Our Tholes

We are at a fiddly stage with the build. Pretty much everything has been made and now we have a load of sanding, varnishing, polishing to do. Summer slipped quietly into autumn and then hurtled into winter - or what passes for winter down here: wind and rain, not really cold, but a bit miserable, mixed with a few days where sunburn is a risk.

The big step forward has been the construction of the tholes, or rowlocks, which, like everything else on this build, has been very satisfying as a few nondescript bits of wood transform into something that harmonises with the rest of the craft.

 Ply:

Plus mahogany:

The ubiquitous clamps:

All four in place:

When I started rowing, back in black-and-white, Karlisch, Doneratico and Stampfli racing boats were the most elegant and advanced in design. The holes drilled in the ply of these tholes is our small homage to them, bringing a critical weight reduction, as you would appreciate.

Since we took these pictures, Joe has shaped the tholes to take the capping and we are once again experimenting with the technique of steaming, which apparently does not involve violent mob action but, rather, trying to bend very unwilling bits of wood to shape. More of that later.

(By the way, the blue tape on the thwart cleats (supports for the seats in lubber language) is there to keep the epoxy off as these will be finished with oil, along with the thwarts themselves, the foot stretchers and the gunwales.) 

What - there's a BOAT!

I imagine you're all a bit fed up with my blogs about beer and the rowing crew. (Actually, I've just started coaching the Victoria University intermediate... no, not interested? Ok.)


Let's talk about the boat for a bit.


If you can remember back in the olden days, when we started building this thing, there was a small error in the plans and we ended up making a second transom. We have subsequently learned that the plans are more of a guide than something to be strictly followed. Anyway, we had some spare Mahogany. We decided to have a little play and cut it into strips and glue it to some leftover Ash from the gunwales. I am told this is called marquetry. The series of photo's below show the process from gluey mess to the makings of our breasthook. (Not a boatbuilders bra).

Firsly, sandwich the strips between a couple of offcuts of ply and apply liberal amounts of glue and clamps. You can NEVER have too many clamps.

The clamps are off. Not a very interesting picture.

Ok, first look at the 'marquetry'

After a lot of work with the No. 4. Stanley 

And a rough cut with the bandsaw.

We carefully fitted the breasthook into the bows, and sanded, and sanded, and sanded.

We have had to add the knob on the bow.  This is where we are at with it.

We're still working on shaping the bow, and there's a little more to come there. Mostly sanding and shaping and then eventually oiling, it will be lovely.

Interlude from Crappy-row, or a blog for H1.

About this time last year, I wrote a blog entry about my trip to Twizel (Twizel sticks) for the NZ Rowing National Championships with the crew that I coached. The season coaching was great, the week in Twizel was fantastic, the results on the water..... ok. 



So, determined not to get another stinky fourth, I thought I’d start recruiting for another crack at the national champs this season. A  handful of rowers-to be met me outside the Wellington Rowing Club one evening last winter and we started to do a bit of fitness work. Of that group, a couple made it through the season, many more joined, a few left, and some didn’t show up in the first place. Last month, the remaining 9 women, Toby the crazy coxswain and I traveled up to lake Karapiro for the 2012 National champs. The girls had worked extremely hard throughout the season and had a successful season so far, cleaning up all comers in the Wellington region. Anyway, long story short, the crew got a silver medal at the nationals in our target event, the Women’s Novice 8. A huge achievement given the resources at the disposal of their opponents. (access to flat water and professional coaching staff).

What’s this got to do with the boat you may say?  Go on, say it…



Wellinton RC Novice Women get their medals after rowing a mere 2k of the mighty Waikato.

  Time, that’s what it’s got to do with the boat. I was coaching on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday evening, Friday morning, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. On top of that, Chris attended a lot of the training sessions to lend me and the crew his experience. Spending early mornings in the coaching boat was a good test of our ability to sit in a boat together I may add. Two control freaks, one steering wheel, one throttle, one crew, two opinions. Actually it worked quite well, and Chris deserves a big chunk of my medal. Except I gave it away. 


Anyway, add to that three training camps and at least three weekends away at regattas, plus the week at nationals, I just didn’t have the energy to devote to the boat. I think I can speak for Chris when I say that he had used up his quota of favours at home and his ability to get over to work on the boat was diminished somewhat every time he came along to a rowing session.

Anyway, Nationals is over, and we still haven’t finished the boat, I’d better start thinking of another excuse.

Why "a blog for H1" I hear you ask ?

Not telling.

See ya later Karapiro.

Waikato Drift

Still in a creative mode, but going slightly "off piste" I have decided to brew a beer to drink during the trip down the Waikato. Obviously, when Steve Ovett was preparing for his mile record he wasn't considering a pint down the back straight, but I suspect our world record will be more leisurely, and there will plenty of down time in the evenings when after a day of mutual abuse, a bit of liver abuse will come as a welcome relief.

Anyway, I have been making beer from kits for the last few years, as you dedicated blog readers will already know, but I thought I would go to the next stage and make something unique for the journey.

The recipe is based on a basic dark ale, with some variations based on personal preferences. See below.

The basics

 The tin of malt extract replaces the Mashing process, which requires a bloody big pot (mash tun), about three kilos of a malted grain, lots of water (known as liquor in this context for some reason) and a load of heat. A tin of malt extract is $14, much better value in my eyes. I've gone for a dark malt. The rest of the stuff is a small bag a chocolate and roasted grain blend, this provides some additional colour and flavour to the brew, 300g of NZ hops from Nelson, a stick of dutch licorice, and a little bag of yeast.

Not in the picture is just under a kilo of brown suger and about 20 litres of water, the sugar is still at New World and the water is still in the tap. Although there is a temptation to go and get some from a well in Petone, this will add a bit of local flavour.

Anyway, step one is to seep the grain in water overnight - this converts starches into fermentable sugars apparently. I will keep you posted every step of the way. I intend to bottle half the beer for the trip and keg the rest for a pre-launch drink with blog followers, so keep up.

What have we done for the Romans?

Apart from the tholes (rowlocks), we've pretty much made everything. Well, we also have to fashion a few knees and the slots for the foot stretcher. And the oars. The rudder, we'll get to... but apart from those trifling things, we are about ready to fit all the inside components.

The great step forward, though, was that we have now sealed the inside with epoxy: deep joy, breathtaking beauty.

Before and After again...

So, I think Chris mentioned that we were into the fabrication of the "bits".

Let me explain something, when we ordered the "kit" for this boat, I fully expected it to be a little like the airfix or balsa wood kits I made as a kid, ie, with everything you need in the box barring glue and paint. But no, the kit actually only includes the blanks for the hull and some templates for shaping it. Everything else, every last splinter, you have to source and fabricate yourself.  Although it was a bit of a surprise at first, we quickly realised that this was to our advantage, why pay to have the raw materials sent across from the suppliers in Oz when we can cut down our own trees, and why get someone else to cut a seat 10 mm too short, when we can do it ourselves.

Anyway, we are well into the fabrication process, and this in turn has forced us into buying yet another cool new tool. A bandsaw. Not only that, but after some slightly odd cuts with strange curves, we've now even read the instructions and learned to set the stupid thing up. So, with our new tool, we have just completed the first of our thwart cleats (look it up!).

And here are the inevitable before and after photos.

The raw materials - ok, this is actually just a bit of wood
I found in the garden, but you get the idea.

So - take a "bit of wood", apply the following.

The new bandsaw, a plane and various sanders.

And hey presto, here's one I prepared earlier.

Ta-da. A Thwart cleat (look it up).

The band saw has been a huge boost to productivity, and we actually have all the thwart cleats (look it up) cut to fit the boat, with a liberal application of "the plane" to get the angles right. Tomorrow we might even glue some of these bits into the boat, who knows.

Oh, and Happy New Year to our 17 followers.

Haul the Decks.

An orang-utan goes into a bar and says to the barman:

“May I have a gin…………and tonic, please?”

The barman says: “Why the long paws?”

We are well into fitting out the boat and the list of tasks to be completed is really quite short. It’s more interesting, now, as we are fabricating parts where there’s plenty of room for creativity (it’s not an exact science). The big item left will be the application of multiple coats of epoxy, varnish and (for the gunwales and thwarts) oil.

We tackled making the decking in the last month. A series of joists were fitted across the bottom planks to support the removable deck. This will allow us to walk the length of the boat in order to get to the drinks cabinet (design not finalised), or to enable the rowers to have a stand up fight over some fine point of technique.

Simple: three planks (Fijian Kauri), shaped to match the curve of the hull, braced with ply battens, which we made from the scrap from the original kit:

What was very exciting was the result of applying several coats of Danish oil,which gives a soft, durable sheen. We shall have to remember to refresh it every couple of years, but it’s what the yacht builders use, so it should be good.

Joe after applying the oil: the shine wears off leaving a smooth satin finish. This will happen to the deck, too.

In the meantime, we have also been working on knees, breasthook, thwarts and cleats. Cue for a song? Joe will probably tell you about our new toy, too. With a week to go before we stop for Christmas, the aim is to have all the bits made and ready for fitting...here's hoping.