Some rest for the wicked...

Here is Basil the Lab, resting after some exhausting work as our technical adviser on this boat build.
Behind are some Douglas Fir planks and a piece of Batu wood on the bottom to make the Transom

Ralph helps out with some laminating

My old Boss (from my Austrade days) in our basement workshop, wielding the wooden mallet we use to straighten bits of wood that we're laminating.  Here laminating the cleats for the web frames.  Ralph and his wife Maria are with us from their home in Sydney, on their way to Denmark.  Here they are with us yesterday on our boat Xena.

Ruth's card

Ruth's lovely card - drawn by her -- is enclosed with the Full Scale Plans

Ruth Ann Hill is the partner of John Brooks and with him the co author of the excellent "How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats".  In their book, they say "a boatbuilding book isn't really living a full existence until she has sawdust in the binding, epoxy putty on the cover, coffee stains on the pages...."

Well, I've got as far as the coffee stains on the Ruth's postcard!

And also: finished the building Jig today, and working on the cleats for the web frames and the moulds.  Getting on with it....

My uneven keel.  The leftover from a local racing boat, Talking Head
now belongs to me, for the price of lead scrap. The Boatyard will melt it into a keel
for my little Somes Sound

Basil has been a constant source of technical advice
Note the legs: not good.  Means he has hip displasia...

My mate Rocky with my new Makita table saw in the garden today

Also in the garden today: our crop of spring orchids in our Frangipani

The inside workshop: Band saw and laminating webframe cleats

Building the Jig

A couple of days ago, from the DB-HK Ferry. Looking at the 108-storey International Commercial Centre,
with the world's highest hotel, the Ritz-Carlton on the top 20 floors.
Nothing to do with boat really, except I was off to Kowloon to look for marine fasteners...

Mates Ah Cheung and Ah San, help me lay out the base for the jig on which 

I will build the backbone of the boat

This is what the building Jig will look like.
From John Brooks' building photos, here.

Supposed to be finishing off the Jig today, but pouring with rain
and expected to keep raining for 8 days....

But the rain and heat have been great for the orchids.
Here five types growing in our Frangipani

Various Plans dot the household...

Building the boat all over the house

"How to build a glued lapstrake boat", by John Brooks. And dining room

I thought that I'd be building this boat in one place -- outside under the pergola, covered for the time of the boat-build.  And that's still the plan. Meantime, making various bits and pieces is happening all over the house....

Carpenter's tool box with statue and calligraphy

Mast Web Frame and picnic table.  The bamboo scaffolding is part of the
village septennial refurbishment

Web frames on picnic table with bamboo scaffolding

Full Scale Plans and couch

Building the Forefoot Filler and Web Frames

Arlene does tracing for the Forefoot Filler piece.  Note Basil the Labrador offering technical advice....

Ready to cut the Web Frames

Moonblue 2 (Warwick 64) bunkering diesel, outside the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club last Friday 11 May, where I was
looking for lead for the keel, and found it from discarded bulb of Talking Head.
Imagine that at HK's premier Yacht Club you have to bunker fuel like this.
The big barges in background are part of the work on the sub-harbour tunnel that the government is building.
We'll be on MB2 at the Koh Samui Regatta end of this month.

Arlene prepares the Full Scale Plans for transferring to plywood for the Web Frames.
Note Marcus the Weimaraner helping out with down-to-earth technical advice...

Hubble, bubble, toil and ... keel

Boiling up the lead keel of Eleanor (nothing to do with my boat, just a nice piccie)

I dropped by the Club yesterday and met up with Simon the Boatyard manager and tell him I'm looking for how to get a lead keel made here in Hong Kong.  He tells me that Talking Head has just taken its bulb off and is going to be sold for scrap.  I can take it if I want, which I do, and now am owner of a bit of lead that's been gnawed at, so it's a touch scrappy, but still plenty of lead there to make the lead keel for a little Somes Sound 12 1/2.
So now I've got an uneven keel.
I got Arlene involved in the tracing of lines for the web frames, fun, she says, and it was.  I've now finished them and wait for the wood (Batu) to make the transom.