Before and After.

You remember the picture of the uncut sternpost? That was the "before".

You remember the call for a bandsaw? That was because it took ages to get the stem back into some form of shape after the vagaries of our (Brendan's) jigsaw.

So, I have just got back from John Calvert's workshop on Adelaide Road. He has a bandsaw.

This is the "after" thanks a lot John

He also has a treasure trove of bits of wood, tools, including a spokeshave,  half built furniture, a blob of glass about four feet across that apparently has something to do with a glory-hole. (that should increase the number of hits to the site). Oh, and he's got a black poodle that seems quite friendly.

John offered me the use of the bandsaw. It was a tad blunt and had a bit of a personality so I decided to let him cut the sternpost for me. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of an actual craftsman. So, while I threw a rubber ball around the workshop to entertain his dog, John did this.

Oh, and the best bit, when I asked if I owed him anything, he said "nope". What a gent.  Go and have a look at his furniture, and if you need something amazing made up, give him a call. http://www.johncalvert.co.nz/home.html

Note - apparently a glory hole in this particular instance is the second furnace in the process of blowing (stop it!) glass. It has nothing to do with George Michael.