I've been off for a week, and there has been lots of progress since I've been away. Hmmm, this does not reflect well on my presence in the shop...
Here's how things looked the week before I headed to the Midwest.
We had to steam the aft ends of the lower course of planks to handle the twist right below the waterline. We used a flexible pipe, rather than the bag as we had before, to bring the steam to the plank. The water that condensed from the pipe made its own steam trail in the cold shop air.
With daylight getting shorter, the boat looked strangely warm and cozy from outside the shop.
Even though we're closed, curious dog walkers and other visitors to Fort Adams State Park have poked their head into through the back door to see what we're up to.
This is what they've been seeing.
Here's Robin fitting the forward end of a plank to the stem.
As the planks from the bottom come up, they get longer and longer. Eventually we get to the point where we have to scarf these planks in order to get the length we need.
For the past few months we've been lucky to have a high school student come in to help us out a few times a week as an independent project. Anna has been a great asset to the team, and we were sorry to see her finish up this past week. Here she is installing some of the hundreds of bungs that she's been responsible for.
Thanks Anna, you're the bomb!
Once the glue holding the bungs in dries, both she and David have come by with a sharp chisel to cut them flush to the hull.
Once the bungs are cut flush, David has been doing the initial fairing of the hull with a series of planes. This is a great upper body workout.
Fairing smoothes out the shape of the boat from the faceted look that the raw planks give, and moves the shape into the sweeping curves envisioned by Olin in 1930.