Slippery when wet

Launch day went well. Here are some of the photos taken from my camera. Of course, I'm not in them so if anyone can send me a picture or two with me and Keryn actually rowing the thing around, please send it to me!

She scoots along quite nicely by the way.

Big thanks to Janet for providing some bunting and flowers, and Jo for getting the food out and about.

Done like a dinghy

Finished now. Building it was the easy bit! Painting and varnishing took ages because of the drying times between coats but all's well.

I spliced Shemara's old spinnaker halyard to act as a painter. The sponsor's old man is a rigger at Port of Napier and taught me how to splice three strand rope this year.

The little bronze fitting on the stem that looks like a bottle opener came among the random bits of bronze that Andy the marina caretaker gave to me when he cleared out his shed. It's holding a little snubbing line which hopefully will act to keep her riding over the waves when in tow.

The little copper tube I used to line the painter's hole at the stem head came from Milan, who found it in front of his house and sat it on his work bench until a use was found for it.

I haven't attached the oarlocks yet, but that will happen this evening.

Launch party this Saturday at the shed. From 2pm for a 4pm launch.

BIG thanks to Nigel for the loan of the battens, table saw and the band saw; and Mikey for the million clamps.

Time now to twiddle thumbs.

Topcoats

Just a couple of quick pics taken last night. Inside: first coat on; Outside: getting the first coat on.

Prime

Mikey points a screwdriver at one of his Vespas.

Good to see the designer is now a follower! I hope my workmanship isn't too disappointing for him.

Well we've got the primers on over the weekend, two coats outside and in, on top of the Everdure I put on last week. The strakes nearest the keel on the outside are a different colour because I used up the two-pot primer left over from my work on the mast. If the two-pot topcoat is too different a colour from the single pot, I guess I'll just have to either live with it (likely) or redo it (unlikely!). I like to think I'm building this in the real traditional manner (ie, not with stuff used in the old days, but with stuff I have handy so nothing goes to waste, like in the old days).

We're working on the topcoats this week, and then comes the varnishing! You can see in some of the pictures here all the shavings we swept out of the shed on Saturday. Quite a bit.